7875: Lavalas leader Neptune says 21 May elections not negotiable (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <maxblanchet@worldnet.att.net>

1.   Haiti: Lavalas leader Neptune says 21 May elections not negotiable


Haiti: Lavalas leader Neptune says 21 May elections not negotiable
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 13, 2001

Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 11 May; passages within double
oblique strokes in Creole

The Lavalas Family [FL] is stiffening its position as a new international
mission attempts to resume dialogue between the protagonists. The interim
leader of the party of Aristide affirms that the 21 May [2000] elections are
not negotiable. Yvon Neptune went even further to bring the crisis to a
different level, that of a coup d'etat. Journalist Jean Wilkens Meronne
explains the following:

[Meronne - recording] There is nothing formal in the position of Aristide's
men. It is vagueness, inconsistency and uncertainty which dominate Lavalas's
speeches. Not long ago, everybody thought there was going to be an easing
up. The majority of the Lavalas elected officials at that time repeated the
same thing: "We are ready to renounce our positions if that will contribute
to a solution to the crisis, a way out of the crisis for the economic
release of the country."

Now that the large number of attempted negotiations have failed, Lavalas is
deciding to harden its position on the electoral crisis. "We are not going
to negotiate the 21 May elections." That is the new speech. Moreover, FL
thinks that the economic blocking of the country is not due to an electoral
problem. Yvon Neptune spoke as follows:

[Neptune] //The country's problem is not elections. The country needs peace.
The country needs all organized progressive sectors to join the government
in creating the conditions and means to allow the construction of the
country to move forward, to increase the number of jobs, to put an end to
extreme poverty and to stop the degradation of the environment.//

[Meronne] Too bad for the Convergence, which is calling for the annulment of
the 21 May elections. Lavalas, to defend itself, seems to want to cry for
help to stop the procrastination and the manoeuvre aimed at reinforcing [as
heard] the current government. Strangely enough, Aristide's men speak of
coups d'etat. Coups d'etat by whom and in what way?

[Neptune] //The wind of coups d'etat is always blowing. (? We know that) the
practice of coups has always been present throughout the country's history
in political matters, in government matters and in the country's economic
matters. The Haitian people decided via the 1987 Constitution to adopt a new
system of government and to establish the rule of law in the country. The
constitution does not provide for coups d'etat. Nevertheless, a coup d'etat
was staged on 30 September 1991. While these attempts to stage coups d'etat
continue to prevail in the country - [changes thought] Coups d'etat,
attempted coups d'etat have taken several forms. They have taken electoral
forms. They have taken economic forms.//

[Meronne] The Lavalas interim leader refuses to comment on the possibility
of that coup d'etat, which is imaginary at the very least. It is a new order
that the crisis is offering us now.

Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 11 May 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.