COMMENDABLE STAND ON HAITI
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
March 28, 2004
CRITICS OF THE Caribbean Community may differ, but the Heads of Government of our regional economic integration movement deserved to be commended for their engagement efforts with the Republic of Haiti - before and after the ousting of President Jean Bertrand Aristide from power.
The collective stand by the leaders that emerged at their just-concluded 15th Inter-Sessional Meeting in St. Kitts should be reassuring to Guyanese and all other citizens of the Community for the commitment demonstrated in rejecting armed rebellion and lawlessness as means of removing lawfully elected governments.
Holding the line against extending official recognition to the interim administrative authority in Port-au-Prince, while keeping open the re-admission of Haiti to occupy its rightful place around the table in the councils of CARICOM, following new and free and fair elections, is a wise approach.
The fact is that as a Community of sovereign states, CARICOM cannot be seen to be legitimising any regime within its fold whose existence followed armed rebellion, assassinations and chaos to force an elected government out of office - as happened in the case of Haiti under the Aristide presidency.
Standing up for such a fundamental principle should not be construed as being anti any foreign government or nation, but pro-Caribbean and pro-democracy.
It is also noteworthy that the leaders have decided to press ahead with the decision to involve the United Nations in an independent probe into the circumstances of Aristide's sudden departure from office.
Traditional Friends
The traditional friends of the Caribbean Community would know that what, politically, has distinguished the CARICOM bloc of countries between the two Americas - small and poor as they may be - is a deep commitment to electoral democracy and observance of fundamental human rights.
Regime change by any means other than the expressed will of the electorate is, therefore, anathema to the region's commitment to ballot-box democracy and open government.
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue's insensitive announcement to freeze Haiti's membership in CARICOM, a position from which he is yet to clearly repudiate, did much harm to any possible accommodation at this time with the interim administration in Port-au-Prince
He clearly compounded the problem when he made his declaration on the weekend of March 20 at a political rally in his hometown of Gonaives where he shockingly hailed armed rebels and known criminal elements as "liberators" and "freedom fighters".
We hope that the governments of the USA, Canada and France that had originally endorsed the `CARICOM Initiative’ for a practical resolution to the governance crisis, with Aristide remaining as President but with reduced powers, would endeavour to understand the genuine concerns of the governments of the Community so that they could all yet be engaged in fresh efforts to help the suffering Haitian masses in a stabilised Haiti.