Staying the course with Haiti
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
April 17, 2004
HAITI CONTINUES to top priority issues on the agendas of meetings of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). This will again be the case when foreign ministers of the Community meet in Barbados next week for the 7th Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR).
At their meeting last month in St Kitts, Heads of Government of the Community proposed a diplomatic and public relations strategy to be pursued in relation to CARICOM'S involvement in the Haitian governing crisis prior to and following the ousting from office of President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
The intention is to avoid "misunderstandings and misperceptions", as we understand it, about the Community's principled stand for an investigation into the circumstances of the sudden departure from office of President Aristide on February 29, and further, why recognition of the interim regime in Port-au-Prince is being withheld.
Just four days ago, CARICOM'S position on the Haitian situation was discussed as an issue of importance in New York by officials of the United Nations, CARICOM and the Organisation of American States (OAS).
Among matters that were expected to have surfaced was the likelihood of joint activities in Haiti, including peacekeeping, involving member nations of CARICOM and the OAS.
It does not help matters when officials of the George Bush administration seek to publicly lecture CARICOM on why it should abandon its call for an international probe into the circumstances of transfer of power from Aristide to an interim regime.
As a member, along with France and Canada, of the "Friends of Haiti Group", which had originally endorsed CARICOM'S initiative on the governance crisis in Haiti, the United States would be fully aware of the deep concerns expressed by the Community about the implications for democracy when an elected Head of State is forced to leave office by an armed rebellion.
Moreso when the country of the deposed elected President is a member state of CARICOM, a regional integration movement that, warts and all, has distinguished itself - save for one known aberration - in fostering and sustaining electoral democracy and the rule of law.
In responding to "developments in Haiti" that heads the agenda on priority issues, the Community's foreign ministers will be expected to come up with a firm recommendation for the appointment of a Special Envoy to work along with the core group of prime ministers dealing with the Haitian situation.
CARICOM governments deserve praise for staying with principled positions in the search for practical resolutions for democratic governance and the rule of law in Haiti.
(Reprinted from Barbados Nation)