It's up to Haitian regime
Guest editorial
Guyana Chronicle
June 30, 2004
CHAIRMAN OF the Caribbean Community, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda, has made it clear that involvement by a post-Aristide Haitian administration in the councils of CARICOM now rests primarily with the interim regime in Port-au-Prince of which Gerard LaTortue is its Prime Minister.
Since the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States on June 8 has approved a CARICOM-initiated resolution for an independent assessment of the state of democracy in Haiti that would include the circumstances surrounding the departure from office of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, what remain to be resolved are the prerequisites for participation in CARICOM's business by the LaTortue regime, pending new elections.
This should not be confused, as some have been doing, with the question of Haiti's membership in CARICOM.
Haiti did not cease to be a member of CARICOM with the ousting from power on February 29 of the Aristide presidency.
What CARICOM has been emphasising, and in accordance with the "Statement on the Situation in Haiti" issued by Heads of Government at their March 2-3 emergency summit in Jamaica, is "for the immediate return to democratic rule and respect for the Constitution of Haiti".
The circumstances under which Aristide demitted office, the leaders had made clear, "set a dangerous precedent for democratically elected governments everywhere as it promotes the unconstitutional removal of duly elected persons from office".
Now, with six days to go before the 25th CARICOM Summit in Grenada, the community's newest Prime Minister, Baldwin Spencer, has pointed out in a statement released at the weekend by the Community Secretariat in Georgetown where he was on visit, that:
"The return to constitutional and democratic processes that underpin Haiti's development are prerequisites for participation in the Councils of the regional grouping by its newest member state".
The burden of proof is, therefore, for the interim regime in Port-au-Prince to provide evidence of efforts being made, as distinct from assurances given, to disarm the rebels at large, establish a bi-partisan, representative electoral council and engage legitimate political parties, including Aristide's Lavalas, in dialogue as part of the process for competitive free and fair elections.
This seems all the more relevant in view of increasing demonstrations organised by Lavalas against what it claims to be its deliberate exclusion from the post-Aristide political process, and while fears persist among both pro and anti-Aristide segments of the society over the lawless groups and illegal guns and other weapons still at large.
The weekend arrest of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has fuelled new political tension. (Reprinted courtesy Barbados Nation)