Caricom mission for Haiti
Stabroek News
July 8, 2004
CARICOM yesterday agreed to roll in the direction of improved ties with the estranged Haiti administration through the dispatch of a high-level fact-finding mission but there are several conditions attached to full recognition.
Wrapping up their four-day summit in St George’s, Grenada, the leaders agreed to dispatch a team comprising the foreign ministers of Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas, according to a Miami Herald report last night.
The report said that one of the conditions calls for a halt to the interim administration in Haiti’s persecution and imprisonment of persons loyal to the ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Several days ago Aristide’s Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was held by Haitian police on charges of being involved in killings in a Haitian town prior to Aristide’s removal. Other conditions include that Haitian political parties be allowed to participate freely in upcoming elections and that these polls be held as soon as possible.
The administration in Haiti led by Gerard Latortue has signalled that elections will be held early next year but no date has been fixed.
In its communiqué issued early this morning, Caricom said “determined to pursue their commitment to do what is in the best interest of the Haitian people, and mindful that Haiti remains a member of Caricom, the Heads of Government decided to create a channel for engagement with the interim administration of Haiti.
To this end they decided to dispatch a five-member Caricom ministerial team to Haiti to discuss recent developments with the Haitian officials”. The communiqué did not refer to any conditions attached to the visit.
The Heads also agreed to appoint Dominican, Charles Maynard, as their special envoy on Haiti.
Commenting on the developments last night, Haiti’s Foreign Minister Yvon Simeon welcomed the Caricom decision. He told the Herald “it’s a good thing for all Caribbean countries”. Though Haiti has been barred from the councils of Caricom following Aristide’s ouster on February 29, Simeon travelled to Grenada for dialogue with individual Caricom countries.
United States Ambassador to Caricom and Guyana, Roland Bullen was quoted in the report as saying “any forward progress in terms of engaging Haiti is a step in the right direction”. Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur welcomed the decision to re-engage Haiti and warned that Caricom must not make the same mistake that the Commonwealth made with Zimbabwe when it expelled Harare over human rights complaints against the Mugabe administration.
Said Arthur: “The Caribbean needs to stay engaged in Haiti”, adding that it would benefit Port-au-Prince’s humanitarian and political systems. Relations between Caricom and the Latortue administration have been rocky and an earlier attempt this year for discourse between some Caricom Heads and Latortue fell apart.
Following Aristide’s controversial removal from power, Caricom had called for the UN to investigate the circumstances surrounding his ouster. Aristide – now in exile in South Africa - had claimed that the US had kidnapped him and forced him to fly to the Central African Republic amid mounting unrest and violence in several Haitian cities. The US has firmly denied this and efforts to convene a UN enquiry into his removal have made no progress.
Caricom then signalled that the Organisation of American States would be asked to investigate his ouster but Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said this week that the organisation was not aware of any probe to be conducted. Observers say Caricom has been divided over how quickly to re-engage with Caricom. Some leaders including Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson have cautioned against recognising the Haitian administration while others like the Bahamas’ Perry Christie have pressed the leaders to overcome the obstacle posed by Aristide’s overthrow. Several Caricom leaders have expressed concern that recognising the Haitian administration could encourage extra-constitutional attempts at removing other governments in the region.