More Than One Year After the U.S. Bi-centennial Coup in Haiti

CARICOM - Standing Firm for the Principles of Law, Justice and Democracy

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Haiti's bid to return to Caricom fails, leaders waiting for elections
AP, Saturday, April 30, 2005

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - Haiti's bid to return to the Caribbean Community appears to be failing, with a visit this week by the interim foreign minister eliciting only a rebuttal and insistence that the violence-plagued nation first must have fair elections.

The 15-nation Caribbean Community suspended Haiti in March 2004 after the United States helped install an interim government, saying the administration was unconstitutional and calling for an investigation into ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's charges that Washington had engineered a coup against him.

Haitian Foreign Minister Herard Abraham visited Trinidad and Barbados this week, saying he was starting a tour of all 14 member states to persuade the regional economic bloc to reinstate Haiti.

"My wish is for Haiti to take its place in the Caribbean Community" at its July summit, he said in Trinidad on Tuesday.

Trinidad's Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift met with Abraham, but said afterward that Haiti would have to be patient.

"A number of efforts are being made to bring Haiti back into the democratic fold," Gift told the Associated Press yesterday. "Based on the situation that now exists, that can happen soon after the democratically convened elections are completed."

Trinidadian officials did not inform reporters about Abraham's visit, and he received similar low-key treatment when he met in Barbados on Wednesday with Foreign Minister Dame Billie Miller.

She issued a terse statement, noting only that the meeting was at Abraham's request and that "events in Haiti continue to be of grave concern".

Officials were equally tight-lipped at the Caribbean Community's headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana.

Spokesman Calvin Brown refused to comment on Abraham's diplomatic push, saying only that "members of the community are free and welcome to have bilaterals" with Haiti.

Haitian government officials did not respond to requests for comment.

In an editorial yesterday, The Daily Nation newspaper of Barbados noted that Abraham had chosen to start his tour in the two countries "viewed as soft" on Haiti, but still "he was in fact on a mission impossible".

Countries opposed to Haiti's reinstatement "are very anxious for elections to be held", Gift said.

But Caribbean leaders critical of the interim government's alleged persecution of Aristide loyalists are sceptical: "It is difficult to conceive of fair elections while the leaders and activists of a major political party remain in arbitrary detention," they said in February.

Caribbean leaders' suspicions about the manner of Aristide's ouster have led the region to refuse to contribute troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, which only reached its full force in September.

The leaders have noted that the United States refused the Caribbean Community's pleas to send troops to save Aristide, but deployed soldiers in Haiti within an hour of his flight from the country February 29, 2004, after a bloody three-week rebellion led by former soldiers.

Aristide charged that the United States had forced an elected president from power. US officials say they provided a plane at Aristide's request and probably saved his life.

When Caribbean leaders called for an investigation, Latortue angrily withdrew his ambassadors from Jamaica and the Caribbean Community. Relations were further aggravated when Jamaica gave Aristide temporary asylum for 2 1/2 months last year before South Africa offered a permanent home in exile.

Haiti, with a population of eight million people, has more than half the Caribbean Community's population of 15 million.

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Stand Firm, CARICOM‚ Facing Reality by David Comissiong
Nation Newspaper Barbados
http://www.nationnews.com
May 3, 2004

THE CLEMENT PAYNE MOVEMENT recently held a coalition of Caribbean Civil Society organisations in intervening at the meeting of CARICOM's "Council For Foreign And Community Relations" (COFCOR) in Barbados on Friday 23rd April 2004, in order to demand that CARICOM stand firm on its call for a United Nations investigation into President Aristide's ouster.

A three-person delegation comprising David Comissiong, Thelma Gill-Barnett and David Denny, all of the Clement Payne Movement, and representing a substantial number of Caribbean non-governmental organisations, presented letters addressed to Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington and to all of the CARICOM Foreign Ministers who were present at the COFCOR meeting at the Barbados Pavilion.


Following is the text of the said letter:

Dear Mr. Carrington
Re: Haiti


I write to you as the representative of a coalition of some 11 people's organisations from the Caribbean nations of Haiti, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua, and Barbados, which met in Barbados on March, 20 and developed a Caribbean peopleís analysis and statement on the situation in Haiti.

The central component of our analysis and statement consisted of an expression of approval of and admiration for the position taken by CARICOM in issuing a call for an investigation under the auspices of the United Nations into the circumstances surrounding President Aristideís unconstitutional ouster from office, and a request that CARICOM take immediate and effectual steps to actualise its "call" by piloting an appropriate resolution in the General Assembly of the United Nations.

We are now extremely concerned however, that CARICOM appears to be guilty of undue delay in making any concrete effort to officially place this matter before the United Nations General Assembly or indeed before any other relevant organ or officer of the United Nations.

Our concern has been heightened in recent days by the following reported developments:

(1) United Nations Secretary ‚ General Kofi Annan has declared that he is unable to act on the matter of a probe into Aristideís ouster unless he has a formal request to do so either from the Security Council or CARICOM;

(2) United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq has informed the IPS news agency that ‚ "We have read news reports that CARICOM wants a United Nations investigation, but unless we receive an official request... from CARICOM... we cannot act on it," and

(3) Reginald Dumas, the United Nations special adviser on Haiti, was quoted as saying that he is surprised at CARICOM's delay.

Now, we are only too well aware that the governments of CARICOM have been subjected to enormous pressure and evil threats by the governments of the United States and France in order to intimidate our governments into backing off from their just and reasonable demand for a United Nations investigation.

We therefore wish, through your good offices, to say to all of our CARICOM Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Heads of Government that the people of the Caribbean are watching them intently and expect them to rise to the occasion and to demonstrate the strength, courage, integrity and vision that is now more than ever required of the leaders of small, black Third World nations facing an aggressive threat of re-colonisation and disregard of their independence and sovereignty by the governments of the United States and other imperialist European forces.

Should CARICOM back down from its call for a United Nations investigation, it will be sending a dangerous signal of weakness to those forces intent on dominating our region, and will expose our regional organisation to worldwide ridicule and loss of face.

In addition, CARICOM will be perpetrating a colossal betrayal of the people of Haiti and the Caribbean that will be recorded in our history as an episode of infamy and disgrace.

We therefore call upon the Foreign Ministers of CARICOM currently meeting in Barbados to use this meeting to decide upon a precise and urgent deadline for the submission of an official CARICOM resolution and demand to the General Assembly of the United Nations and to Secretary General Kofi Annan, and to urge our Heads of Government to accept and adhere to such a deadline.

We look forward to hearing a public official announcement on this matter by CARICOM as a matter of urgency.

‚ David A. Comissiong
President, Clement Payne Movement.


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Subject: CPM-Letter/PRESS RELEASE- On Caribbean Civil Society Intervention On Haiti Issue / Demand that CARICOM stand firm on demand for investigation

Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 10:59 PM
From: Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
(See, http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/concerns.html or the Haitiaction.net)

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Action: Circulate

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CLEMENT PAYNE MOVEMENT

Clement Payne Cultural Centre
Crumpton Street
Bridgetown, Barbados
Tel: 437-8216 / 435-2334

23 April 2004
Mr. Edwin Carrington
Secretary-General
CARICOM
C/o The Barbados Pavilion
Hastings Christ Church, Barbados

Dear Mr. Carrington

Re: HAITI

I write to you as the representative of a coalition of some 11 peopleís organizations from the Caribbean nations of Haiti, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua, and Barbados, which met in Barbados on the 20th of March 2004 and developed a Caribbean peopleís analysis and statement on the situation in Haiti.

The central component of our analysis and statement consisted of an expression of approval of and admiration for the position taken by CARICOM in issuing a call for an investigation under the auspices of the United

Nation into the circumstances surrounding President Aristideís unconstitutional ouster from office, and a request that CARICOM take immediate and effectual steps to actualize its "call" by piloting an appropriate resolution in the General Assembly of the United Nations.

We are now extremely concerned however, that CARICOM appears to be guilty of undue delay in making any concrete effort to officially place this matter before the U.N. General Assembly or indeed before any other relevant organ or officer of the United Nations.

Our concern has been heightened in recent days by the following reported developments:

1. U.N Secretary ‚General Kofi Annan has declared that he is unable to act on the matter of a probe into Aristide's ouster unless he has a formal request to do so either from the Security Council or CARICOM;
2. UN spokesman Farhan Haq has informed the IPS news agency that ‚ "We have read news reports that CARICOM wants a U.N investigation, but unless we receive an official request... from CARICOM... we cannot act on it," and
3. Reginald Dumas, the U.N special adviser on Haiti was quoted as saying that he is surprised at CARICOMís delay.