Special edition
Haitian Crisis
Caricom
mission goes to Haiti
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A four member fact-finding mission from the Caribbean
Community is to travel to Haiti this week, hoping to lay the
groundwork for a broader Caricom initiative being spearheaded
by Jamaica, aimed at ending the political instability in the
French-speaking Caribbean nation.Opposition groups in Haiti have called strikes and
protests aimed at toppling President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Source Jamaican
Observer
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If the efforts of the mission,
to be led by Caricom's assistant secretary-general Colin Granderson,
takes hold, it could lead to talks in Jamaica between Aristide and
Haitian opposition and civic leaders, to be chaired by the Jamaican
prime minister, P J Patterson.
Other Caricom leaders would
also attend the informal summit, which Patterson would like to take
place later this month, probably at the exclusive Round Hill resort
in Hanover, political and diplomatic sources said last night.
Haiti, which celebrated its
200th anniversary of independence on January 1, is a member of the
14-member Caricom, the trade and co-operation grouping which it
joined in 1997.
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| PATTERSON.
it is incumbent on us to do whatever we can to assist our
sister member state |
The country has for weeks been
rocked by violent protests, which have claimed more than 40 lives,
as the opposition demands Aristide's resignation, claiming rigged
elections and governmental corruption.
Yesterday, Caricom announced
that Aristide had endorsed outlines of the Caricom initiative,
starting with the fact-finding mission, which the Jamaican prime
minister had put to him in a December 30 letter.
Apart from Granderson, the
mission will include:
. Jamaica's former ambassador
to Venezuela, Dr Matthew Beaubrun;
. St Lucia's ambassador to the
United States, Sonia Johnny; and
. The Bahamas' ambassador to
the United Sates, Joshua Sears.
"The mission, which is
expected to report to the chairman of Caricom (Patterson) within a
week, will hold consultations with the various political players to
gather information on what has given rise to the present political
unrest," Caricom said.
"The report of the mission
will help the community in determining how best to assist Haiti in
resolving its current political difficulties and in charting the way
forward towards political stability," the statement said.
Initially, the Haitian
opposition had complained about flawed assembly elections causing
deputies in the disputed seats to resign.
However, there remained
quarrels over the structure and management of the electoral
commission and, more recently, the opposition that Aristide himself
should step down. There have been a series of violent clashes
between government and opposition supporters in the Haitian capital
of Port-au-Prince and other cities.
Haiti, where slaves defeated
French armies to create the world's first black republic, has,
throughout its 200-year history, plunged from one political crisis
to the other, faced long periods of dictatorship and descended into
being the western hemisphere's poorest nation.
Aristide himself was elected
after popular protests ousted one dictatorship in the early 1990s,
but was himself deposed in a military coup. He was, however,
returned to office after a military intervention in 1996 and
subsequently won another election.
In his December 30 letter, Patterson told Aristide about Caricom's
concern over the reports of "growing political instability in
Haiti", which threatened good governance and caused loss of
life.
"As members of a community
which holds dear the values of good governance, the sanctity of life
and the well-being of all its citizens, it is incumbent on us to do
whatever we can to assist our sister member state," Patterson
said in the letter.
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