[News] Haiti: Pres. Aristide accepts international proposal, opposition delays response

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Proposition to end the crisis from the international community: Aristide
accepts it, the opposition drags its feet


Port-au-Prince, February 21 2004 -(AHP)- President Aristide fully accepted
Saturday a proposal to end the crisis given to him the day before by the
international community to help find a peaceful solution to the Haitian
crisis.

The Head of State gave his agreement to this plan after a meeting with
members of a delegation from the international community, notably leaders
from the United States, Canada, the OAS and CARICOM.

In this plan, President Aristide stays for his entire constitutional mandate
which will end in February 2006. The opposition, who also received the
proposition to end the crisis, is still hesitating, giving itself until 
Monday to
provide its answer.

However, sectors that are considered radical among this multiform
opposition, notably organizations from the private sector, teachers
organizations, private media and students, declared separately that they are
against any dialogue and any plan to come out of the crisis. Indeed, in
parallel to the discussions, downtown in the capital, opposition supporters,
among whom were students, blocked traffic with flaming barricades and
threw volleys of stones against vehicles near the Social Sciences
Faculty, a bastion for the anti-governmental opposition.

Meanwhile, in Gonaïves, Buteur Metayer, one of the leaders of the terrorist
group spreading terror in the City of Independence and who claims to be from
the opposition, was wondering about his future. What will happen if the two
parties accept the peace plan, he wondered.

After his meeting with foreign diplomats, President Aristide declared that
he accepted the plan, which also provides for the formation of an increased
council in charge of choosing a new prime minister and a new government
acceptable for the opposition.

It isn’t said what the consequences of an eventual refusal from one party or
the other would be on the other party.

The Haitian president explained that he accepted the nomination of a new
government in order to help a return to peace and reconciliation as soon as
possible in Haiti and also because the international community agreed to
help disarm “the rascals, the terrorists and the murderers”, pointing at the
terrorist groups who have been operating in Gonaives since February 5th and
murdered about sixty people, notably policemen.

Canadian Minister of the French-speaking world Denis Coderre, who was part
of the delegation, also insisted on the need to disarm all those who spread
terror in Haiti. He declared that all parties must respect their commitments
in this plan that must be implemented before March 26.

" We want to respect the Haitian constitution and therefore, it was never an
issue for us to try to overthrow a president who has been democratically
elected, he said, adding that the essential thing for them was to bring back
peace and democracy in Haiti.

Opposition leaders, notably André Apaid junior continue to declare that
President Jean Bertrand Aristide is responsible for the violence in Haiti
because, they say, he distributed arms and created armed gangs to terrorize
the population and intimidate political parties.

However, the armed gangs who spread death in Gonaïves and who were
reinforced 8 days ago by members of the terrorist organization named FRAPH,
claim to be from the opposition platform. And despite the pressure from the
international community, the platform still refuses to condemn their acts of
violence.

That is why American Secretary of State Colin Powell pointed out Saturday
that “it is time the opposition realizes that whether their demands are
legitimate or not, they will not be considered if it gets together with
rascals and murderers”.

In Port-au-Prince, we fear that if the opposition refuses the new plan to
come out of the crisis, it will open the path to a new wave of violence. The
lethal attacks by opposition supporters in Gonaïves begun the day after the
platform of 184 refused CARICOM’s proposition to end the crisis.

Leader of a human rights organization Lovinski Pierre-Antoine accused the
opposition Saturday of deliberately provoking Friday’s violent acts to
create a tense situation in Haiti the day before the international community's
delegation arrived.

About ten people, two of them journalists, were injured while volleys of
stones were thrown between opposition supporters and Lavalas supporters
after a street demonstration that wasn’t notified to the police.

We also fear that the opposition might provoke new violent acts to try to
justify an eventual refusal of this plan.



AHP February 21 2004 6:35 PM


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