Caricom debates whether Haitian interim PM should attend regional meeting

by Kia Penso

Thursday, March 25, 2004

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (AFP): Caricom officials Wednesday were heatedly debating whether interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue will attend the organization's Heads of Government meeting in Basseterre, St. Kitts, on Thursday and Friday.

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas told local journalists at a press conference Tuesday that "as a result of not subscribing to the way by which there was a change in government in Haiti, it is going to be extremely difficult for us to sit in any of the Councils of the Caribbean Community with the interim government that has been put in place in Haiti."

Fewer than two years have passed since the last Heads of Government meeting in Basseterre, when Haiti was admitted to membership in the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

Latortue has asked to be allowed to attend, although last week he withdrew his ambassador from Jamaica and threatened to terminate relations with Caricom, when former president Jean Bertrand Aristide arrived in Jamaica for a ten week stay.

Douglas said that Latortue would be expected to give some account of his actions and statements to the regional body.

He suggested that unless Latortue were to come and denounce what he said earlier in terms of breaking off Haiti's relationship with Caricom and the way by which he recalled his own Ambassador from Jamaica, "it would be very difficult for us to even receive him to discuss the question of Haiti."

Caricom last met at an emergency session in Kingston, Jamaica, immediately after Aristide left Haiti February 29. That meeting concluded with a call by Caricom for an independent investigation into the circumstances of his departure. Pending the outcome of an investigation, Caricom has been reluctant to treat normally with the new government in Haiti.

Countries in Caricom and the African Union have called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Aristide's departure from Haiti. Aristide claims he was forced out under US and French pressure. The United States has dismissed this claim, and continues to state that Aristide left Haiti at his own request. 

Aristide arrived in Jamaica on March 15 from the Central African Republic, where he had been staying since he left Haiti on February 29, in the midst of an armed uprising.

He was expected to spend 10 weeks in Jamaica, but his presence so close to his still unstable country had raised fears that his supporters might be tempted to mount a counterattack.

Latortue was named prime minister March 9, nine days after Aristide fled the country.

Trinidad and Tobago has fully endorsed Jamaica's decision to host Aristide, its Prime Minister Patrick Manning has said. Asked whether his government recognised the new Haitian regime, he responded on Friday: "Trinidad and Tobago has not taken a decision on the matter.

"Arising out of the Caricom meeting, we will be to articulate something more comprehensible," Manning added.

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