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Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 1:48 PM
Subject: [unioNews] IPS-HAITI: U.N. Awaiting Formal Request for Probe
> This story has been forwarded to you from http://ipsnews.net, the world's
> only global news service specialising in the issues you care about.
>
> HAITI:U.N. Awaiting Formal Request for Probe
>
> Thalif Deen
>
> UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS) - The United Nations says it is
> willing to investigate the ouster of Haitian President
> Jean-Bertrand Aristide last month, provided the Caribbean
> Community (CARICOM) makes a formal request -- a move that U.S.
> and French officials are actively discouraging, say diplomats.
>
> The United Nations says it is willing to investigate the ouster
> of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last month, provided
> the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) makes a formal request -- a
> move that U.S. and French officials are actively discouraging,
> say diplomats here.
>
> The 15-member CARICOM, of which Haiti is a full-fledged member,
> last week publicly called for a U.N. probe into what Aristide
> says was his "kidnapping" by U.S. forces. But it has stopped
> short of making a formal demand to the world body.
>
> ''The CARICOM call for a U.N. investigation was in their
> statement,'' U.N. Spokesman Fred Eckhard said Wednesday, ''but
> it has not been communicated to us formally. Once that happens,
> we will react.''
>
> According to diplomatic sources here, who did not want to be
> quoted or identified, both the United States and France, two
> permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have pressed
> Caribbean officials to desist from formally requesting a U.N.
> probe or bringing the issue before the Council.
>
> Eckhard said Aristide spoke twice to Secretary-General Kofi
> Annan prior to his departure from Haiti on Feb. 29.
>
> The embattled president left the country as a heavily-armed
> group of former soldiers, police officers and thugs who had
> swept across the northern half of the nation moved closer to the
> capital Port-Au-Prince. Aristide says U.S. officials made him
> hand over a letter of resignation before loading him into a plane
> for an undisclosed destination.
>
> The flight landed in the Central African Republic, where
> Aristide has stayed since, reportedly guarded by 60 French
> soldiers.
>
> Washington denies that version of events, saying the president
> willingly boarded the flight out of Haiti.
>
> Eckhard refused to provide any details of the private
> conversations between the president and U.N. leader, adding,
> ''the secretary-general has not been involved in any discussions
> of Aristide's place of exile''.
>
> ''The whole thing is a disgrace,'' says Jim Paul of the New
> York-based Global Policy Forum, which closely monitors political
> developments at the United Nations.
>
> Paul, who described Aristide's ouster as a ''coup'' staged by
> the United States and France, said both countries would do
> everything within their means to block any moves to bring the
> issue before the 15-member Security Council.
>
> Britain, he said, would surely go along with the United States
> and France. The other two permanent members of the Security
> Council -- China and Russia -- will concede to the United States
> because the Caribbean is within ''America's sphere of
> influence'', he added.
>
> ''The United Nations should launch a full-scale investigation
> of the coup in Haiti,'' Paul told IPS. ''There are a number of
> issues to be addressed as to what happened in Haiti and when it
> happened.''
>
> Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday, Annan said, ''I
> don't think anyone in the organisation I work for, or I
> personally, would support a coup d'etat''.
>
> ''I think if you look around the world, coups d'etats have been
> condemned all around. An organisation like the African Union, in
> fact, has voted that they will never admit someone who comes to
> power through a coup d'etat into their summits,'' he added.
>
> Annan also said he has heard statements made by Aristide and
> U.S. officials about the details of the Haitian leader's
> departure.
>
> ''I have to work on the basis of the (Security) Council
> resolution'', he added, saying that Council members acted on the
> basis of a letter of resignation from Aristide.
>
> Hours after the president's flight, the Security Council not
> only gave its blessings for a new government in Haiti, but also
> authorised a multinational armed force to work in the country for
> up to three months, to be followed by a U.N. peacekeeping force.
>
> That current force is being led by U.S. Marines, along with
> French, Chilean and Canadian soldiers.
>
> In its statement, CARICOM questioned the speed with which the
> Security Council authorised the troops, after refusing to send
> soldiers in response to Aristide's call for help just days before
> he fled Haiti.
>
> South Africa continues to back the Caribbean nations' demand
> for an investigation.
>
> ''The suggestion that President Aristide may have been forced
> out of office, if true, will have serious consequences and
> ramifications for the respect of the rule of law and democracy
> the world over,'' said South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana
> Dlamini-Zuma, in a statement.
>
> A three-member South African delegation is currently in the
> Central African Republic meeting with Aristide.
>
> Paul said a probe would have to examine two kinds of evidence.
> First, the ''solid evidence'' of the U.S. role in destabilising
> Haiti over the last 10 years, by cutting off loans and chopping
> U.N. programmes.
>
> Second, there are statements made by U.S. officials at meetings
> of the Organisation of American States (OAS) denouncing Haiti.
> ''They did not like Aristide and wanted a regime change in Haiti.
> It is all on public record,'' he added.
>
> Paul said the only course of action at the United Nations would
> be for the 191-member General Assembly to take up the issue.
>
> By a coincidence, he said, the current president of the
> Assembly, Julian Robert Hunte, is the foreign minister of
> Caribbean nation Saint Lucia.
>
> Also on Wednesday, two of Aristide's lawyers, Brian Concannon
> and Ira Kurzban, said they were preparing a kidnapping case
> against the United States and France.
>
> Both lawyers are invoking the Multilateral Convention on the
> Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally
> Protected Persons.
>
> The lawyers are also filing court papers against U.S. Secretary
> of State Colin Powell because Aristide's wife Mildred is a U.S.
> citizen. . (END/2004)
>
>
>
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