18081: (Chamberlain) U.N. rights envoy says Haiti not ready for poll (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     GENEVA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - A United Nations rights envoy said on
Thursday rising violence and insecurity meant Haiti was not ready for quick
elections, echoing warnings of opposition groups.
     Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, facing violent street
protests and opposition charges of corruption, announced earlier this month
that parliamentary elections would be held within six months.
     But his opponents, who accuse the former Roman Catholic priest of
rigging the last elections in 2000, say any new ballot would also be
fraudulent.
     "(There is) a climate of insecurity such that a return to peace
through elections seems unrealistic as long as there is an absence of real
political will to fight impunity," said French legal expert Louis Joinet.
     Joinet, a former legal adviser to late French President Francois
Mitterrand, said the authorities made little attempt to investigate acts of
violence committed by armed pro-government groups against opponents and
journalists.
     In a report to the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights, the U.N.
independent expert on human rights in the Caribbean state urged the
government to reform the police and judicial systems.
     He also called for the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights to open
an office in Haiti, one of the world's poorest nations, with a long history
of coups and political violence.
     Several people have been killed in recent months after increasingly
large anti-government marches were attacked by pro-Aristide gunmen. The
government blames the opposition for the bloodshed.