19126: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Sharpton (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ELIZABETH WOLFE

   WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton
said Tuesday that both Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and
opposition leaders have accepted his offer to travel to Haiti to help
broker a peace agreement if a U.S. proposal is rejected.
   Sharpton also said that opposition spokesman Paul Denis told him by
telephone from Haiti that they would likely refuse the U.S. plan, which
does not require Aristide to resign.
   "It appears at the end of the day, the answer's going to be no. And if
it is, then I'm going to prepare a humanitarian trip because all sides
appear to be willing at least to talk," Sharpton said in a telephone
interview after a meeting at the Haitian consulate in New York City.
   As rebels threatened to attack the capital of Port-au-Prince, the United
States tried to broker a last-ditch peace plan, with a Tuesday deadline
looming.
   Sharpton said he would know for certain whether he would travel to Haiti
by late Tuesday or early Wednesday. He said he had not heard from the State
Department about his pending trip. It was unlikely the Bush administration
would embrace such an offer of private diplomacy.
   Sharpton, a minister who has advocated Haitian-American rights in the
United States and has met Aristide several times, said he spoke with him by
telephone on Tuesday.
   "Obviously, I have some disappointments in what he has done," he said of
Aristide. "But again, I don't want to prejudge whether that warrants what
direct moves he ought to make until I get there."
   Sharpton made a similar effort at restoring order in the West African
nation of Liberia in July by meeting with both sides in the conflict.
   His latest diplomatic attempt comes as election season gets further
under way. Sharpton, who has stuck with his long-shot presidential bid
partly to keep minority issues on his party's agenda, expressed
disappointment in his Democratic opponents for inadequately addressing
Haiti, and in the Bush administration for not doing more to help settle the
situation.