22315: (Chamberlain) OAS unites to urge assistance, elections for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Amy Taxin

     QUITO, Ecuador, June 8 (Reuters) - After weeks of tension, Caribbean
nations moved past differences with the United States and Haiti on Tuesday
to mandate regional assistance for the crisis-torn Caribbean nation to mend
its battered democracy.
     The resolution, approved in a meeting of the hemispheric Organization
of American States, requests a special mission to help oversee free
elections in Haiti and resolves to promote democracy and ease poverty in
the region's poorest nation.
     The agreement comes after a diplomatic feud over how to characterize
Haiti's political situation and President Jean Bertrand Aristide's exit
during an armed revolt in February.
     "I think it is particularly important that Caricom and all OAS
countries, including Canada and the United States, finally have settled
some of the differences they had in the past and now are ready to work on
Haiti," Secretary General Cesar Gaviria told reporters after the resolution
was passed.
     "Everybody recognizes that to have a totally legitimate government in
Haiti, one that has the will of all the people as a government, of course
we need elections," he said.
     Duly Brutus, Haiti's interim representative to the OAS, over the
weekend said discord over the resolution stemmed from Caribbean nations'
reluctance to call Haiti's authorities a "transitional government" or
Aristide's exit a resignation.
     The Caribbean Community (Caricom), took the position that Haiti's
political crisis produced a rupture in its democracy, an assertion that was
rejected by the United States.
     Both sides eventually reached an agreement on language.
     Jamaican Foreign Minister K.D. Knight told Reuters the resolution
looks to support Haiti but by no means brushes over past events that
Caricom has called into question.
     "It recognizes that because of the exigencies of the situation there
is in place an administration," he said, but added that he does not
consider this a legitimate government.
     Aristide, now in exile in South Africa, asserts he was ousted by U.S.
forces, a claim Washington has denied.
     Haiti is expected to hold elections next year.