25726: Craig (pub) Council: Bar Aristide Party From Election (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From:  Dan Craig (sak-pase@bimini.ws)


Council: Bar Aristide Party From Election
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 16, 2005
*Filed at 8:09 p.m. ET*

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- A U.S.-backed advisory council that oversees 
Haiti's interim government recommended Saturday that ousted President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's political party be barred from upcoming elections, 
accusing the party of encouraging violence.

The seven-member Council of Sages, which picked the interim government, accused 
Aristide's Lavalas Family Party of promoting violence, including the slaying of 
a well-known Haitian journalist whose body was found with signs of torture 
Monday.

"Political groups who identify themselves with the Lavalas Family Party, and 
particularly with Mr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, continue to promote and tolerate 
violence," the council said.

The council urged the interim government to "make the bold political and 
beneficial decision to disqualify the Lavalas Family Party from the electoral 
process."

But Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council indicated that all political parties 
would be welcome in the October and November elections.

"The election is for all political parties of Haiti," said electoral council 
spokesman Rosemond Pradel.

Lavalas is Haiti's most organized political force, with much of its support 
coming from sprawling slums in Port-au-Prince. Aristide was ousted in a bloody, 
three-week rebellion in February 2004.

Lavalas party members, who have said they will boycott the elections unless 
Aristide returned from exile in South Africa, have denied involvement in 
violence that has killed more than 700 people in the capital of Port-au-Prince 
since September.

U.N. peacekeepers have intensified offensives against armed pro- and anti- 
Aristide gangs, who dominate parts of the capital's slums.

Lavalas leader Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest who is 
considering running for president, said the interim government feared Aristide 
supporters would win the elections.

"They are scared of us," Jean-Juste said. "They are afraid we are going to 
win."

Jean-Juste, whose sermons electrify worshippers who have urged him to run for 
president, said he would consider doing so if his party asked.

"I will consider it, but it is not my intention to run for president," the 
priest said.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-Elections.html