26311: Craig (news) Haiti elections key to rejoining Caricom (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <sak-pase@bimini.ws>


Haiti elections key to rejoining Caricom
By Bert Wilkinson
The Associated Press
Posted September 23 2005

GEORGETOWN, Guyana · Haiti likely won't be welcomed back into the 15-nation 
Caribbean Community unless the country holds free and fair elections later this 
year, the bloc's secretary general said Thursday.

Edwin Carrington said several Caribbean leaders conveyed that message to 
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin during a meeting on the sidelines of last 
week's U.N. General Assembly.

Martin, whose government has sent about 100 peacekeepers to help stabilize 
Haiti, had voiced concern that the regional bloc known as Caricom may have 
isolated the violence-torn country for too long since a February 2004 revolt 
toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Carrington said. But the leaders 
insisted that restoring ties could happen only if Haiti takes steps to ensure 
Nov. 20 presidential and legislative elections are legitimate, including 
improving voter registration and making the Electoral Council more efficient, 
Carrington said.

"Without an acceptable election, relations with Caricom would be difficult," 
Carrington said Caribbean leaders told Martin during the meeting. The leaders 
added that Haiti's Electoral Council "does not seem to be getting its act 
together," Carrington said, without elaborating.

The Caribbean Community suspended Haiti shortly after the revolt that ousted 
Aristide, the country's first democratically elected leader. The bloc has 
refused to recognize Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government, saying it was 
unconstitutionally installed.

Haiti's elections have been postponed several times because of logistical snags 
and crippling violence blamed on well-armed street gangs bent on destabilizing 
the country. Voter registration has reached 2.3 million, or about half of those 
eligible.

Carrington said Martin told the leaders he "felt that Caricom might have stayed 
out of the Haiti situation ... for too long."

The meeting was attended by Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, 
Guyana President Bharrat Jagedo, Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, St. 
Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and St. Kitts Prime Minister Denzil 
Douglas, Carrington said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-ahaiti23sep23,0,2840178.story