World – Reuters


 


Caribbean Leaders to Meet with Haitian Opposition  


PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Reuters) – Leaders from several Caribbean


nations will meet with Haitian opposition leaders next week to try to


resolve Haiti‘s increasingly tense political stalemate, Trinidad‘s


foreign minister said on Thursday.


“We are hoping that we will be able to persuade the opposition to


shift from their very hard-line stance, namely that President


Jean-Bertrand Aristide must go before anything moves forward again in


Haiti,” Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift said.


He said Haiti‘s opposition leaders had agreed to meet in Nassau on


Wednesday with the prime ministers of the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia


and Trinidad and Tobago. The meeting was organized by the Caribbean


Community regional bloc, which recently sent a fact-finding mission


to Haiti.


Several people have been killed in recent months when increasingly


large anti-government marches were attacked by pro-Aristide gunmen.


The government blamed the opposition for the bloodshed while


demonstrators accused Aristide of corruption and human rights


violations and have called for his departure.


Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, was hugely popular when he


became Haiti‘s first democratically elected leader in 1991. He was


deposed soon afterward but restored to power by a U.S.-led invasion


after three years in exile.


He was re-elected in 2000 but his popularity has waned because of


allegations his party committed fraud in that ballot, and because of


accusations of corruption and violence.


 


 


The unresolved dispute over the 2000 vote has prevented a new ballot


from being held. The terms of most Haitian legislators expired on


Monday, immobilizing parliament.


On Wednesday, Aristide called for new parliamentary elections within


six months, but opposition leaders said there were inadequate


safeguards to assure free and fair ballot.


Aristide met with CARICOM officials and with President Bush (news –


web sites) and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news – web sites)


during last week’s Summit of the Americas in Mexico. Gift said the


group urged Aristide to be more accommodating “in listening to the


other side.”


Gift said the other leaders told Aristide, “You’ve got to do


something, this is about your last chance. You cannot let this


opportunity slip by.”


 


 


 


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