Caricom's moment after coup against Aristide

The emergency session was called by the community's current chairman, Prime Minister P J Patterson, whose anger over how President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of office, is shared by his regional counterparts who readily agreed to participate in meeting on Caricom's future relations with Haiti.

And while the Caricom leaders engaged in options open to them for action, questions were being raised, regionally and internationally, whether Aristide willingly fled from office, or was the victim of a coup that involved the United States of America and, to a lesser extent, France, the former colonial power..

Washington has denied forcing him out of office. But Aristide, somewhere in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, has made the charge that he and his Haitian-American wife were taken out at gunpoint by American and French soldiers. That was after he was "obliged", he said, to sign a letter of resignation..

It is the first time, at least in the greater Caribbean region, that Washington is reported to have helped get rid from power a legitimate head of government who had earlier accepted a "peace plan" in a crisis situation, but which plan was rejected by his opponents who remained unrebuked by the George Bush Administration.

It would not be surprising, therefore, should Haiti's seat in Caricom is declared "vacant" - if not an actual suspension of membership from the community - pending an interim constitutional administration in Port-au-Prince, leading to new presidential and parliamentary elections.

Or, further, that the community may now reconsider participating in any multi-national force in Haiti, where the USA, Canada and France had already taken up positions ahead of a United Nations Security Council's authorisation of a international peace-keeping force.

That military role by the USA, France and Canada virtually synchronised with the forced removal of Aristide from the Presidential Palace in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to media reports that had preceded the deposed President's personal disclosure of being forced to quit and leave.

The troika of states - USA, France and Canada - that last week somersaulted on an earlier commitment to back Caricom's 'Action Plan' for a constitutional resolution to the Haitian crisis have their own burden to fetch in distancing themselves from claims that, indeed, they are by no means "innocent" to the plot that eventually forced Aristide into exile early Sunday morning. The moreso Washington.

The fig leaf of "constitutionality" being waved by the George Bush Administration with Supreme Court Chief Justice, Boniface Alexandre, now interim President, is heading for more exposure in the days ahead, as the political calumny against constitutional governance in Port-au-Prince becomes better known.

Caribbean people would be on guard against the orchestrated propaganda coming out of Washington, where an administration has been sanitising its "regime change" policy after Iraq.

From my own reliable information, up to 8 o'clock on Saturday night, February 28, the embattled Aristide was firm in personally assuring Prime Minister Patterson that he had every intention of remaining in office while efforts continued to bring about a practical arrangement to avoid Haiti's slide into civil war.

His poor governance record apart, Aristide had very much made public his defiance not to resign earlier in that same day, February 28, in interviews broadcast also by CNN.

The coalition of opposition forces had already, a week earlier, rejected the Caricom 'action plan' that would have reduced Aristide's power and have in place an interim broadly-based government with a new Prime Minister, pending arrangements for new elections.

But sensing power, in the face of incremental shifts by the USA and Canada, away from their original commitment to Caricom's peace initiatives - which also included the presence of an international peace-keeping force - there was to emerge a convergence of interests of the armed rebels and the anti-Aristide opposition forces.

Such a convergence would also have satisfied the interest of the George Bush administration that had no known sympathies for the Aristide presidency. It had for a long time shown a strange disconnect with Haiti's mountain of problems and efforts to resolve the escalating political crisis.

However, on Saturday, February 28, the Bush White House was ready with a very chilling and defining statement. I cannot recall whether it came before, or after Aristide's defiant declaration to the international media that he had no intention of resigning and fleeing Haiti.

This is what Bush's White House said, as reported by CNN:
"This long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr Aristide's making. His failure to adhere to democratic principles has contributed to the deep polarization and violent unrest that we are witnessing in Haiti today.

"His actions have called into question his FITNESS (my emphasis) to continue to govern Haiti. We urge him to examine his position carefully, to accept responsibility, and to act in the best interests of the people of Haiti."

Before dawn the following day, Sunday, February 29, the coup plot involving the armed rebels and opposition parties had reached the critical stage for the USA to openly show its hands.

Those 'hands' turned up, armed, at Aristide'sPresidentialPalace, according to a report by France's RTL Radio. Under the headline, "US troops made Aristide leave", based on reports from its correspondents, RTL Radio reported how Aristide was removed from the Palace.

Quoting the unnamed caretaker of the Palace, RTL reported that "the American army came to take him (Aristide) away at 2 o'clock in the morning".. They forced him out with weapons...They came with a helicopter and they took the security guards.

"He (Aristide) was not happy. He did not want to be taken away. He did not want to leave. He was not able to fight against the Americans".

The RTL journalist who carried out the interview described the caretaker as "a frightened old man, crouched in a corner" at the Palace.

Aristide was taken to the international airport, after he was made to sign a statement for Chief Justice Alexandre to be interim President, and flown out on a jet aircraft provided by the United States, to an unannounced destination.

Such active involvement in the removal from office of Aristide would have been consistent with the strong attack on him in the statement the White House had issued the previous day.

Well, we know the rest and the consequences of the somersault by the USA and Canada on their earlier commitment to the Caricom 'action plan' on Haiti.

Now the focus, within Caricom, would be on the extent to which the community leaders will publicly broadcast their collective stand on Haiti after the anti-Aristide coup.

They have a moral obligation to come forward with a firm, principled stand and not to vacillate and engage in double-speak.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20040302T220000-0500_56542_OBS_CARICOM_S_MOMENT_AFTER_COUP_AGAINST_ARISTIDE_.asp