HAITI'S TWO main political leaders are due to meet in Jamaica tomorrow for talks aimed at ending the political tensions in the former French colony.
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) chairman and Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson will chair the talks which will also be attended by Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia and Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie.
The meeting follows discussions between Haiti's President Jean Bertrand Aristide and Christie in Haiti last weekend.
CARICOM is seeking to find solutions to the ongoing political situation in Haiti which has resulted in the deaths of some 40-49 people since September last year, according to separate reports.
In the latest clash, anti-Aristide student protesters burned a coffin in front of the United States Consulate yesterday, defying a new police order prohibiting demonstrators from holding marches on city streets.
WARNING SHOTS
Riot police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse pro-Aristide factions, who pelted the students and consulate with rocks. Firefighters hurried to extinguish the burning wooden coffin.
"We'll continue lighting
the torch of the movement!" University of Haiti student leader Herve Saintilus said.
One student was shot, private Radio Vision 2000 reported. The student's condition and the place of the shooting was unclear.
Police have ordered demonstrations in the capital be held in a seaside square, miles away from the National Palace. The new regulation came on Tuesday as 15,000 people turned out for an anti-government protest.
Haiti has been in turmoil since Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept 2000 legislative elections that observers said were flawed.
Christie said that CARICOM is now faced with the challenge of implementing the specifics of its proposal to end the conflict in Haiti.
DETAILED APPROACH
"We have taken what I would regard as a detailed approach to establishing a framework for democratic action, and it is that framework that President Aristide expressed general agreement with," he said.
Christie noted that CARICOM was considering sending regional security forces to Haiti, and it would be necessary to send in observers to monitor the electoral process there.
But former CARICOM Assis-tant Secretary General Orlando Marville has warned the regional grouping that it must take serious action against Haiti to force the country's political leaders to get serious about taking the country forward.
"I think that CARICOM, which is probably the one remaining moral force that there is in the situation, has to say to Haiti quite simply, 'Look we can't take this any longer we are going to suspend your membership until such time as this matter is resolved'," he said.
"I think if that is done Aristide will understand that he has lost his trump card because he has been playing CARICOM and the OAS (Organisation of American States) in that sense."
Compiled from Caribbean Media Corporation and Associated Press reports.
