SENATOR BRUCE Golding, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on foreign affairs and foreign trade, has charged that Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments were sidelining themselves from the efforts to restore democracy in Haiti.
In a statement on Sunday, he said it was now obvious that CARICOM's insistence on an inquiry into the circumstances in which former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti was going nowhere. "Its appeal to the United Nations to undertake such an investigation had been ignored and the same fate awaits its planned appeal to the OAS (Organisation of American States) which, despite its misgivings, was fully engaged in resolving the Haitian crisis and whose Permanent Council last week received interim Prime Minister Gerald Latortue," Mr. Golding pointed out.
ACCUSATIONS
Mr. Golding accused CARICOM of 'fumbling', noting that at both the intercessional meeting in St. Kitts in March and the Bureau meeting in Antigua earlier this month, it had failed to take a decisive, pro-active position toward the situation in Haiti, opting instead to defer the issue to the annual summit scheduled for July in Grenada. In the meanwhile, its position on Haiti remained confused and confusing, because while it refused to recognise or co-operate with the interim government, it had agreed to provide peacekeeping forces and the Caribbean Development Bank had been asked to provide economic assistance to Haiti, Mr. Golding added.
Mr. Golding said that CARICOM was guilty of forfeiting the important role that it ought to be playing in resolving the political crisis in Haiti. The commitment of the interim government to hold new elections next year, he said, must be supported and fulfilled, but considerable work needs to be done to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Haitian people to conduct free and fair elections. He said that CARICOM, and especially Jamaica, could play a pivotal role in this regard, particularly in ensuring that the process was inclusive and that the misguided attempts by the interim government to isolate representatives of the Lavalas movement were not countenanced.
GOLDING'S WARNING
Mr. Golding recalled that in a statement on February 29, he had warned that "CARICOM may be left as a stranded bystander while the Haitian people struggle to build their fledgling and faltering democracy." That procrastination, he said, continued to the discredit of CARICOM and the disadvantage of the Haitian people.
Mr. Golding expressed the hope that after the imminent departure of Mr. Aristide, CARICOM would be more inclined to become constructively engaged in the rebuilding of Haiti.
