Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson said a decision on whether Haiti will remain a member of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is to be made at a special meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis later this month.
He was speaking with Reginald Dumas, the very recently appointed Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a meeting at Jamaica House yesterday.
From March 25-26, CARICOM will, at its inter-sessional meetings, discuss and analyse its future relation with the beleaguered nation.
INTERNATIONAL FORCE
Mr. Patterson told Mr. Dumas that the region was not prepared to participate in the multi-lateral international force, and that neither was it prepared to recognise any government which incorporates rebel forces.
During the meeting, the CARICOM chairman outlined possible areas of its long-term assistance in Haiti's rebuilding, such as the training of its police force, the rebuilding of the electoral process, the economy and civil society.
Mr. Patterson also urged that international financial institutions provide Haiti with much-needed funds, and assist the country's integration in the hemispheric process.
POLITICAL PROCES
Mr. Dumas, whose duty it is to formulate a plan of action to assist Haiti's constitutional and political process, welcomed CARICOM's position to be part of the long-term plan to 'resuscitate' and 'build' Haiti.
He also assured Mr. Patterson that he would be taking the briefing into consideration when he advises Mr. Annan.
Since Sunday's ouster of Haitian ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, calls have been mounting throughout the region for CARICOM to suspend Haiti from its membership.
However, Mr. Patterson, in a release yesterday, said regardless of what CARICOM does, it "would abide by its commitment not to abandon the Haitian people..."
Last week, Prime Minister Patterson sought the intervention of a United Nations-led peace-keeping force in Haiti, but the U.N. Security Council refused his request three days later, stating that it first wanted a political settlement in Haiti. However, since Mr. Aristide's ouster, U.N. forces along with United States troops have been in Haiti on peacekeeping missions.
But in a direct hit at the nature of Mr. Aristide's removal and the circumstances that drove U.N. and U.S. forces there since Sunday, a statement released yesterday said that Mr. Patterson expressed disappointment at the ultimate outcome of events there, and that CARICOM has decided that the plan now being implemented was no longer the CARICOM Plan.
