Good moment for CARICOM
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
February 22, 2004
THE TITLE of the press statement issued by the Organisation of American States on Friday, spoke volumes in terms of the key role that a comparatively small region can play when it acts together in the best tradition to promote peace in a national conflict situation.
Basically summarising the text of a unanimously approved resolution, that statement, issued in Washington following a lengthy Special Session of the OAS Permanent Council on the crisis in Haiti, said: 'OAS Permanent Council condemns violence in Haiti and supports CARICOM Action Plan'.
Whatever the final outcome of intensified efforts at the regional and international levels to halt Haiti's descent into anarchy and to establish a new governance arrangement, based on respect for constitutional norms and the rule of law, CARICOM would have made a vital contribution - when it really mattered.
As this newspaper editorialised last Sunday, sensible dialogue, involving all stakeholders, not a coup to force President Jean Bertrand Aristide out of power, is the way forward.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, had himself made clear, following his recent meeting in Washington with a CARICOM delegation and Canada that: "We will accept no outcome that in any way illegally attempts to remove the elected President of Haiti..."
Both the U.S.A. and Canada were quite active and influential in making possible the unanimous approval of the OAS resolution that placed much focus on the CARICOM initiative that had involved a series of meetings, in and out of Port-au-Prince, with representatives of governments, political parties and civil society.
Violence and Chaos
In passing the resolution, the Permanent Council of the OAS is evidently counting on President Aristide, his party, the opposition parties as well as civil society, to now honour their commitments to a peaceful process and firmly resist all illegal activities that have already resulted in more than 50 deaths, widespread violence and chaos.
Regime change by orchestrated violence is not to be given the slightest encouragement. It is, therefore, welcome news that leading nations of the international community, among them France, U.S.A. and Canada, as well as the collective engagement of the United Nations and the OAS are now involved in initiatives to save Haiti from yet another coup that can only add more burden and terror to its nightmare life.
Those leaders of CARICOM, like its current Chairman, Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, Prime Ministers Perry Christie of The Bahamas, Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago and Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia, as well as officials of the Community Secretariat who have been systematically engaged in crafting an 'action plan' to bring peace to Haiti, deserve to be commended.
Let us hope that the stakeholders in Haiti read correctly the message of the resolution unanimously approved by the Permanent Council of the OAS. By its latest stand on the Haitian crisis and its earlier intervention at the time when a coup was in the making in Venezuela against President Hugo Chavez, the OAS would have improved its own credibility and relevance.