Iraq writ small
Expats Explore Independent Way Forward
Katherine Stapp
NEW YORK, Apr 26 (IPS) - As the United Nations prepares to assume leadership of peacekeeping forces in Haiti, human rights and immigrant groups in the United States met Saturday to chart a path beyond the Caribbean island's latest political crisis.
Fighting has subsided since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted Feb. 29, although intense controversy persists surrounding the circumstances of his departure -- which he describes as a ”kidnapping” by U.S. officials, a charge Washington denies.
Elections are due next year, but the island's neighbours in the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) still do not recognise the interim government led by President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.
Haiti is now patrolled by a multinational force of 3,600 troops from the United States, France, Chile and Canada. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for this number to be beefed up to 6,700 soldiers and more than 1,600 international police officers when the United Nations takes over Jun. 1.
”As deplorable as the situation may seem, there is in Haiti today a thirst for change, from the smallest locality to the urban areas,” said Jocelyn McCalla of the New York-based National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR).
”Unfortunately, what's often communicated in the media is that Haitians are always at each others' throats and this is not the case,” he said.
At a one-day conference at New York University's law school organised by McCalla's group, panellists discussed the need for a ”social contract” to bridge the chasms of race and class that have left Haiti one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
