By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Mar 18 2004 (IPS)

The interim Haitian government named Wednesday excludes members of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas Party and represents a "narrow sector of society", according to one group monitoring developments in the country.

The administration’s members were sworn-in at the capital Port-au-Prince nearly three weeks after the democratically elected Aristide was taken from the violence-riddled country in what he calls a kidnapping by U.S. forces.

New U.S-backed Prime Minister Gerard Latortue had earlier promised that Aristide’s Lavalas and other major parties would be included in his government but apparently changed his mind.

"Latortue chose wisely," said U.S. Ambassador James Foley, who was on hand for the swearing-in. He stressed the new government could count on significant aid from the Bush administration and international financial institutions (IFIs), which had largely denied assistance to Aristide at Washington’s behest after opposition candidates protested elections in 2000.

Wednesday’s ceremony took place two days after Aristide, who was flown to the Central African Republic on Feb. 29, arrived in Jamaica aboard a plane specially chartered by U.S. supporters, notably Representative Maxine Waters.

Aristide, who has insisted that he was exiled by Washington against his will, has said he intends to remain in Jamaica, where he and his wife have been reunited with two young daughters they sent to the United States during last month’s violent uprising, for eight to ten weeks. He has also insisted that he remains the legitimate president of Haiti.

That demand has been supported by South Africa and the members of the African Union (AU), as well as some Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Congress, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). But the United Nations has not acted on the call, saying it has yet to receive an official request.

Jamaica has declined to recognise Haiti’s interim government pending a CARICOM meeting later this month. After Prime Minister PJ Patterson announced Aristide would be permitted to travel to Jamaica, Latortue recalled Haiti’s ambassador in Kingston and suspended formal ties.

Washington also denounced Jamaica’s decision to welcome Aristide, suggesting, in Foley’s words, it could "destabilise" the situation in Haiti.

Jamaica and CARICOM have also so far rejected U.S. appeals to contribute police to a multilateral force that to date includes more than 1,500 Marines and another 1,000 troops from France, Chile and Canada.

The multilateral forces have so far remained largely in the capital, where they have come under occasional fire from poorly armed fighters who are believed to back Aristide.

Soldiers have not yet moved into the countryside or to other towns and cities, some of which are reported to remain largely under the control of armed rebels, some of them former army soldiers and members of a paramilitary group that human rights groups say killed hundreds of suspected Aristide supporters during the last period of military rule, 1991-94.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged that the multinational troops be sent into the countryside.

"There is still a power vacuum in much of the rest of the country," it said, adding, " Not only is such chaos and instability likely to lead more desperate Haitians to seek refuge in the United States, it destroys the local economy and creates conditions that favour the spread of drug trafficking".

Latortue’s decision to exclude Lavalas members from his interim government could inflame an already-polarised situation. Most analysts consider Lavalas to be Haiti’s largest party by far and the only one that has historically represented the interests of the country’s poor, who make up the vast majority of its eight million people.

”The plan was to try to set the stage for reconciliation," said Yvon Neptune, Aristide’s prime minister who resigned last week to make way for Latortue, a U.S.-educated former U.N. official and businessman who served briefly in one Haitian government but has lived most of his adult life in the United States.

"There should at least be a sincere expression of accepting Lavalas as an organisation," Neptune told Associated Press.

After being sworn-in, Latortue called for elections to be held within six to eight months.

A couple of new cabinet members are associated with Aristide’s unarmed opposition, the so-called Group of 184, although some opposition leaders expressed frustration they did not get a larger share of the posts.

The London-based Haiti Support Group, which has been critical of both Aristide and the international community’s role in the nation, identified the interim justice minister, Bernard Gousse, as an active member of the Group of 184 and noted that the foreign affairs minister, Yvon Simeon, acted as the opposition’s representative in Europe.

"Although we were led to believe that the interim government would be broad-based and inclusive," it said, "it does appear to represent rather a narrow sector of society."

It also noted that, like Latortue, a number of cabinet members have served with U.N. organisations, reflecting the hope that they will be able to quickly restart substantial flows of foreign aid.

"We should point out that the United Nations and its Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) have been very active in Haiti for many decades without making any discernible progress with the country’s social or economic development," the group said.

But it reserved its greatest concern at the nomination of former General Herard Abraham as the interim interior minister. Abraham, the former head of the Haitian Armed Forces, won international acclaim for peacefully surrendering power to a civilian administration, but he has recently declared his support for the reestablishment of the Armed Forces, which Aristide dissolved in 1995.

International human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, have repeatedly urged that the army, given its historic record of repression and brutality, not be resurrected.

Abraham reportedly met Tuesday with Guy Philippe, an ex-soldier who emerged as the chief of last month’s anti-Aristide rebellion, which left dozens of people dead.

Philippe, who had promised to disarm his forces after the arrival of the Marines, told reporters later that he and Abraham had discussed disarming Aristide’s supporters.

The Support Group also noted that three existing ministries – environment, Haitians living abroad, and culture – have been downgraded to secretaries of state in the transitional administration.

"While there may be a case for cuts in public expenditure," the group said, "we would insist that these arguments are better put to those proposing the reinstatement of the Haitian Army."

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