By IPS Correspondents
PORT OF SPAIN, May 7 2004 (IPS)

No doubt aware of the influence of the United States and France within the United Nations, Caribbean nations are adopting a new strategy in their quest for an independent probe of how Haiti’s first-ever democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted from office Feb. 29.

At the conclusion of their two-day Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting in Antigua this week, the leaders announced they are no longer interested in pursuing the matter before the United Nations, but are instead looking to forward their concerns to the Organisation of American States (OAS).

"We had made, as CARICOM, an overture to the U.N. seeking that the matter be ventilated there. Unfortunately, because of the structure of the U.N., you either had to have approval of the United Nations General Assembly, the Security Council or, thirdly, the secretary-general," Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift told a news conference Thursday.

"If any single one of those various layers offered any objection, the matter was going to die right there," Gift said, no doubt articulating the leaders’ view of Paris and Washington’s positions within the Security Council.

Both nations are permanent members of the council with the power to veto motions. A Caribbean diplomat at the United Nations previously told IPS the region’s nations were under "tremendous pressure" not to publicly push for the investigation.

Aristide, who was flown from Haiti on a U.S. plane, maintains he was kidnapped at the behest of Washington and Paris.

"The choice of the OAS is a choice that says this is still initially a hemispheric matter and before one goes to the global body one should exhaust remedies within the hemispheric framework first, and I think that is a sensible position to take," he told reporters by telephone from Jamaica.

"My problem with it is that it has taken them (CARICOM) this long to decide, because after a while we had begun to feel that they did not want to go forward with a decision to seek for a proper investigation. But at least I am glad to see that they are going to proceed with it."

Antigua and Barbuda Foreign Minister Harold Lovell will present the region’s case to the OAS Permanent Council once all CARICOM governments have endorsed it.

CARICOM’S request calls for the chairman of the Permanent Council to convene a meeting to discuss the situation in Haiti with a view to invoking Article 20 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It provides for an assessment of the situation "in the event of an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state."

The OAS has already signalled its intention to consider the request from CARICOM, "like all other requests in the organisation," says its deputy secretary general, Luigi Einaudi.

But Einaudi told the Barbados-based Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the interim Haitian administration in Port-au-Prince might have a head start on CARICOM after itself invoking sections of the charter.

Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue might have "understood the spirit of the situation" by invoking sections of the charter in "requesting OAS support for a set of elections he believes Haiti has to hold in the course of the next year", he added.

In an address to the OAS Permanent Council on Thursday, Latortue not only urged Caribbean governments to support his new administration, but also called on them to back an initiative for fresh elections in 2005.

"Haiti is a member of CARICOM and proposes to continue being a member," Latortue said. "In this key moment of its history, my country needs all of you. May the misunderstandings be left behind."

CARICOM leaders will decide at their annual summit in Grenada in July whether to support the elections and recognise Haiti’s interim administration, even as they continue to publicly denounce the manner in which Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, was removed from office.

But the claim of Aristide, who was first flown to the Central African Republic, has been denied by the United States and France, and Washington has also urged CARICOM to recognise the Latortue administration.

In mid-March, Aristide flew to Jamaica to, he says, visit with his children. He was to have left last week, but there is some dispute as to whether he will now go into exile in South Africa.

One regional diplomat says the Haitian crisis presents CARICOM with an opportunity to show its ability to successfully help resolve issues in its own backyard.

Suriname Ambassador Albert Ramdin, who is also an advisor to OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, told an Inter-American Dialogue forum at the OAS on Wednesday that the regional body is pursuing efforts to end the crisis even though "there is no fixed set of rules and guiding principles in the political, legal and operational structures of the Caribbean Community on how to respond to conflicts".

In that vein, he argued, the crisis should not be seen "as a formal response to the request for assistance from a sister nation in the community".

CARICOM has pledged to send troops to Haiti but not as part of the U.N. mission expected to take over from a multinational, U.S.-led force Jun. 1. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning said last week the troops will be under the command of a Caribbean national.

The regional body has also not yet delivered aid to its devastated member state, although leaders have said repeatedly that an assistance programme would be geared toward helping the Haitian people.

Einaudi stressed that the interim administration in Port-au-Prince must spare no effort to guarantee the effective participation of all of Haiti’s political forces in next year’s elections.

"There can be no place in the national task of reconstruction for groups armed outside the law or convicted criminals. These are fundamental principles on which we (the OAS) are prepared to work," he said.

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