Aristide, Haitian opposition given Monday deadline to accept peace deal.
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(Note: the military situation on the ground is reported to be to the advantage of the Opposition forces. Cap-Haïtien is said to be surrounded by the forces of "l'ex-commissaire Guy
Philippe, le "commandant en chef" des insurgés.")
(For the first time in four years, we find Secr. of State Colin Powell making some sense when he warns progressives in Haiti not to "get under the same umbrella with thugs, murderers." But why is it not Canada that is leading in this intervention and wise counsel?)
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 21 (AFP) - International mediators have given embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Haiti’s political opposition three days to accept a peace plan aimed at ending the country’s increasingly violent political crisis, diplomatic sources said Saturday.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said diplomats from the
United States, Canada, France, the Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States delivered the ultimatum to Aristide and opposition leader Andre Apaid in meetings here Friday.
"They have until Monday to respond and, give or take a little slippage, we expect them to respond by Monday," said one source familiar with the talks.
Higher-level diplomats from the plan’s sponsors were to arrive to reinforce the urgency of that message amid growing fears the western hemisphere’s poorest country might succumb to anarchy.
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In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed Aristide could stay under the plan but declined to offer more details. The diplomatic sources said a three-person panel -- one Aristide representative, an opposition member and an international official -- would select advisers who would name a prime minister and a new government. The plan pointedly excludes members of the armed insurgency. That prime minister would have direct authority over an internationally trained and supervised police force, they said.
Both Aristide and the opposition must name their representatives by Monday if they intend to accept the deal, the sources said. The sources could not say what would would happen if both, or either side, refused to agree. Aristide has
thus far rejected giving his opponents a say in choosing a prime minister, but one source said the president had given diplomats "no reason to believe he won’t accept the plan."
Of greater concern, the source said, is the possibility the opposition may reject a proposal that keeps Aristide in office. "This is what we consider to be a difficult exercise," the source said. Opposition demands for Aristide’s ouster have become more strident since the president dissolved the legislature and began ruling by decree in January amid a bitter fight over disputed parliamentary elections two years ago.
Apaid, the leader of the so-called "Group of 184" opposition movement, was expected to announce his intentions shortly after meeting with the visiting delegation and just before the leader of the team, US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, speaks, officials said.
One of the opposition’s chief concerns is the disarming of pro-Aristide gangs such as the one that opened fire on about 1,000 student demonstrators Friday in Port-au-Prince, wounding 14, including two journalists -- one foreign, one Haitian. Also complicating the situation is the presence of the armed
insurgents -- many of them ex-soliders in Haiti’s army, which Aristide disbanded in 1995 after a coup -- who have been mounting hit-and-run raids on Haitian cities since February 5, when they captured Gonaives.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell and others have vowed not to deal with the rebels and warned Aristide’s political opponents not to associate with them simply because they share the goal of ousting him. "This is the time for the
opposition to recognize that whatever their legitimate complaints may or may not be, they will not be dealt with if they fall in league or get under the same umbrella with thugs, murderers," Powell told the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain.
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