Amid reports of discussions of a new hemispheric initiative for resolving the Haitian political standoff, American human rights experts have begun meetings with Haiti's deposed President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to discuss weaknesses in his human rights record and help devise plans to smooth his eventual return.
Participants said the meetings have involved detailed discussions of what Father Aristide's critics call human rights abuses during his nearly eight-month tenure in office, as well as talks about internationally brokered peace plans in other badly torn countries like El Salvador, which the human rights experts said could provide useful models for Haiti.
American diplomats have said that Father Aristide's insistence that Lieut. Gen. Raoul Cedras, Haiti's military commander, be either immediately imprisoned or exiled for having presided over the coup against him has been an obstacle to international diplomatic efforts to secure the exiled President's return.
The human rights experts, from private groups, said they hoped to persuade Father Aristide of the wisdom of deferring the question of General Cedras's fate, while allowing international monitoring to help assure order in the country and provide for his own security. Under such a plan, the question of punishment for soldiers who overthrew Father Aristide last September, as well as those involved in abuses since then, would be handled by an independent monitoring agency to be established under international supervision.
Although they described the discussions as useful, participants said that Father Aristide refused to say that there had been any specific human rights problems during his tenure or to endorse a gradual approach to restoring him to power that would defer the question of punishment for the army leadership.
Neither Father Aristide nor his Ambassador to Washington, Jean Casimir, responded to requests for comment. But participants in the discussions said Father Aristide complained that by seeking a solution that did not involve the immediate removal of General Cedras, Washington was trying to "stick me with a Pinochet," a reference to Chile's former military dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet. General Pinochet, who has stayed on as armed forces chief, has a tense relationship with the civilian Government of President Patricio Aylwin.
The meeting's participants said that Father Aristide wondered aloud whether he could avoid being assassinated under such a plan. "It was an interesting exchange of views, but we didn't come to any understanding ultimately," said Kenneth Roth, deputy director of Human Rights Watch, the New York-based rights organization. "He didn't relinquish the demand for the immediate punishment of some individuals in the army, and that insistence, rather than allowing an independent process to take place gradually, perpetuates a stalemate."
Participants in the meetings also expressed frustration with what they described as Father Aristide's failure to address widespread assertions that his statements as President had repeatedly seemed to condone mob-style violence. Human rights experts said that Father Aristide gave little ground beyond the general pledges he has made in the past to reject popular violence.
Another participant cited a speech by Father Aristide to Haitian students in which he praised the presence of a mob armed with gasoline and tires -- which are often used in the vigilante justice Father Aristide's critics have suggested he condoned -- outside a courthouse where a notorious former Interior Minister was on trial.
A senior American official, speaking of what he called Father Aristide's lack of candor on human rights questions, said, "It is a very serious problem, and I don't know what to do about it."
Another official, saying that many people in Haiti already have "little confidence in what he says," called on Father Aristide to issue some "good, stiff declarations about popular justice and some direct acknowledgement that he had some responsibility for certain things that went wrong."
Source: New York Times
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