Global Policy Forum

By Thalif Deen

The 15-member Caribbean Community Thursday pleaded with the United Nations to immediately deploy a multinational peacekeeping force to resolve the ongoing crisis in Haiti. But the U.N. Security Council, the only body mandated to create such a force, refused to be rushed into a decision. In a statement released on behalf of the 15-member Council, Ambassador Wang Guangya of China said the body will consider ''urgently, options for international agreement, including that of an international force in support of a political settlement in accordance with the U.N. charter.''

The statement came as Haitians and the international community braced for an imminent rebel attack on the capital Port-au-Prince and with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide refusing to step down. "I will leave the palace on Feb. 7, 2006, which is good for our democracy," said Aristide, according to Agence France Presse.

The bulk of world leaders, including U.S. President George W. Bush, maintained Thursday they would send forces to the nation only after an agreement between Aristide and the political opposition. But on Wednesday opposition groups refused to sign on to a CARICOM action plan that would see the president retain his post in a power-sharing administration till 2006.

The Security Council is expected to continue discussions with CARICOM and the Organization of American States (OAS) on how to respond to the situation in Haiti, where foreign residents continued to flee the capital dotted with flaming barricades.

Speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Jamaican Foreign Minister K.D. Knight told the Security Council the situation in Haiti can no longer be viewed as ''just an internal matter.'' ''The current situation now poses a serious threat to regional peace and security, given the outflow of refugees which threatens to overwhelm the resources of states in the region,'' he warned. Already last week Jamaica was reporting the arrival of refugees, and warning the international community it would require assistance if numbers grew. News reports Thursday said the U.S. Coast Guard had intercepted a freighter that might have been hijacked by about 20 men trying to flee the Caribbean island. ''While CARICOM will continue to play its role in seeking a political situation to the crisis in Haiti, we believe the United Nations has a special responsibility in assisting Haiti, given its record of involvement in previous peacekeeping missions,'' Knight said.

France, Haiti's former colonial power, has already proposed a U.N.-backed multinational force to stabilize the politically troubled nation. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in Paris on Thursday that France would like to see a force deployed ''within days.'' ''The regime (in Haiti) has reached an impasse and has already shaken off constitutional legality,'' he said. France also supports a politically neutral government of national unity: a proposal similar to the one sponsored by CARICOM.

Bahamian Foreign Minister Frederick Mitchell told the Security Council that the situation is Haiti is ''out of control''. ''Whatever the motives, if the international community refuses to act, and to act quickly, we will be condoning a creeping attempt to overthrow the government of Haiti by force,'' he warned. Mitchell reminded delegates that heads of state in Haiti have been removed by force 32 times. ''The question the international community must ask is whether or not it is going to contribute to the repetition of that history, or whether the international community is going to assist in breaking that cycle'', he added. The immediate problem, Mitchell said, is to help restore law and order in Haiti --''not next week or next month, but today''. "Haiti is the newest member of CARICOM. It is difficult for us in the region to sit by idly, saying that we support legal constitutional authority, and yet when the call for help comes from a member state to support that legitimate authority, we seek to rely on legalisms which amount to inaction.'' Mitchell and Knight were the only two ministers to address the Council meeting, underlying the urgency of the situation for Caribbean nations.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere told reporters Thursday that the Council, like CARICOM, was committed to finding a political solution to the problem in Haiti. ''We share the concerns of CARICOM. We share the urgency of CARICOM. But we will continue with our consultations during the coming days,'' he added.

Opposition to Aristide has come from several quarters: members of the former Haitian army, former loyalists of the president, military insurgents and members of several legitimate political parties. Aristide has warned that if the advancing rebels were not stopped, there would not only be a ''bloodbath'' but also a wave of refugees fleeing across the Caribbean to the United States. But Bush maintained Thursday that Washington has a plan in place to prevent a recurrence of the arrival of thousands of Haitians on U.S. shores that followed the 1991 coup that displaced Aristide. "We will turn back any refugee that attempts to reach our shore, and that message needs to be very clear as well to the Haitian people," Bush told reporters.

Rights group Amnesty International blasted that policy, first articulated by Bush on Wednesday. "Under international law the U.S. is obliged not to reject asylum-seekers at its frontiers. Any move to intercept them and forcibly return them to a country where they would face grave abuses of their human rights would breach the most fundamental principle of international refugee law," said Amnesty in a statement Thursday.