caribbean roundup

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) – The Grenadian prime minister has called for a special meeting of Carib-bean Community leaders in an attempt to resolve divisions over Haiti.

Dr Keith Mitchell, who is also the current chairman of the 15-member regional grouping Caricom, is said to be aiming for a meeting within the next 12 days and was expected to make a statement on the matter on Wednes-day.

Caricom is deadlocked over the is-sue as St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, St Lucia and Guyana have already stated their reluctance to recognize Haiti.

Barbados, Suriname and Antigua have said they are in favor of ending Haiti’s suspension from Caricom.

In a statement recently, Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur said if there is a lack of consensus, Barbados will go it alone.

"For the sake of the people of Haiti, Barbados believes that our focus must now turn to the future. Accordingly, the Barbados Government will support the Bureau’s recommendation that Ca-ricom take the necessary action to fully engage with the interim administration, and stands ready to assist our chairman in any efforts towards that end.

"If, however, lack of consensus prevents our collective action, Barbados reserves the right to engage directly with the Interim Administration, both bilaterally, and in partnership with other like-minded states, within the context of the United Nations Stabilization Mission," the statement said.

Caricom countries had been given until 16 August by the Caricom bureau to indicate whether or not they were prepared to recognize Haiti’s interim government.

Relations between Haiti and Cari-com deteriorated when the former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, left office in February.

Caricom leaders were concerned about the part played by the US administration in bringing the current interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue to power following Mr Aristide’s departure.

During a Caricom heads meeting in Grenada in July, the leaders agreed on conditions the Haitian government should meet in order to restore normal relations with Caricom.

Following that, a delegation of five Caricom foreign ministers visited Port- au-Prince to meet the interim administration, political parties and civil society groups.

When the visit concluded, the delegation reportedly recommended that Caricom "fully engage" Mr. Latortue’s administration, saying it was satisfied with his response to the Caricom initiative.

However, the Vicentian leader Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has said he will not participate in any meetings of Caricom heads at which Mr. Latortue is present.

In the statement from the Barbadian government, Mr Arthur said that while Barbados firmly supported Caricom’s reservations about the departure of Mr. Aristide, equal consideration must now be given to the needs of the Haitian people.

He also noted that the international community stood ready to assist in the stabilization process in Haiti and they were looking to Caricom to play a leadership role.

Mr Arthur further cautioned that Caricom cannot expect to be a partner in Haiti’s reconstruction if it is not prepared to fully engage with the interim government.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – A jury acquitted former paramilitary leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain of murder charges Tuesday after a secretive trial in the middle of the night, angering human rights groups who blamed the country’s U.S.-backed government.

Chamblain and co-defendent Jack-son Joanis were acquitted just after dawn in the 1993 murder of Antoine Izmery, a former justice minister and financier of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, according to Stanley Gaston, an attorney for Chamblain.

Eight witnesses were called by the prosecution, but only one showed up, saying he knew nothing about the case, according to Viles Alizar, with the National Coalition for Haitian Rights. For the defense, two showed up, but offered few details of the case, he said.

"It is really terrible,’’ Alizar said of the acquittal.

Both defendants still face further murder trials: Chamblain for several killings in a pro-Aristide stronghold of northern Gonaives in 1994, and Joanis for the killing of a pro-Aristide priest, Rev. Jean-Marie Vincent, the same year.

It could be another month before the pair’s next trial, Gaston said.

The interim justice minister, Ber-nard Gousse, has said Chamblain might be pardoned of any convictions because of "his great services to the nation,’’ pointing to his help in ousting Aristide this year.

Chamblain led a paramilitary group blamed for killing some 3,000 people from 1991 – when Aristide was first ousted – to 1994 – when Aristide was restored by U.S. troops. Chamblain went into exile in the Dominican Republic at the time.

He returned to help lead the rebellion this year that ousted Aristide for a second time and sent him into exile. Human rights groups have criticized Haiti’s U.S.-backed interim government for forming alliances with people like Chamblain while it arrests Aris-tide officials and supporters.

"For the defense, this has been a great success,’’ Gaston, Chamblain’s attorney, said of the acquittal in the Izmery case.

Chamblain was convicted in absentia in 1995 and given two life sentences for his alleged role in the Izmery assassination and the 1994 Gonaives kill-ings. Haitian law provides that people judged in their absence have a right to a new trial if they return.

Chamblain led a band of rebels during a bloody revolt that began Feb. 5 in the northern city of Gonaives. After a three-week rebellion, Aristide was pushed from power Feb. 29.

Chamblain claims Aristide ordered his henchmen to kill his pregnant wife in 1991 and told The Associated Press during the revolt that he would do the same to Aristide given the chance.

Chamblain was co-leader of the Re-volutionary Front for Haitian Advance-ment and Progress - known as Fraph after its initials in French - which committed human rights abuses under military rule at the beginning of the 1990s.

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (AP) – Tropical Storm Earl weakened to a tropical wave over the Caribbean Sea on after unleashing heavy rains and winds that tore off roofs in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The storm degenerated into a tropical wave Monday morning over the central Caribbean, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said, add-ing that forecasters would discontinue updates unless the system reforms.

Several hundred people fled their homes in low-lying areas of Grenada and moved to shelters set up in schools, said Sylvan McIntyre, chief of the coun-try’s emergency agency. Only two families remained Monday morning, and no one was reported injured.

Winds tore off at least 13 roofs in Grenada, and one nursing home also was evacuated on the eastern Carib-bean island.

In nearby St. Vincent and the Gren-adines, about 10 homes were damaged with roofs torn off at least two homes, emergency officials said. Banana crops sustained minor damage.

Gusts of up to 49 mph were reported in St. Lucia on Sunday.

A day later, the remnants of Earl were moving toward the west-northwest at about 21 mph.

Over the Atlantic, meanwhile, Hur-ricane Danielle posed no threat to land, the U.S. hurricane center said. Dan-ielle had sustained winds of about 105 mph and was expected to move northwest over the open Atlantic.

Call for state of emergency

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) – The business community in Trinidad and Tobago has called for the government to institute a limited state of emer-gency in the face of escalating crime.

They made their call in support of an advertising campaign that was re-cently launched by a local radio station.

The campaigners want the government to invoke emergency powers in crime infested areas.

Christian Mouttet, president of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce told Associate Press his organization had previously resisted calls for a state of emergency to deal with crime but they are deeply concerned about the escalating criminal activity.

"We’ve resisted the calls for a state of emergency in the past because of the possible economic implications and while we didn’t specifically call for a state of emergency, many other groups in the country seemed to be thinking that was one way of tackling the crime situation," he said. "Our position was if that’s what it takes, then do it and do it quickly."

"On the weekend there was another murder of a businessman and there was the mugging of one of the ex-speakers of the senate," he said. "There just seems to be no end to the surge in violent crime and I guess it’s picking between the lesser of two evils."

Mouttet said the criminals have little fear or respect for the police and the other protective services, which makes them appear powerless in the fight against crime.

He believes under a limited state of emergency, the police will have special powers that would enable them to deal more with decisively with the cri-minals.

"If it could give the police enough power for a time to go into certain areas and get the guns and deal with some of the violent crime that’s taking place in certain parts of Trinidad as a result the gangs, it could give them a period of time when they could clean out those areas and deal with some of those problems.

"We all recognize that in dealing with the crime situation, there is no immediate fix. Certainly the government has outlined initiatives, good initiatives, but we just feel we need to see some immediate and tangible results," Mr Mouttet said.

Louis Lee Sing the head of the station calling for the measure was quoted in the Trinidad Express newspaper as saying that "a different kind of intervention is needed to necessary to deal with the criminal activity taking place in the country."