Haiti’s Government Again Agrees to U.N. Monitors

Haiti’s military-backed government has agreed again to let international monitors investigate human rights conditions throughout the country, the United Nations announced Tuesday.

The agreement was hailed by Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in a statement as “the first effective step toward the global solution of the crisis and the full restoration of democracy.”

But Dante Caputo, Boutros-Ghali’s special envoy to Haiti and a former Argentine foreign minister, acknowledged that the United Nations has no guarantee that the Haitian government will not renege on its promise--as it has before.

In fact, Caputo--while trying to work out a system to protect the future monitors--was forced to leave Haiti last week for his own safety. Haitian officials had informed him that they were helpless to protect him from anti-U.N. demonstrations that most observers believe were staged by the government.

Caputo told a news conference that a team of three U.N. officials will depart in the next few days for Port-au-Prince to work out a system to guarantee that the monitors can roam all regions of the country.

Once this system is in place, a contingent of observers will arrive from the United Nations and the Organization of American States. Caputo said, “The United Nations component of the mission will be dispatched to Haiti in the shortest amount of time.” Sixteen OAS observers have been in Haiti for several months, but they have not been allowed to move about on their own.

Asked if he was sure that the Haitians, even after the guarantees are issued, will cooperate with the monitors, Caputo replied, “We do not know that right now.”

Although Caputo in the past has proposed a mission of 500 monitors, he said he could not now estimate the eventual size of the mission. He said that will depend on the findings of the team of three U.N. officials arriving soon.

Monitoring of human rights violations is the first phase of a joint U.N.-OAS plan aimed at restoring President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Aristide was overthrown by a military coup in September, 1991. The monitors’ presence, under this plan, would discourage military harassment of the population and lead to a gradual reduction in tension that might nurture democracy.

The Clinton Administration, which backs the plan, hopes the elimination of human rights abuses and the return of Aristide will discourage Haitians from leaving their island to seek political asylum in the United States.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher called the agreement to allow entry of the monitors “a ray of hope in a country that has known little hope for many months.”

In the abortive negotiations last week, Haitian officials demanded that the United Nations recognize the military-backed government of Prime Minister Marc Bazin as a condition for allowing the monitors into the country. Since the United Nations recognizes Aristide as Haiti’s rightful ruler, Caputo, of course, refused the Haitian demand, a refusal that led to the anti-U.N. demonstrations.

Times staff writer Kenneth Freed in Miami contributed to this report.