New Haiti Peace Proposal Seen as ‘Significant’

A proposal by a group of legislators previously opposed to the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is “significant” but still lacks the necessary components to settle Haiti’s dangerous crisis, senior diplomats said Sunday.

The 11-point plan sent to special U.N. representative Dante Caputo on Saturday generally follows the outlines of an agreement signed in July by Aristide and his main antagonist, army commander Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras.

That accord would have returned the president on Oct. 30 in exchange for the general’s resignation. But it broke down after Cedras, claiming that Aristide had violated provisions on amnesty and the makeup of his government, refused to resign by Oct. 15 or guarantee a climate of safety for Aristide and his followers.

The latest offer calls for Aristide to accept political opponents into his Cabinet, a move Aristide has resisted. But it also offers compromises on the amnesty issue and other conflicts that developed in recent weeks.

But many diplomats say its main significance is that it comes from powerful anti-Aristide members of Parliament who had successfully foiled all past efforts to bring him back.

“It (the proposal) has been accepted by all parts of the (anti-Aristide) spectrum, even the most intransigent,” one diplomat familiar with the negotiations said.

The U.S. Embassy welcomed the initiative and issued a statement saying, “We encourage all parties to give the proposal the closest possible scrutiny at the earliest possible time.”

Still, U.N. officials were trying to assess whether the plan would ease the current crisis, or was a delaying tactic.

And there was no word from pro-Aristide legislators, who are a minority in the Chamber of Deputies but control the smaller Senate. If they refuse to cooperate, particularly in passing an amnesty bill, the effort could collapse.

In addition, many of the pro-Aristide lawmakers are in hiding after threats from military-supported organizations that if they try to vote, they will be killed.

Frantz Voltaire, an aide to pro-Aristide Prime Minister Robert Malval, said Sunday that it would be difficult to produce a legislative quorum without providing security to the members.

Still, a key diplomat said, the new initiative is significant because the legislators who offered it appeared to be standing in for Cedras, who may have believed that he could not come forward after the breakdown of the July agreement.

And the diplomat pointed out that Cedras met with Malval at the exact time that Caputo was in a session with the leaders of the parliamentary bloc that made the proposal.

The Cedras-Malval meeting covered the same ground, the diplomat said, “but without the precision” of Caputo’s session with the legislators.

Among the points in the proposal was a demand for an early easing of the severe international embargo that has closed gas stations and emptied the streets of cars.

Also included was a plan to satisfy Cedras’ demand for a total political and criminal amnesty for him and all military and civilians who took part in, supported or benefited from the Sept. 30, 1991, anti-Aristide coup.

Aristide has agreed to some sort of amnesty but has refused to submit a law to Parliament until the legislators act on his request for a law separating the police from the army.

The accord would tie the passage of both bills together so that they would pass simultaneously, the diplomats said.

Even if agreement is reached on those issues, serious obstacles remain, and the Oct. 30 return date for Aristide is increasingly unlikely to be met.

Chief among the problems is the demand for quickly lifting the embargo, which some U.N. officials have threatened to tighten. One diplomat said easing the embargo is out of the question until Aristide is in Haiti.

Another stumbling point is the call for bringing political foes into the Malval government.

In Braintree, Mass., Aristide told reporters that he will consider choosing Cabinet members from other parties.

But he qualified that by saying that first, those “who are against democracy” must be removed, the Associated Press reported.

Left unsaid by the diplomat and the current negotiations is the future of Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, the Port-au-Prince police chief and target of some of the strongest criticism by diplomats for promoting violence, including murder.

According to an understanding reached between Aristide and Cedras in July, Francois was to be reassigned outside the country. However, Francois, who is seen as Cedras’ equal in the military, has refused reassignment, saying he will fight to the death before he will accept a foreign transfer.

According to diplomats, the goal now is not necessarily to force his departure, but only “to get him away from control of the police.”

But, one source said, that issue had not even been directly addressed in the weekend talks.