Gya: Caricom to Washington -- don't tell us what to do

BRIDGETOWN - A United States-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) stand-off on Haiti could affect two scheduled forthcoming meetings between the Community and representatives of the George Bush administration.

A meeting of officials, planned for St. Vincent and the Grenadines for Thursday, April 29, as well as a high-level meeting on crime and security in The Bahamas on May 3, are now in jeopardy.

In what some Foreign Ministers and officials of CARICOM have variously deemed Washington's "arrogance" and "bullying tactics", the Bush administration has warned against US participation in any meeting with CARICOM without prior inclusion of the interim regime in Haiti in the councils of the Community.

The communiqué released yesterday on the two-day meeting in Barbados of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) that ended Friday evening, makes no direct reference to the US-CARICOM conflict over Haiti.

But speaking off the record, Foreign Ministers of three Community states, and various officials, have informed the Sunday Chronicle that the discussions at the COFCOR meeting revealed "a consensus" that CARICOM was in no mood to be "dictated" to on when and why it should allow participation in the councils of the community by the post-Aristide interim Haitian regime.
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If the US insists on its demand for CARICOM's "recognition" or "engagement" with the interim regime in Port-au-Prince before the Community Heads of Government are ready to make such a decision, said one Foreign Minister, "I can tell you that the meeting with Mr. Ridge will not take place".

The Bush administration really needs an advisor to help them handle Caribbean heads of government because nobody in the administration seem to any idea how to. I volunteer for the job. Caricom heads, too, need to get past their snit and act in the best interests of Haiti and her people.