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OAS ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL CALLS ON HAITIANS TO AVOID VIOLENCE AND ON INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO PROVIDE HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

  December 3, 2002

OAS Assistant Secretary General, Ambassador Luigi Einauditoday called on the people of Haiti to desist from efforts to solve their political problems by violence and on the international community to provide humanitarian assistance. The recent disturbances in Haiti, he said, underscore the need for initiatives to create an independent electoral council and accelerate efforts to affirm peaceful development and the rule of law.

Ambassador Einaudi addressed a panel discussion on the Summit of the Americas Process, Regional Mandates and Implementation at the Pan American Health Organization on the occasion of PAHO’s Centennial Anniversary.

Noting that Prime Minister Chrétien had singled out the need to make progress in Haiti in his closing statement at the Quebec City Summit in April 2001, the Assistant Secretary General said, “We are, as we speak, at a most critical point where I believe it is essential that people in Haiti realize that they must forego efforts to resolve problems by violence. That certainly goes as much for the opposition as for the state authorities. At the same time, we in the international community must move effectively to provide economic assistance.”

The Assistant Secretary General also said that the International Financial Institutions, especially the Inter-American Development Bank , have a critically important role in facilitating the normalization of international economic cooperation with Haiti. OAS Permanent Council resolution 822 of September 4, 2002 called on member states “to support normalization of economic cooperation between the Government of Haiti and the international financial institutions and urge those parties to resolve the technical and financial obstacles that preclude such normalization.”


Reference: E-240/02