REGULAR SESSION OF THE PERMANENT COUNCIL MEETING
STATEMENT BY THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL,
AMBASSADOR LUIGI R. EINAUDI ON THE NOVEMBER 26
ELECTIONS IN HAITI

December 1, 2000

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Simply to say that I appreciate very much the references to my person in the context of the work undertaken by the Secretariat in attempting to fulfill resolution CP/RES. 772 (1247/00) of the Permanent Council of August 4, 2000. I can only regret very deeply that those efforts have not been crowned with appreciable success to date.

I would like to explicitly recognize the support that our efforts have received from member states Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Canada, the United States, from CARICOM, and from observer states, particularly France, and the representations of the friends and of the United Nations in Haiti.

I have taken note of this discussion. I had thought that over all, we have made an effort to keep the Council informed. The second report contained exhaustive information on our dialogues in Haiti, as well as documents arising from them. And, as you know, the Secretary General and I issued a statement this past Monday.

I have taken careful note of the statements made by Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Monday and by the Representative of Haiti to this Council today, and I certainly welcome the desire expressed therein to maintain open the path of dialogue. I think that, clearly, the OAS does have a charge of responsibility to seek to support members states in efforts to strengthen democracy and to improve conditions of security for their peoples.

In this connection, I would like to make one very simple statement and a suggestion. The statement is that we do have unfinished business before us, in that several of the statements have pointed out and as is implicit in the position of the Government of Haiti, the basic problems of political representation and participation that had arisen sharply in the period since the May 21 elections have not been resolved and remain very much on the agenda.

My suggestion in that context is that building on the dialogue that we did succeed in opening in Haiti before the elections of November 26, there are some basic points having to do with security that it is perhaps good for everyone to keep in mind in Haiti. These four points, which were contained in the document "Éléments de reflexion" that I presented to the parties in Haiti, were agreed to by them in the course of that dialogue, and I think constitute an important conditioning element for any future effort. These four points are, very simply reading them:

The Executive shall ensure the professional conduct of the police;
The political parties should contribute to the climate of security by cultivating tolerance, peace, and mutual respect;
The political parties pledged to refrain from inciting violence and to discipline their supporters if they resort to violence; and
The Executive shall establish a mechanism for allowing the political parties to cooperate in helping the police to maintain their neutrality.


Thank you, Mr. Chairman.