PORT
AU PRINCE - Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Washington's strong backing Monday
to Haiti's interim leaders, offering rhetorical support and new aid to smooth
the country's return to constitutional rule.
At
a news conference with Powell, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue announced
that the country's civic groups have agreed to elections next year. He did not
give a date.
During
the five-hour visit, Powell rejected a call by Haiti's Caribbean neighbors for
a United Nations investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Feb. 29
departure from power of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide, who left Haiti
aboard a U.S. plane after a three-week revolt fueled by discontent over corruption,
has charged that he was forced from office in an American-engineered coup d'état.
''I
don't think any purpose would be served by such an inquiry,'' Powell said of the
request by the Caribbean Community, whose members have declined to recognize the
new government. ``The facts are very well known.''
Powell
added, ``It was only six weeks ago that Haiti was on the verge of total security
collapse. We prevented a bloodbath and a coup from taking place.''
SPECIAL
FUND
Powell
met with Latortue and interim President Boniface Alexandre during his visit and
announced that the United States would contribute $9 million to a special fund
overseen by the Organization of American States to build democracy in Haiti.
Powell,
at a news conference with Latortue, said he had told the interim prime minister
that ``the United States will be providing him with full support.''
Powell
also confirmed that U.S. law enforcement officials are investigating Aristide
to see if he received money from drug traffickers in connection with the movement
of cocaine through Haiti, though he declined to give details.
''There
are inquiries being made by our judicial authorities in the United States to see
if there's any wrongdoing on his part,'' he said in response to a question from
a Haitian journalist. ``I can't comment further.''
Powell
is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Haiti since the fall of Aristide,
and his remarks opposing any inquiry into the former president's departure underscored
a U.S. desire to prevent Aristide, who first went to the Central African Republic
but now is in Jamaica, from returning to power.
Powell's
last visit to Haiti was in September 1994, when he, former President Carter and
retired Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., negotiated the departure of a Haitian regime and
Aristide's return to power. Those talks averted a U.S. invasion; American troops
instead landed in Haiti unopposed.
A
3,500-member multinational force composed of U.S., French, Canadian and Chilean
troops is currently keeping the peace.
Latortue
said he signed an agreement with Haitian civic groups Sunday night that calls
for presidential elections in 2005, a timetable that's longer than the 90 days
provided for in Haiti's Constitution. ''I think all political parties agree that
elections cannot be held in 90 days,'' he said.
Latortue
said he and Powell agreed that no Haitian person or party should be excluded from
the elections, as long as they forswore violence and were committed to democracy.
ELECTORAL
COUNCIL
A
provisional electoral council will be established after Easter, he said.
Latortue
also announced that he would create a commission modeled after South Africa's
post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with past crimes and
grievances, The Associated Press reported.
Between
meetings with government officials, Powell visited an AIDS clinic that receives
some funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
As
U.S. Marines and Haitian national police blocked a wide stretch of Harry Truman
Avenue in the neighborhood around the Gheskio Centero Center, thousands of residents
gathered near the center to watch.
Jean
Boicale, 55, an unemployed farm hand, was somewhat critical of the Powell visit.
''If
he's just coming to see, that's no good,'' Boicale said. ``Is he bringing medicine,
food and money? These are the things the people here need.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herald
staff writer Michael A.W. Ottey in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.
