CARICOM is optimistic that planned humanitarian and stability efforts in Haiti would see democratic elections in that country by August 31 of next year, a timeframe that has the commitment of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, it yesterday said.
“…Important to know is that in our discussions a number of steps including holding elections no later than the 31st of August, 2025,” Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis who was delegated to update on the issue, told a press conference, after the CARICOM summit wrapped up yesterday on Georgetown.
CARICOM will spearhead an electoral needs assessment and that gap survey team will be finalised by the end of next month and would include, persons it designates, United Nations representatives, and they would also be supported by the United States, Canada and the Organization of American States (OAS).
“That assessment team will be there to support the planning and efforts, relevant Haitian institutions, and hopefully will be established for the purpose of pulling those elections in a period before August 31 2025,” Davis said, while lamenting, “Haiti is haemorrhaging.”
Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, on Sunday had told Stabroek News that he has had and will continue to have ongoing meetings with heads of CARICOM whom he believes want as much of a resolution to the current crisis on the island of Hispaniola which it shares with the Dominican Republic.
“We have ongoing meetings… I think that the CARICOM leaders [are] engaged in the Haiti crisis, they want to achieve something and we hope that during these meetings we have a common understanding of how we are going to proceed [will occur],” he said.
Henry who was emphatic in saying that he will not “at all” be running for the presidency, said that he understands that opposition forces in his country are against him but they need to put the people of Haiti and their peace and security above all power aspirations.
Asked if there has been a timeframe for when he believes elections can he held, he had said that he was advised that within 18 months, once the nation is stabilised, they could go to elections. “We are talking about this year. Our colleagues who are the experts, they are saying within 18 months… fresh elections.”
The Bahamas Prime Minister had also told this newspaper that having the Haitian crisis resolved, where daily the country is rocked by gun violence and swarms with gangs clinging for control of various communities, is paramount for his country and he hopes to influence CARICOM leaders to act swiftly.
His country, Davis pointed out, faces the brunt of illegal migration of Haitians who many times take perilous risks to travel by the boatloads to the 700-island archipelago.
Philips yesterday said that much of the summit’s sessions were “spent on dealing with the Haitian crisis,” as he reasoned that if one were to compare deaths, mostly from murders caused by violence, during the month of January alone in Haiti, it would amount to more than all the fatalities from the Russian war against Ukraine.
Brazil’s President, Lula da Silva, who was in attendance at yesterday’s summit, also issued a call for swift action to resolve the crisis. “In Haiti, we need to act quickly to alleviate the suffering of a population torn apart by tragedy,” he said.
Chairman of CARICOM, President Irfaan Ali, emphasised that CARICOM has made a commitment to ensure that there is peace and stability in Haiti and it will hold true to that promise.
“I want to emphasise that the issue of Haiti was a very, very difficult task. I want to recognise also the work that Jamaica has been doing in coordinating efforts and we must recognise these efforts, and just to give you an idea of the task of Haiti between led by (Barbados) Prime Minister (Mia) Mottley at this meeting with Bahamas and Jamaica, initially the other stakeholders, the US, Dominica… in sidebar meetings and discussions, was more than 15 hours of work, and then at least about 10 hours of work in formal meeting on this issue. So that can tell you the level of intensity that went behind getting to this,” Ali said
“So, while the public, and people will say that this is a movement, and maybe you wanted to see something enormous, you have to understand the situation in Haiti,” he added.
Frank and open
As he credited Haiti‘s Prime Minister Henry, Ali said the acting leader did not shy away from “very frank and open discussions” on the issue.
“It was a very, very frank discussion, it was a very difficult discussion and I want to recognise his role in making commitments and in understanding the very statement that we made here that applies to all the stakeholders and I want this message to be heard by all the stakeholders, that is, we are urging that each stakeholder must recognize that they will not obtain all they want, but Haiti must obtain what it needs. So, every stakeholder in Haiti must also give in order for Haiti to get what it needs,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, said that he believed that the Summit saw strides in coming to a resolution on Haiti. “We have made a lot of progress,” he said of the talks and meetings held and pointed out that Henry was “committed to serve as an honest broker and to share power.”
“As we fix the political issues, it is not just about having an interim power-sharing group to govern Haiti, but the issues of institutional strengthening and reestablishing the electoral machinery; the democratic institutions, and at the same time setting a firm date, possibly within the next 12 months, for presidential elections. Those are some of the conditions that must be achieved, if not before, concurrently, as we seek to have this mission fully operationalised within Haiti,” he explained.
President Ali said that Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica, and The Bahamas, were tasked with pushing the discussion on Haiti forward, urgently, and they did the best they could. “We would like for it to happen tomorrow, but we understand the circumstances, the situation, but this follow up meeting must be urgent, and it must happen with great intensity.”
CARICOM, Ali pointed out, has pledged continued support for Haiti and the support “is not only monetary or financial in nature.”
“We have the eminent group that is working and all the stakeholders recognise the importance of the eminent persons group and the work that they are doing. This group is supported by the region. Countries within the region are supporting directly, security efforts. We raised the issue of boots on the ground [and] there are some countries that will contribute assets, human assets, in the multinational force, but the focus here at this meeting is how do we get to consensus,” he said.
“Yes, we recognise we said what we had to say to international partners in terms of the mobilisation of support for Haiti; what is actually in the account compared to what has been pledged, but we have commitments from those international partners. The pledges will be fulfilled and some additional commitments were made for example in the case of Canada. We expressed concerns about some of the commitments that were made by some of the stakeholders. We believe that those commitments should have been stronger,” he added.
But CARICOM would not make public the resources of individual CARICOM countries to the efforts, because the Chairman reasoned that it was not about counting and looking at what each nation did but looking at the issue as a collective effort.
“In terms of the breakdown of each state, each member, No, we don’t have that at this time because we are approaching Haiti as a collective. There is collective effort,” Ali said.
“This issue of Haiti and the resources that are needed has many moving parts. It is a difficult situation for Haiti, it is a complex situation for the region. It is a situation where we have to navigate within international community, Haiti and of course, the regional issues we have to confront,” he added.
The President said the focus of all should be for Haiti. “Haiti is a priority and we are approaching Haiti from a regional perspective. I do not feel comfortable with us trying to point countries out. That is the direction I think will not yield the results we wish to yield as a region.”
The West African state of Benin has pledged 2,000 troops to the planned multinational force to bring stability to Haiti and the United States will provide US$200 million among other support but says its soldiers are not needed as Port au Prince requires peace, democracy and stability and not the spectre of an occupying power.
“The US is committed to supporting the multinational force. We are committed to providing the multi-national force with what it needs to deploy on the ground, and we are committed to providing a lot of the logistical support that is required,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Green-field said at a press conference on Monday in Georgetown in response to a question from Stabroek News on if US troops would form part of the multinational force.
“What we have heard, and I think what you have heard as well, is that Haiti does not need what appears to be an occupying power in Haiti. I think this is why this is so important that the region has to engage and that African countries have to engage. We have committed US$200 million to supporting that process, we have committed to provide logistics. We have committed to providing equipment and support to the multinational force.”
Thomas-Greenfield headed the US delegation here for the CARICOM Heads of Government summit.
