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WASHINGTON - Amid concern about a potential refugee crisis, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Tuesday the United States has "no enthusiasm" for sending military or police forces to Haiti and said the administration was working toward a political solution to the bloody uprising.
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The White House, meanwhile, said it was up to the Haitian people to decide whether embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide should remain in power. "There certainly needs to be some changes in the way Haiti is governed and the security situation as well," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan, traveling aboard Air Force One with the president.
"We call on President Aristide to make sure he implements those essential steps to address those matters." Powell said Washington is working with France as well as the Organization of American States and other groups to get a dialogue under way between Aristide and his rivals. He indicated that the United States would welcome the dispatch of police units to enforce political settlement should one be reached.
"There is, frankly, no enthusiasm right now for sending in military or police forces to put down the violence that we are seeing," Powell said. Powell rejected assertions by some in Haiti that no solution is possible so long as Aristide remains in office. "We cannot buy into the proposition that the elected president must be forced out of office by thugs and those who do not respect the law," Powell said. McClellan said Powell had met with Caribbean officials on Friday to discuss possible steps in resolving the turmoil in Haiti.
"Our focus right now is working with our partners in the hemisphere to bring about a peaceful resolution to the situation," McClellan said, accompanying President Bush (news - web sites) on a speech-making trip to Fort Polk, La. "Obviously it's important to keep in mind the need for everyone to work together to resolve this matter peacefully. We urge all parties to bring an end to the violence and work toward a peaceful resolution. The way we get there is through dialogue and compromise negotiation." Asked whether Aristide should step aside, McClellan said, "That's a matter for the people of Haiti to decide."
Powell spoke to reporters after a meeting with Laila Freivalds, the foreign minister of Sweden. The rebels are said to be led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former soldier who once headed the feared paramilitary group FRAPH â the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti â which killed and maimed hundreds of Aristide supporters under military dictatorship between 1991 and 1994. In Geneva, meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency urged Haiti's neighbors to take in refugees fleeing their homeland.
Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said officials from the agency were meeting in Washington with U.S. officials and representatives of Caribbean governments to discuss ways to cope with an exodus. UNHCR officials also have met with Cuban authorities, he said. "We would certainly hope that these governments would receive fleeing asylum seekers," with UNHCR ready to help them, Redmond told reporters.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
