to earthquake-ravaged Haiti in spite of a crisis over who will be the
nation's next leader but does insist that the president's chosen
successor be dropped from the race, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton said Sunday.
Clinton arrived Sunday in the impoverished Caribbean nation for a
brief visit. She met with President Rene Preval and earlier met with
each of the three candidates jockeying to replace him.
Only two candidates can go on to the delayed second round, now
scheduled for March 20. The U.S. is backing an Organization of
American States recommendation that the candidate from Preval's party,
government construction official Jude Celestin, should be left out in
favor of populist rival Michel Martelly.
The top U.S. official at the United Nations, Susan Rice, said recently
that "sustained support" from the United States required the OAS
recommendations be implemented. Many Haitian officials, including
leaders of Preval's Unity party and Martelly, interpreted that to mean
the U.S. was threatening an embargo and cutting off aid.
Clinton flatly rebuffed that suggestion. "We're not talking about any
of that," she said Sunday.
"We have a deep commitment to the Haitian people," she told reporters.
"That goes to humanitarian aid, that goes to governance and democracy
programs, that will be going to a cholera treatment center."
Asked if there were any set of circumstances that would prompt
Washington to cut off aid, Clinton said, "At this point, no."
Still, she insisted that the United States would press the
recommendations by international monitors after a disorganized,
fraud-ridden first-round presidential vote in November. They
determined that Preval's preferred successor, Celestin, finished last
and should drop out. Celestin has yet to do so.
"We're focused on helping the Haitian people," Clinton said ahead of
the meetings. "One of the ways we want to help them is by making sure
that their political choices are respected."
Haiti is in a deepening and potentially destabilizing political
crisis. The announcement of preliminary results from the disputed
first round led to rioting in December. Final results are expected to
be announced Wednesday.
Just five days after, on Feb. 7, comes the constitutional end of
Preval's five-year term.
A law passed by an expiring Senate last May would allow him to remain
in power for an extra three months, but it is not clear if his
government would continue to be recognized by donor countries. But
Preval has said he does not want to hand power to an interim
government.
"That's one of the problems we have to talk about," Clinton said.
"There are issues of a continuing government, how that can be
structured. And that's what I'm going to be discussing."
Leaders of Preval's party said last week that they would agree with
Celestin stepping down, but the candidate has not commented since and
his lawyers continue to plead his case to the electoral council. It is
not clear what Preval himself thinks.
Sunday afternoon, each of the bickering presidential candidates
arrived by SUV at the black metal gates of the U.S. ambassador's
sprawling residence for individual meetings with Clinton.
Martelly came and went first. Mirlande Manigat, the former first lady
who led the polling, met with Clinton second. Celestin's meeting came
last.
Only Manigat stopped to talk to a small gaggle of mostly foreign
reporters waiting at the gate.
"You don't get the sense that the United States wants the election to
be canceled but you can feel that they would like there to be
stability," the law professor said. "(Clinton) asked me what
conditions I could find to make these elections more acceptable. I
said a climate of calm ... (and) that they would make some changes in
the electoral council."
Acknowledging the tight time frame for Haiti, Clinton said she wanted
to hear ideas on how Haiti's transition should be handled but then
make her own assessment on the best way forward.
The political crisis comes as the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation
tries to restart its economy after decades of stifling poverty and
unemployment, and the massive loss of life and infrastructure in last
year's earthquake.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain in homeless camps and major
rebuilding has not started. Underlying issues such as land-tenure
reform and the development and reconstruction of government
institutions have barely been addressed. Massive piles of rubble and
collapsed buildings remain throughout the capital.
Meanwhile, a cholera epidemic that started outside the quake zone and
has killed more than 4,000 people continues to rage. Clinton visited a
tented treatment center Sunday.
She said reconstruction has been steady "but not adequate to the task
that we are confronting."
"The problems are significant," Clinton told the pool of reporters
traveling with her. "Like what do you do with all the rubble? It's a
really big problem."
