By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorTHIS IS the second of a two-part interview with Hazel Ross-Robinson a former foreign policy advisor in the U.S. Congress and president of Ross-Robinson & Associates, a firm of foreign policy consultants. She is an adviser to President Aristide.
Hazel Ross-Robinson, a close friend and adviser to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said Prime Minister P.J. Patterson should be lauded for the principled stance he has taken in welcoming the ousted Haitian leader to Jamaica.
And in declaring that "This is a proud day for the people of the Caribbean", Mrs. Ross-Robinson added that "In this increasingly hostile globalised environment, the Governments and peoples of the region absolutely must learn to band together in defence of sacred and time-honoured principles, justice, equity and democracy."
Mr. Aristide arrived in the island yesterday from the Central African Republic where he had been staying following his ouster on February 29. The Jamaican Government has steadfastly maintained that the deposed Haitian leader has not sought political asylum.
PATTERSON DID WELL
"Truth be told, I do not know what discussions, if any, have taken place between the Aristides and any Caribbean nation on the matter of asylum," Mrs. Ross-Robinson said. "What I do know is that Prime Minister Patterson has shown himself to be a leader of calm courage and steadfast principle in welcoming Haiti's first democratically elected, and recently ousted, president to Jamaica.
She continued: "Not only do Caribbean nations have a proud tradition of parliamentary democracy, we are also a people whose history have made us concerned about fairness, justice, and human decency."
Mrs. Ross-Robinson noted that while the major super powers have been inclined to destabilise and in some cases encourage the toppling of leaders in the smaller countries, they have "Never used the same methods to express their displeasure with their elected officials, no matter how great the provocation."
"I have lamented the fact that too many African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nationals allow friends in the United States, France, Canada and other industrialised nations to encourage us to overthrow our Governments, massacre each other, destroy crucial public infrastructure, and bring our countries to a state of total and absolute chaos in order to register our displeasure with our elected officials. Tragically, we comply, never pausing to question why our friends never use the same methods to express their displeasure with their elected officials."
The former foreign policy adviser questioned whether the people of the Caribbean are now supposed to close their hearts to the Aristide family.
APPALLED AT WORLD LEADERS
Mrs. Ross-Robinson said she continues to be amazed at the irony of France and the United States having arranged the comfortable exile of Haiti's brutal military dictator Jean Claude Duvalier in France, and the United States arranging for Haiti's ruthless military coup leaders Cedras and Biamby to lead equally comfortable lives in Panama, "While France, Canada and the United States now insist that Haiti's twice-elected president be proclaimed persona non grata within the ACP family."
Acting High Commissioner at the Canadian Embassy in Kingston, Robert Richard, said yesterday that Former Haiti General Raoul Cedras, contrary to local and international media reports, "has not and is not being accommodated in Canada."
Mrs. Ross-Robinson noted that "President Aristide co-operated fully with CARICOM as the latter attempted to forge a non-violent, constitutional solution to the Haitian crisis, for this is the Caribbean tradition." She pointed out that it was Haiti's so-called opposition which "stubbornly refused, year after year, to go to the polls, deeming a selected Government more appropriate for the Haitian people than an elected one, pushing Haiti into a vortex of instability that to this day has not abated."
