Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Help for Haiti!

That was the ap­peal yes­ter­day from the Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res, which was im­me­di­ate­ly an­swered with a firm promise from in­com­ing Cari­com chair­man Roo­sevelt Sker­rit that Cari­com will stand with Haiti with in­creased sup­port.

“And I say to our broth­er–Prime Min­is­ter of Haiti (Ariel Hen­ry)–you will see even in­creased sup­port for the Hait­ian peo­ple as we seek to find a so­lu­tion to your chal­lenges,” Do­mini­ca’s Prime Min­is­ter Sker­rit added as he ad­dressed the au­di­ence at the Hy­att Re­gency yes­ter­day. Hen­ry was among the lead­ers present.

Both Sker­rit and Guter­res were speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s launch of the 45th Cari­com reg­u­lar meet­ing and 50th-an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions at the Hy­att Re­gency.

Guter­res, who wished Cari­com “Hap­py Birth­day”, said he had come to the sum­mit from Haiti.

“The se­cu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion is ap­palling, the hu­man­i­tar­i­an needs are soar­ing and there is not yet a full po­lit­i­cal so­lu­tion in sight. We must help ease the suf­fer­ing of the Hait­ian peo­ple.”

Guter­res said he would con­tin­ue to push for a ro­bust in­ter­na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty force au­tho­rised by the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil to be able to help the Hait­ian na­tion­al po­lice to de­feat and dis­man­tle gangs there.

“I re­it­er­ate my call to all part­ners to in­crease sup­port for the na­tion­al po­lice in the form of fi­nanc­ing, train­ing, and equip­ment,” Guter­res said, adding the chal­lenges seen in Haiti re­quire greater en­gage­ment and sol­i­dar­i­ty. He added, “And that is pre­cise­ly the found­ing spir­it of Cari­com.”

Cari­com’s Sker­rit not­ed that in the chal­lenges of true in­te­gra­tion, “We must ad­dress our minds to the com­plex is­sues fac­ing our mem­ber state Haiti. We have com­mit­ted as a com­mu­ni­ty to sup­port­ing the Hait­ian peo­ple, to bro­ker a Hait­ian so­lu­tion to the in­sta­bil­i­ty they now face.

“It is a cri­sis that re­quires our con­tin­ued sup­port and the sup­port of a wider in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. The ini­tial (Cari­com) out­reach has met with gen­er­al­ly favourable re­ac­tions. We’re well aware that it is just the be­gin­ning and our en­gage­ment must build from that we must keep the di­a­logue go­ing un­til there is not just a light at the end of the tun­nel, but a sta­tion for the stake­hold­ers to dis­em­bark from the train unit­ed in pur­pose and ac­tion.”

Sker­rit said the trust that the Hait­ian stake­hold­ers have placed in Cari­com ex­em­pli­fies the cred­i­bil­i­ty that Cari­com has built over the years. His promise to Haiti’s PM of in­creased sup­port was met with loud ap­plause.

Sker­rit added, “This world owes it to Haiti and we should nev­er al­low an ap­pear­ance of Hait­ian fa­tigue in our world, and we in Cari­com we shall stand with Haiti.”

Sker­rit said Cari­com lead­ers ap­pre­ci­at­ed Guter­res’ pres­ence at the sum­mit in this sig­nif­i­cant hol­i­day week in the US. He said it demon­strat­ed Guter­res’ com­mit­ment and in­ter­est in Cari­com. “Left to us, we’d ap­point you the Pres­i­dent of the world so you’d be in a bet­ter po­si­tion to ef­fect the change we’re look­ing for,” Sker­rit quipped.

Cari­com Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett said, “As our com­mu­ni­ty seeks to as­sist the Hait­ian peo­ple to find ef­fec­tive so­lu­tions to the crises, we have ap­point­ed an Em­i­nent Per­sons Group which has start­ed to fa­cil­i­tate di­a­logue among key Hait­ian stake­hold­ers, be­gin­ning with a broad­ly in­clu­sive en­gage­ment held in Ja­maica a few weeks ago. This work will con­tin­ue.”

Out­go­ing Cari­com chair­man Ba­hamas Prime Min­is­ter Philip Davis said Haiti’s sit­u­a­tion has been high on the agen­da for all re­gion­al dis­cus­sions.

“The Ba­hamas re­mains com­mit­ted to act­ing as a lead, with oth­er Cari­com mem­ber states, to find a so­lu­tion to the on­go­ing hu­man­i­tar­i­an and se­cu­ri­ty cri­sis. The Cari­com-led meet­ing of Hait­ian stake­hold­ers in Kingston in June was cause for cau­tious op­ti­mism. Stake­hold­ers wel­comed the in­clu­sive na­ture of the meet­ing, which was a mi­cro­cosm of Hait­ian so­ci­ety.

“Along with the moral im­per­a­tive to sup­port our neigh­bours in find­ing a way out of the po­lit­i­cal morass which is caus­ing so much suf­fer­ing, it is a prime il­lus­tra­tion of the point which I have made for some time now, that none of us can be safe un­til we are all safe.”

Cari­com to ex­pand to Mar­tinique, Dutch An­tilles

In 50 years Cari­com has grown from its four pi­o­neer­ing fam­i­ly mem­bers to 15 states and five as­so­ciate mem­bers, and even fur­ther growth is near at hand as Cari­com looks for­ward to join­ing hands with Mar­tinique and the Dutch An­tilles soon.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley re­vealed this in his ad­dress at yes­ter­day’s launch of Cari­com’s 45th meet­ing and Cari­com’s 50th-an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tion.

Row­ley said, “Even where there was doubt in the be­gin­ning, the ex­pe­ri­ence must have shown us that we are stronger to­geth­er and even though we are an amal­gam of small pieces of the globe, on the world stage, we might be small but we are not in­signif­i­cant.

“As Cari­com, we are at our strongest. We could be at our best. Let’s claim our space in this world and just do it! “

Lead­ers will this morn­ing go to the Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre site for a flag-rais­ing cer­e­mo­ny mark­ing the sign­ing of the Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas on Ju­ly 4, 1973, by Cari­com’s found­ing fa­thers, late prime min­is­ters Er­rol Bar­row (Bar­ba­dos), Forbes Burn­ham (Guyana), Michael Man­ley (Ja­maica), and Dr Er­ic Eu­stace Williams (T&T) who, Row­ley said, un­der­stood that strength as small states lay in uni­ty.