Manning: TT prepared to assist Haiti

Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Trinidad and Tobago is prepared to do its part in assisting Haiti in its economic recovery, but declined to commit himself to any figure. Manning explained that this aid was a humanitarian commitment to the people of Haiti, and therefore did not hinge on the question of who was in government in that country.  “We have always supported the Haitian people and we do not propose to abandon them now,” he said. The issue of the government of Haiti was a separate matter, on which Caricom would adjudicate in two weeks time, he stressed.

Asked whether Caricom was prepared to assist the US and other countries in setting up a new political leadership in Haiti, Manning stated that Caricom would do its part. But, he added, “there is a constitution in Haiti and it is to a constitutional Government that we subscribe.” The Prime Minister, who stated that Caricom believed that former president Jean Bertrand Aristide was coerced, said the chairman of Caricom, PJ Patterson, would be making a formal request to the UN for an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Aristide’s removal from office.