South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has pledged to stand by the troubled Caribbean country of Haiti, which has since Thursday been under siege by armed opponents to its president, arguing that the country needs to be assisted in its quest to establish a functioning democratic system.
With her government having come under fierce criticism from the South African official opposition Democratic Alliance for buttressing what it sees as an undemocratic state, she defended South Africa’s — and Africa’s — concern for the country, which she described as the first independence state run by Africans as far back as 1804.
Dlamini-Zuma said Haiti had defeated variously ”the British, the Spanish and the French” and had got its freedom.
”It was the first African republic to be freed by its own efforts,” she said.
Nevertheless, recognising that the country is the poorest in the Western hemisphere, she said for 40 years the country has struggled ”with no country [in the world] recognising them”. She also referred to Haiti having ”to pay a lot of money to buy their freedom”, payments that had been made ”right up to the 1940s”.
She acknowledged that Haiti never has been able to establish ”a proper democracy” and now there is the problem of opposition parties not accepting the environment for an election while the government is offering to have elections.
”There is quite a polarisation between [the] government and opposition parties,” she said.
President Thabo Mbeki attended the bicentenary celebrations earlier this year and provided R10-million as a gift to the country.
Embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide — whose term ends in 2006 — has faced a rocky two years since his party swept legislative elections in 2000.
The opposition is seeking his resignation. — I-Net Bridge
Bloody uprising spreads in Haiti