HAITI: Newly inaugurated Haitian President Rene Preval calls on his country to maintain peace and order.

Record ID: 872923

  • Title: HAITI: Newly inaugurated Haitian President Rene Preval calls on his country to maintain peace and order.
  • Date: 15th May 2006
  • Summary: (BN14) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MAY 14, 2006) (REUTERS) WIDE SHOT EXTERIOR OF LEGISLATIVE PALACE
  • Embargoed: 30th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • City:
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAHW9ABEY1KEXEQ87HSFMF2M2S
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  • Story Text: President Rene Preval took office and appealed for peace in his troubled Caribbean nation on Sunday (May 14, 2006) as Haiti inaugurated its first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted more than two years ago.
    Scores of people chanted for Aristide's return from exile in South Africa as Preval took the oath of office.
    Sixty-three-year-old Preval, an agronomist who was president of Haiti from 1996 to 2001, takes the place of a U.S.-backed interim administration appointed after Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 in the face of an armed rebellion and under pressure from Washington and Paris to quit.
    He appealed for peace in the poorest country in the Americas, which is struggling to establish a stable democracy after decades of dictatorship and military rule and recent political violence that took hundreds of lives.
    He also congratulated Haitians for their behaviour in the presidential and parliamentary elections.
    "We made great steps with the elections, the President has just been sworn in, the Parliament is in session and another government will be named. And now so what? I say, what are we going to do? We Haitians?" he said.
    Preval also called on the country to continue engaging in dialogues to keep the peace.
    "We have to speak - one to another - to decide together which way we want to go, together, at what speed, by what means - with people, with money. If we don't talk together,, we will end up fighting each other," he said.
    Tens of thousands of Haitians viewed the ceremony under the watchful eyes of blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers perched on rooftops.
    No foreign leaders attended the inauguration, but guests included Canada's Haitian-born governor-general, Michaelle Jean, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of the U.S. president.
    Preval took office more than two months after he was declared the winner of Haiti's chaotic Feb. 7 presidential election, a vote he claimed was tainted by fraud.
    Haiti's capital was under tight security with about 4,500 Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers perched on armored personnel carriers and patrolling the streets.
    The United States, a major behind-the-scenes player in Haiti, has welcomed Preval's election, but American officials have warned him not to bring Aristide back from exile.
    The biggest challenges for Preval, who like Aristide is seen as a champion of the poor, include opening aid flows to his country and making a near-term difference in the lives of the impoverished masses, Haitian experts say.
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