After a session with former Venezuelan President Carlos Andrez Perez in Santo Domingo yesterday, the ex-Mayor of Port-au-Prince, Evans Paul, denied that there had been a recent attempt at a coup d?etat. According to Paul, the coup is an invention of the government of Prime Minister Edouard Alexis to justify repression of political dissent. Paul, once a close ally of President Jean Bertrande Aristide, now leads the opposition to Aristide. He demanded the intervention of the ?international community? in the forthcoming presidential elections, scheduled for November 26. ?Elections will not take place until we have a new Elections Commission, a total review of the outcome of the parliamentary elections of May 21, and a guarantee of security for all political parties,? he said. At the same time, rumors have began circulating that the seven policemen who have requested political asylum in the DR, and whose return to Haiti has been requested by that country?s government, would instead be sent to Ecuador. However, the Ambassador of Ecuador denied that his government has received a petition from the DR. Interviewed by reporters at an unrelated function in the National Palace, Ambassador Luis Narva?z said that his government would be pleased to consider such a request but he is not aware that one has been forthcoming. ?I am trying to do my duty by keeping my superiors informed so that, eventually, if Ecuador were called upon, it could have at its disposal what it needs to make a decision,? said Narva?z ?but there?s been no request.? In a separate development, the Dominican Human Rights Commission (CDDC) submitted a formal petition to the government to grant asylum to three Haitian citizens who were candidates for parliamentary seats in last May?s election. According to the petition, Oberto Losias, Tissanit Bralien and Helene Furcile were beaten, tortured and imprisoned following the elections in which they ran on the opposition ticket of the Haitian Democratic Party (PADEMH). In their petition, Manuel Maria Mercedes Medina, President, and Salvador Justo, Executive Secretary, of the CDDC affirm that the ?persecution unleashed? by Haitian authorities against their own citizens violates their civil and political rights, as established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Haiti is a signatory.
