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In less than a month, soon after the celebrations commemorating the bicentennialof Haiti’s independence from France in 1804, this coalition was able to overrunmost of Haiti. At this point, according to Einsiedel and Malone, “Aristide latchedon to a populist distraction, an attempt to extract from France compensation for thereparations that had been imposed on Haiti by Paris in the nineteenth century asindemnity for the dispossessed French colonists post-independence”. 616The main international mediator at this stage of the crisis was CARICOM, alongwith the governments of the United States, Canada and France. In January 2004,CARICOM hosted a meeting in the Bahamas between members of the oppositionand the heads of government of the Bahamas, Jamaica and Trinidad. The meetingresulted in a draft set of conditions that Aristide should meet in order to end thepolitical stalemate in Haiti. These conditions were as follows: disbanding of armedgangs, establishment of rules governing political protest, an agreement with theopposition as to who should be the next prime minister, the creation of an electoralcommission, and the setting of a date for legislative elections. The literature appearsto be divided over the efficacy of these talks arranged by CARICOM. Some analystssee Aristide’s failure to implement all of the reforms agreed to at the CARICOMmeetings under the threat of sanctions as a cause of escalating violence later inJanuary 2004. 617 Others, meanwhile, see these provisions as marginal, last-ditchefforts that the opposition placed little faith in, in any event, even, in some casesrefusing to lend credibility to Aristide by participating. 618 Even the calls ofCARICOM and the OAS for the UN Security Council to take ‘urgent’ measures,including the despatch of troops, fell on deaf ears. The UNSC rejected an appealfrom CARICOM on February 26 for the dispatch of international peacekeepingforces, only acceding to the request after the departure of Aristide. 619http://gate.library.lse.ac.uk:2169/armedconflict/MainPages/dsp_AnnualUpdate.asp?ConflictID=212&YearID=862#2004 on 2 July, 2010.616 Einsiedel and Malone, “Peace and Democracy for Haiti?”, 163.617 Armed Conflict Database: Haiti summary 2004.618 Einsiedel and Malone, “Peace and Democracy for Haiti?”, 165.619 Dionne Jackson Miller, “Aristide’s Call for Reparations From France Unlikely to Die”,in InterPress Service News Agency, 12 March, 2004. Accessed online at:http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=22828 on 8 December, 2010. Some observerssaw in this reversal France’s extreme antipathy toward Aristide based on the reparationsdemand, while the latter’s significance was downplayed by others.245