[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
#877: From the Haitian Times (fwd)
From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>
U.S Troops To Leave Haiti Amid Chaos
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -Last May, police shot 11 detainees in
Carrefour-Feuilles, a neighborhood south of the city center. Former
Port-au-Prince Police Commissioner Jean-Coles Rameau and several other
officers were arrested in connection with the killings. Haiti's justice
system is in shambles, prison escapes are common, and fair trials rare.
The overthrow of the military and the restoration of Constitutional
order did open up political freedom in Haiti. More than 60 legal
political parties sprang up almost overnight and countless other parties
are not registered. On March 1, Sen. Jean-Yvon Toussaint of the
Organization of People in Struggle party (OPL) was gunned down in front
of his house. In April, three OPL lawmakers sought asylum in the Chilean
embassy before fleeing Haiti for the U.S. and Canada. In early
September, gunmen fired shots at OPL's secretary general Sauveur
Pierre-Etienne, in an assassination attempt the party says was meant for
OPL leader Gerard Pierre-Charles, the owner of the car Pierre-Etienne
had borrowed.
Earlier this month, gunmen shot dead Jean Lamy, a former Haitian army
colonel who was to head a controversial government post that oversees
the police. He was considered a close ally of Aristide, who appears to
be a sure bet as Haiti's next president. Then just last week, gunmen
shot at the head of Haiti's judicial police. Though wounded, he managed
to get away. "It is very hard to say that right now Haiti is on a more
positive path than it was on the first day of the invasion,"
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, professor of anthropology at the University of
Chicago, said. U.S. Ambassador Timothy Michael Carney admits Haiti is
not the success story that most in the world had hoped for. "Haiti has
not met the unrealistic expectations of the international community
since 1994," Carney said. "The modest advances in the economy, the real,
but still fragile improvements in the police, and the spotty record in
the transition toward democracy reflect Haiti's history and political
style."
For the past two and a half years Haiti has been embroiled in a
political crisis that led to the resignation of a prime minister in
1997, and the near total shut-down of parliament this year. "The return
of Aristide has not really meant the return of democracy," OPL leader
Gerard Pierre-Charles said. "Across the board, the hope was that the
intervention would permit not only the return to democracy but also a
social and economic rebirth. This was the biggest disappointment." The
current government has prioritized the International Monetary Fund's
structural adjustment program, which included the privatization of nine
state-owned companies. The flourmill and the cement company have been
privatized, and the seaports are slated to be sold shortly. But the
government has not made any noticeable headway in improving social
conditions. Haiti's annual per capita income has sunk to $250.
Illiteracy has surpassed 70 percent, and unemployment remains between 60
and 70 percent.
There are signs of improvement, however, in the assembly sector, in
construction and in agriculture. The construction sector is booming not
only in the capital, but throughout the country, said economist Kesner
Pharel. However, it's hard to put numbers on that sector of the economy
because it remains primarily an informal industry, Pharel said. Most of
Haiti's economy is informal, he said, which explains why per capita
income is now estimated to be between $250 to $500 a year by the World
Bank. A lot of money circulating throughout the country is coming from
drugs, along with about $800 million Haitians living overseas send every
year to relatives back home. There are some public works, renovations of
public squares, repaving of a few main roads in Port-au-Prince, and
creation of a few dirt roads throughout the country. The assempbly
sector is doing "well" according to Pharel, because of strong demand
from the United States.
Haiti has the highest growth in the Caribbean, he said "but that's also
because it was at the lowest." Today there are some 30,000 jobs in the
assembly sector. At its peak, that number reached 100,000, but went down
to 60,000 in the late 80s. Experts said the drop was caused by political
instability that engulfed the country after former president-for-life
Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to exile in 1986. An embargo to force authors
of a military coup to bring back Aristide choked the remains of the
industry, and it is just starting to pick up again. In 1998 it had
upwards of 23,000 employees. Haiti's GDP growth was 3.1 percent for
1997-1998, and 2.2 percent for 1998-1999, according to Pharel. He
estimated GDP at a little over $400 million [see note below], a number
government
officials want to see increase every year. But, five years after U.S.
invasion, Haitians wonder about the past five years, and the future. "I
think that the presence of U.S. troops in Haiti saved lives, having said
this, I think it served as a short term solution to allow Haitian
politicians to forget about long term solutions," Trouillot said. "Some
of the problems that were there in 1994-95 have now exacerbated." Many
fear a rise in political violence after the departure of the troops,
particularly as Haiti prepares for legislative and municipal elections
set for March 19 and April 30. "You are likely to get an increase in
violence," Trouillot said. "The question is how will the government and
the political parties react to this increase in violence. Will they let
it escalate?"
The Haitian Times
32 Court, Street Suite 805, Brooklyn New York 11201 718-852-3900
Send Questions and Comments to info@haitiantimes.com
Note: This number cannot be correct. It could be as low as 2 billion US $
on the basis of a GDP per capita of $250 and a population of 8 million
and as high as 4 billion on the basis of a GDP per capita of $500 and the
same population figure. Perhaps the $400 million number refers to the
state budget