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#4029: Article from COHA (fwd)
From: John Kozyn <jckozyn@hotmail.com>
The following article will appear this weekend in the Washington Report on
the Hemisphere, a newsletter from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
<www.coha.org>.
John Kozyn
==============
Haiti?s Turbulent Electoral Step
By John Kozyn
On May 21, amid confusion and logistical delays, Haiti successfully held its
first local and legislative elections in two years with a participation rate
estimated at 60 percent. These contests, which will bring into office 19
senators, 83 deputies as well as hundreds of local councils, precede the
presidential elections slated for later this year, which former president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, leader of the Fanmi Lavalas party, is heavily
favored to win. Aristide, first elected to the presidency in 1990, was
deposed in a coup d?état in 1991, and returned to power three years later
under a U.S.-led military operation mandated by the United Nations.
In Haiti, where infrastructure remains threadbare, the results were not
likely to be made official for at least one week. However, media reports
based on electoral observation teams fielded by the Organization of American
States and the U.S. Congress, indicate that Fanmi Lavalas will enjoy
dominance in Haiti?s bicameral legislature. This has prompted harsh
criticism from anonymous ?Western diplomats? who fear Aristide will win the
presidency later this year, along with a comfortable majority in the
parliament?an eventuality which led one U.S. diplomat in Haiti to recently
refer to Aristide as a ?dictator.?
Such disdain on the part of U.S. officials based in Haiti is not uncommon.
Great pressure in the last six months was brought to bear on Haitian leaders
to hold elections as quickly as possible. Hearings on Capitol Hill were
accompanied by rising Republican and Democratic discontent over the small,
overwhelmingly black, republic. At issue in these hearings was the use of
Haiti as a transshipment point for narcotics?primarily cocaine?headed for
the United States as well as the Haitian government?s commitment to
elections. Predictably, Aristide?s name figured prominently during both
hearings.
Mistrust of Aristide obscures U.S. foreign policy
A former Catholic priest beloved by the poor, Aristide has never been
trusted by Washington, even while in exile here from 1991-94. He is still
regarded with suspicion, even contempt, by the Republican leadership in
Congress, particularly by the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who has led extensive efforts to discredit
Aristide's leadership. In fact, a broad range of U.S. human rights groups
have criticized the former president for his reluctance to publicly denounce
Haiti?s political violence.
Pre-election violence took fifteen lives, including that of the acerbic and
independent radio personality, Jean Dominique, the country?s most famous
journalist and a close friend of both Aristide and current president René
Préval. The U.S. press consistently pinned the blame on ?Aristide
supporters,? but Fanmi Lavalas officials have denied the largely unsupported
charge. As was the case in 1991 following his violent removal from office,
Aristide continues to be the target of slander from his enemies both in the
U.S. and on the island.
During congressional hearings last month, Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.),
head of the House International Relations Committee, hinted that Aristide
was involved with drug trafficking. Nevertheless, the lack of significant
progress in capturing Colombian drug traffickers in Haiti was cited by the
DEA as a possible result of the Committee?s failure to respond to its
earlier request for helicopters. While the DEA congratulated Haitian
authorities for their high degree of professional cooperation, Gilman sought
to link Aristide to the drug trafficking that actually began in earnest
during the early period of the 1991 coup, a fact that the Clinton
administration has rarely acknowledged.
In addition to the many false accusations directed at Aristide, Washington
only injured prospects for a free and fair election by inflexibly demanding
that Préval set a premature election date. In a May 11 Miami Herald article,
ambassador-designate Brian Dean Curran was quoted as saying, ?We have made
clear that the failure to ensure prompt and credible elections?followed by
the rapid seating of a parliament with full powers?will risk isolating Haiti
from the community of democracies, jeopardize future cooperation and
undermine the legitimacy of presidential elections later this year. This is
not a threat, but a statement of fact.?
The chronic disrespect which is traditionally lavished on Haiti and its
people was also manifested by the Washington-based International Federation
of Electoral Systems (IFES). The IFES, which provides technical electoral
assistance to foreign countries, was angered when its director for Haiti,
Micheline Begin, was declared persona non grata by Haiti's prime minister,
Jacques Edouard Alexis, after he discovered that she was ?acting in bad
faith and was far from forthright in her dealings with the Haitian
government and Haiti's electoral council.? Ms. Begin had submitted a
relatively positive report to the Haitian government, while in another
report, sent to her superiors in Washington, she accused Haitian officials
of collusion, contradicting her statements in the first.
While Haitian voters commendably stood in the face of fear in order to
adhere to democratic principles, Washington?s policy towards Haiti remains
clouded in vagueness. After pushing relentlessly for elections even while
conditions were far from optimal, the State Department has been effusive in
its praise of the Haitian government. But given Washington's abiding odium
for Aristide, it is doubtful whether such a felicitous mood will continue to
exist as Haiti heads toward its fall presidential race.
John Kozyn, COHA Research Fellow (The views expressed in the above article
are Mr. Kozyn?s alone.)
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