a1003: BBC: Haiti: Ex-colleague of Aristide's calls old Lavalas movement "dead and buried" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: Ex-colleague of Aristide's calls old Lavalas movement "dead and
buried"
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Mar 1, 2002


President Aristide has definitely not left his former comrades and
colleagues with happy memories. The leader of the Papaye Peasant Movement
[MPP] considers the Lavalas administration catastrophic and even criminal.
According to Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, Aristide is a dictator, a liar. The
MPP leader invites the head of state to acknowledge his failure and resign
in order to save the country or rather to save what is left of it.
Jean-Baptiste was a guest of Info-Vision yesterday. Valery Numa reports the
following:
[Numa - recording] The MPP leader regrets having contributed to the
re-establishment of the Lavalas regime in the country. His disappointment is
even greater, because he says that he has not seen any possibility for the
movement to recover.
[Jean-Baptiste] The Lavalas movement that existed in 1990 is dead. We do not
recognize Jean-Bertrand Aristide anymore. There is no justice, no
participation and no transparency. That is the reason why I said that the
Lavalas movement to which I belonged in 1990 and 1991 is dead and buried.
[Numa] And, if the Lavalas ideal is dead and buried, then Jean-Baptiste
believes that he should make Aristide responsible for that in the first
instance.
[Jean-Baptiste] I must say that Aristide is a dictator. He cannot work
within a democratic organization. As far as I am concerned, he has deceived
the Haitian people. He has deceived all his friends, so for me he is a liar.
[Numa] In other words, the Aristide of today has betrayed the former Titid
[nickname for Aristide] of 1990. But apart from those faults attributed to
the head of state, Jean-Baptiste acknowledges one quality at least that he
has.
[Jean-Baptiste] Well, he somehow has the capacity to convince. [Laughs]
[Numa] And this is exactly that capacity that will explain the man's
unilateral, egocentric and totalitarian style, the MPP leader explains. As a
matter of fact, Jean-Baptiste says that Aristide only listens to himself. In
other words, his counsellors are simply paid to applaud his slightest
decisions. And for historical purposes, Jean-Baptiste reveals the following:
[Jean-Baptiste] I remember once, as I am a person that says what he thinks
as the ideas come, I remember Aristide told me once that I did not have the
right to contest the decision or the will of the president. Then I said,
well, listen, if I am a counsellor then I have to give my advice and it is
up to the president to accept or reject what I say. But, one thing is that -
and everybody should know this - Aristide does not have counsellors.
[Unidentified interviewer] All right. But everybody knows that he has a lot
of counsellors, doesn't he?
[Jean-Baptiste] But they are all messengers. They are people who carry out
orders and do little things for the president.
[Numa] With such an attitude, this former senior Lavalas dignitary thinks
that the country should not expect anything better from Aristide. And this
is the reason why he now reveals that, when former President Preval had
called on him to become prime minister, he said the following to the former
head of state concerning Aristide:
[Jean-Baptiste] At the time I said: Listen, if I agree to be your prime
minister the first thing I would have to do would be to have Aristide
arrested. [Laughs] That was really surprising. I could somehow see that
Aristide was already working towards his failure the day after Preval took
office.
[Numa] And since his intention was destroyed to start with, the result is
what it is today, Jean-Baptiste said, citing among other things the
plundering and squandering of state funds, generalized corruption, anarchy,
impunity, in short a catastrophic and even criminal management of public
affairs by the Lavalas government. And by way of a proposed resolution to
the crisis, Jean-Baptiste said:
[Jean-Baptiste] Well, the only thing that Aristide should do is to apologize
to the Haitian people and resign. He will not resign, of course, and I am
sure about that. As for us, we are in favour of a union of all the sectors
of national life that ought to get together to try to save the country. And
as far as we are concerned, this should include a great unity capable of
leading to a mobilization which could force the Lavalas regime to understand
the wrong that is being done to the country.
Source: Radio Vision 2000, Port-au-Prince, in French 1130 gmt 27 Feb 02
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.