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[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

The days of M. Aristide’s presidency are counted
Wednesday 22 May 2002
Interview
Port-au-prince, May 22 - (HPN) - The Professor Leslie François Manigat,
visiting Paris declared this weekend, the days of Mr. Aristide’ presidency
are counted.
" The main thing today, this is not the negotiation, but to prepare the
after Aristide ", declared Mr. Manigat to a Haitian journalist established
in France. For the ex-president of Haiti, the departure of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide is the unique solution.

Weibert Arthus: Professor Manigat, two years after the May 21, 2002
elections, what is your reading of the situation in Haiti?
Leslie Manigat: For me, the situation is not stagnant, it is moving.
Contrary to the previous days, I am a little more optimistic on the
evolution of the situation. Of course, it is geting worse. On one hand,
crimes continue in broad daylight, as well as the insecurity, the
corruption, misery, the hunger… This is horrible and that must not continue.
But, on the other hand, simultaneously, something important is happening in
the country. People are reaching their threshold of tolerance. They are get
conscious of the seriousness of the situation.
In the beginning, in 1990, the population was very " Titid ", then, it
realized that it had been deceived and is currently going through a phase of
disappointment. They are now evolving beyond the disappointment, toward the
discontent. They are expressing themselves through spontaneous and sporadic
manifestation of discontent throughout the whole country. Even the lavalas
sector is affected by the discontent and expresses it loudly and violently.
They turn against themselves. The other facet of this movement is that the
country arrives to the dominant feeling that the situation cannot continue
and, better than that, it is necessary for the people to do something to
bring the necessary change. The time that we live resembles the year 1983
psychologically, when the pope Jean-Paul II in visit in Haiti had declared
": Something must change ".

W. A. : How do the discontent expresses itself?
L. Mr. : Listen! There are a lot of small things that happen in the country
that should not be taken lightly. April 3, 2002, the journalists
demonstrated in discipline and in efficiency to denounce some serious
problems: persecutions against members of the press, murder and exile of
journalists. The business sector reacted jointly with cohesion as an entity
and as a group. Some days later, the lawyers paralyze all activities of the
courts over the entire country, to denounce the violations of justice. Then,
the religious movement, Catholics and Protestant together. This Saturday,
they were 25,000 in the street. One doesn't see that every day in the
country. Evidently, they didn't launch any radical slogans, but when they
speak of deliverance. Deliverance from what? From pain and suffering. And
the pain and suffering are identified. Down with Satan. Everybody knows who
is Satan in the country. This weekend, the students expressed the student
community’s desiderata. And today is May 21, second anniversary of the
fraudulent elections. Demonstrations are foreseen. There is an ascending
sequence of events that will inevitably reach their climax.

 W. A. : Some believe the elections must determine the end of the crisis.
What is your opinion?
L. Mr. : It is what would wish the government. Lavalas wants to give us some
partial legislative elections. As they hold on the presidency, they want to
give us a part of the legislative. Will the nation accept to be taken for a
ride, thinking that the resolution of the crisis is to repeat the same
mistakes by participating in fraudulent elections organized by the lavalas
regime? I believe that even my friends in the Convergence, with their deep
convictions, are not going to fall in the trap of Aristide elections.

W. A. : As one seems to be near a change, didn't you choose the bad moment
to leave the Democratic Convergence?
L. M. : No! On the contrary. We gave the impulse to the whole Haitian
democratic opposition. The Convergence is in an ambiguous situation and this
ambiguousness created confusion in the mind of the nation. One thought that
one could find a solution to the crisis through an understanding that would
maintain Aristide in power. However, if Aristide remains to the power, one
cannot expect real change. Us, when we said " No ", we gave to the
opposition an " extraordinary booster ". Now the different components of the
society are demanding clear and precise political objectives. Listen to the
different voices that are demanding it. Pastor Joël Jeune asks for the
departure. L’Action démocratique pour bâtir Haïti. Grégoire Eugène Junior,
the departure. Georges Léger, the departure. Everywhere. Everywhere, the
slogan develops itself. The solution of the problem of Haiti is not to
compromise with evil but to fight it in order to have news perspectives, new
alternative, to change the country.

W. A. : And that is what is being proclaimed in the RDNP?