12786: MIAMI LITTLE HAITI:Homeland violence disturbs Little Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stanley  Lucas <slucas@iri.org>

MIAMI, LITTLE HAITI:Homeland violence disturbs Little Haiti
Reaction ranges from outrage to worry over family, friends
BY NICHOLAS SPANGLER
nspangler@herald.com

After a week of demonstrations and intermittent violence in Haiti, the mood in Miami's Little Haiti seemed as fluid as the situation itself.

Opinions in the shops and beauty salons along Northeast Second Avenue ranged from frustrated resignation to outrage to worry for friends and relatives still living in Haiti.

''Of course we are worried,'' said Jocelyne Frank, 50, as she sat in Avin's Beauty Salon. ``This thing, these riots, can spread; it can spark up elsewhere, it can grow. I have relatives in Port-au-Prince..''

Violence flared two weeks ago in the port city of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, after a massive jailbreak freed almost 160 prisoners. Among them were Amiot Metayer, a former ally of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was arrested for allegedly burning homes of the opposition after a Dec. 17 coup attempt; and Jean Tatoune, who was serving a life sentence for his involvement in a 1994 massacre of Aristide supporters after the coup attempt that year.

''There is always something with this country,'' said Benito Charles, 47, behind the Naomi Variety Store. ``I hate to say it, but I think Aristide should step away. People need to have confidence in a leader; something like this shows, or it makes people think, that he is weak. A government must be able to defend itself. Aristide had his chance to do this; now I think it is blown away.''

Up the road at Eben-Ezer Photo Studio, Jacques Jasmin, 32, said the situation was less combustible but no less urgent. ''It's not that I'm not worried, it's just that you hear these things every day,'' he said. ``This is nothing new if you know anything about Haiti. People are hungry and angry, the same thing as always. Aristide promises them change, but what is in his mouth is different from what he does.''

Jasmin recounted an old Haitian parable to explain Aristide's predicament. Loosely translated: Teach a monkey to throw rocks and he'll throw the first one at your head.

Jasmin and others say that Aristide brought some of the troubles on himself. Metayer was once head of People's Organization, which helped put Aristide back in power after the 1994 coup. But he is no stranger to violence and was jailed for his part in a Gonaives massacre in early July. ``Aristide is accountable for this, he knows that; Metayer used to be leader of his O.P. This is the boomerang.''

Feelings at the St. Andre Record and Video Shop were almost completely the opposite. ''Please, this man [Metayer] has an army he calls the Cannibals,'' said Maguet Thimotus, 49, referring to the militants that Metayer leads. ``The man is an idiot. Nobody will follow him. I guarantee you that 99 percent of the people are behind Aristide. Aristide is a good man, he loves his country, and the people know that. Things will get better. What happened is a provocation. They expect him to overreact, to commit violence, cruelty. But he is more intelligent, more clever than that.''

Herntz Phanord, a host of Haiti Antennes Plus, a radio program on WLQY-AM (1320), agreed.

``In the old days, there would have been a river of blood. Aristide showed restraint and he will probably reap the political benefits for that in the international community in the coming months.''

At the New Style Barber Shop, barbers and customers from Gonaives dismissed much of the talk and media coverage as alarmism. ''Look at the newspaper,'' said Andre Laguere, 30, a disc jockey. ``You see this burning tire, some bricks -- very scary. But there is a woman on her way to market; there is laundry in the back, people standing and talking. You think they are going to be doing this in the middle of a battle?''

Eugene, a barber who did not want his last name used, agreed. ''Miami Shores does not mean South Beach. Haiti has its own districts. And in millions of people, we are talking about a few hundred! This is talk, talk,'' he said. ``But wait until the end of August. When school begins and people need to buy clothes and books -- look what will happen then.''

Eugene made another point that echoed others on Second Avenue. It was in Gonaives in 1986 that the movement began to unseat Jean-Claude Duvalier.