14311: Lemieux: Economist: Frustration Boils Over (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Source: Economist, 11/30/2002, Vol. 365 Issue 8301, p32,

Abstract: After more than two years of political stalemate
over flawed elections in May 2000, leading to the loss of
$500m in vital international aid, continuous opposition
protests are shaking the government of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, once seen as Haiti's savior. On
November 17th some 15,000 people marched in Cap Haitian,
and a former Haitian army officer with coup experience,
Himmler Rebu, urged Mr Aristide to resign. On November
20th, four people were shot dead in Petit-Goave. Two days
later, government counter-protesters filled the streets of
Port-au-Prince, the capital, with burning barricades.
Frustration in Haiti may be reaching boiling point. This is
the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and getting
poorer. As Haiti imports so much of its staple food,
inflation is running at 16% and price increases occur
almost weekly.


Frustration boils over



The Aristide regime is holding off its enemies-but for how
long?

Dateline: PORT-AU-PRINCE

IT OFTEN seems that affairs in this benighted country can
get no worse; and yet they have. After more than two years
of political stalemate over flawed elections in May 2000,
leading to the loss of $500m in vital international aid,
continuous opposition protests are shaking the government
of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, once seen as Haiti's
saviour.

On November 17th some 15,000 people marched in Cap Haitien,
and a former Haitian army officer with coup experience,
Himmler Rebu, urged Mr Aristide to resign. On November
20th, four people were shot dead in Petit-Goave. Two days
later, government counter-protesters filled the streets of
Port-au-Prince, the capital, with burning barricades.

Could Mr Aristide be on his way out, only 21 months into
his five-year term? He lost power in a coup once before,
after all, and the United States had to reinstate him. Last
weekend brought rumours that he was about to be airlifted
out of the country by an American air force plane spotted
at Port-au-Prince airport; but it was there, apparently,
only to deliver Thanksgiving turkeys to the American
embassy.

The Americans are watching carefully, especially since a
boatload of more than 200 Haitians made it to the shores of
Florida late last month. They want no repeat of the exodus
of 1993-94, when thousands of Haitians took to the seas and
ended up in camps in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba-not least
because those camps are now stuffed full of al-Qaeda
detainees.

But frustration in Haiti may be reaching boiling point.
This is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and
getting poorer. The value of the local currency, the
gourde, has fallen more than 30% in the past six weeks. As
Haiti imports so much of its staple food, inflation is
running at 16% and price increases occur almost weekly.
Businessmen speak of "a climate of fear", and opposition
groups complain that the government often uses local gangs,
known as chimeres (after the firebreathing monsters in
Greek mythology) to break up protests with rocks and guns.

A gleam of light came last September, when the United
States agreed to support the unfreezing of aid for Haiti if
proper elections were held next year, a new electoral
council was set up and public security was improved. But
the government has dragged its feet. The deadline for
creating the electoral council passed on November 4th, and
the government was also miserly in compensating opposition
leaders whose homes were burned by pro-government mobs last
December. A national programme of disarmament has taken few
weapons off the streets.

Most analysts believe, however, that the opposition still
lacks the popular backing to force Mr Aristide out. He
remains a symbol, though an increasingly tarnished one, of
the country's determined independence. "Haitians are all
about resistance," says Richard Coles, a progressive
businessman and former president of the Haitian
Manufacturers' Association. "They would rather starve than
kneel." At present, starving looks a strong possibility.



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