14670: Racine: AP FWD - Haitian Leader Aristide Defends Record (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com



Jan 30, 8:58 AM (ET)

By MICHELLE FAUL

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide admitted his popularity has
faded, but he brushed aside calls to resign and said
he is still the first choice of the nation's
impoverished masses.

"I think the huge majority of the Haitian people
continue to support me," the president said in a
lengthy and exclusive interview with The Associated
Press.

Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected
president 12 years ago. Opponents say he has grown
dictatorial and want him to step down, and an
electoral dispute has frozen hundreds of millions of
dollars in aid to his country.

Still, the diminutive, bespectacled former Roman
Catholic priest says he has saved his nation from
chaos.

"If you compare what I have and what the one who
comes behind me can get - there you will see a huge
margin of difference," he told the AP in the
interview Wednesday.

Haiti has been in crisis since flawed 2000 legislative
elections swept by Aristide's Lavalas Family party.
International donors froze $500 million in aid
because of irregularities in the vote.

Street gangs claiming links to Aristide's party have
attacked demonstrators, journalists and opposition
politicians. At least four people have been killed since
mid-November, and more than 350 people have been
injured - most of them opposition supporters.

Aristide has promised new legislative elections this
year, but the opposition has refused to agree to the
vote without security guarantees. Aristide said he
hopes to persuade the opposition to participate.

During the 100-minute interview, Aristide blamed
Haiti's many ills on a global economic and political
system that "smacks of racism" - going back to
France's fight to prevent its colony from rising up
against slavery. Following their revolt, Haitians
founded the world's first black republic in 1804.

Aristide called the freeze in foreign aid a form of
economic "apartheid" to keep blacks down.

"If some people don't want Haiti to promote
economic growth, it's always to point a finger at Haiti
to say, 'Hey, don't do that, you see they were the
first black independent country in the world but they
are so poor today - you better stay where you are
instead of fighting for freedom.' That's their goal."

Aristide insists he is committed to democracy and
says he need not step down until his term expires in
2006.

Aristide himself has been a victim of the violence
that has marred the history of this Caribbean nation.
In 1988, thugs paid by the ruling military attacked
his slum church as he conducted a service, hacking
and shooting to death more than a dozen people.

Eight months after he became president in 1991, he
was ousted in a coup in which hundreds of his
supporters were slain. Thousands more were killed
before former President Clinton in 1994 sent 20,000
U.S. troops to restore Aristide to power.

But democracy and economic stability have remained
elusive for Haiti, the poorest country in the
hemisphere. Every election has been flawed by
irregularities.

Aristide was prohibited by term limits from serving a
second successive term, and his protege, Rene
Preval, was elected president in December 1995.
Aristide returned to power in a November 2000
election that was boycotted by the opposition.

After Aristide was restored to power by the 1994
U.S. invasion, he disbanded the army. But the civilian
police force he put in place also is accused of
brutalizing people, summary executions, drug-running
and gangsterism.

The president said Wednesday that while some of
those involved in attacks on the opposition in recent
months were his supporters, others falsely claimed a
connection to dirty his party's name.

He also said Haiti's reputation for violence was
undeserved and pointed to higher crime rates in
Jamaica and Mexico. Asked about police brutality, he
pointed to abuses by New York City police officers,
including the assault on Haitian immigrant Abner
Louima, who was sodomized with a broomstick by
police in 1997.

Aristide said he was proud of keeping Haiti "from
collapsing into a chaotic situation" and "in a peaceful
environment ... despite not having yet many roads,
many schools or hospitals."

Anti-government strikes have been increasing, with
many criticizing a lack of economic progress. On
Wednesday, teachers called a three-day strike
demanding higher pay - though radio stations said
most educators went to work anyway.

Other recent protests centered on the government's
sudden decision to halt fuel subsidies. Increased
kerosene prices mean even less light for most of
Haiti's 8.2 million people, who live in villages and
slums deprived of electricity, piped water and
telephone service. Port-au-Prince, the capital, has
been suffering blackouts of up to 20 hours each day
in recent weeks.

Aristide acknowledged he has not delivered on
promises to raise Haitians "from misery to dignified
poverty." But he said his countrymen and women, who
will mark 200 years of independence next year, can
be proud of their place in world history.

"Yes, the misery will exist, but it will not prevent us from knowing who we are," he said.