16775: (Craig) Article: Haitians Feel Abandoned by America (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>

Haitians Feel Abandoned by America
September 20, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:39 a.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- When U.S. troops landed in
Haiti nine years ago Friday, Kesnel Wilson believed they
would help his hapless country recover from years of
military-backed rule.

Today, he feels abandoned as he watches U.S. assistance
dwindle and his poverty-stricken country sink deeper into
despair.

"The United States was right to intervene. But it was
wrong to lead us into believing it would help us rebuild
our nation," said Wilson, a 43-year-old carpenter in
Haiti's crumbling capital.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide won a landslide victory in
1991 and governed for seven months before the Haitian army
ousted him in a bloody coup. Three years later, 20,000 U.S.
troops arrived on Sept. 19, restoring Aristide to power and
stemming a Haitian exodus.

A windfall of U.S. aid came with the intervention. But
since Aristide's government has fallen out of favor with
the United States, none of the aid has been directed at
development.

The relationship began to fray in 2000, when Aristide's
Lavalas Family party swept flawed legislative elections.
Since then, the government and opposition have been
deadlocked and the opposition has accused Aristide of
attempting to establish a one-man, one-party rule.

The opposition and civil groups refuse to sit on an
electoral council that will organize legislative elections
this year until the government disarms its partisans, ends
judicial impunity and reforms the police according to two
resolutions from the Organization of American States.

Although opposed to demands that Aristide step down, the
United States has been increasingly critical of the
government, saying it is dragging its feet on implementing
the OAS resolutions.

"All friendships go through changes," Judith Trunzo,
spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, said on Friday.

But U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roger F. Noriega
went a step further last week.

"The U.S. intervention to return Aristide in 1994 has
ended up a complete failure, due to the Haitian leaders'
inability and lack of willingness to move the country along
a democratic path," he said.

Aristide has blamed the country's deteriorating economic
and political situation on international ``political and
economic terrorism.''

"Most Haitians believed there would be a change in the
traditional U.S. policy of supporting the minority against
the majority," said government spokesman Mario Dupuy.
"But the United States still supports the elite ...,
imposing an unjust embargo on international aid and causing
the political crisis to drag on."

Some $427 million in international aid poured into Haiti in
1995. It has steadily dwindled since then, with the United
States allocating some $70 million in humanitarian aid this
year, and international lenders suspending aid or grants to
demand democratic reforms and stability.

Meanwhile, Haiti has plunged even deeper into poverty and
unrest.

Most Haitians are jobless or unemployed and live on less
than $1 a day. Income is 40 percent lower than in
Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the hemisphere.
Inflation is at 30 percent.

But it's also a no-win situation for the United States.

Haitians either blame the United States for not providing
enough support or for failing to get rid of Aristide, whose
government has been accused of using violence to stem
dissent.

"The United States has let us down," said tailor Sauveur
Pierre, 49, once a fervent Aristide partisan. He hates the
opposition, but his disappointment is so great he has
become apolitical.

This year he can only afford to send one of his three
children to school. Haitians often still risk their lives
to take rickety boats bound for better economic
opportunities in the United States.

Wilson, meanwhile, says Haiti's allies have vanished.

"I was sure the United States would help set the country
back on its feet," he said. "But life is harder than ever."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-US-Intervention.html?ex=1065052587&ei=1&en=96f007779e4bc8fa
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company