17590: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Haiti's lament (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haiti's lament


The troubled Caribbean nation prepares to mark its bicentennial amid deadly
clashes and a festering mistrust of its president, leading many to wonder:
What's to celebrate?

By Matthew Hay Brown
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 29 2003

Massive protests and bloody clashes are churning Haiti toward chaos as the
Western Hemisphere's second-oldest republic marks its bicentennial Thursday.

While preparations for the official celebrations continue, thousands have
taken to the streets to demand the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.

The former slum priest, once broadly hailed as the long-hoped-for savior of
this troubled Caribbean nation, now is seen by many as merely the latest in
a bitter succession of dictators to rule the impoverished population.

"I'm tired of the misery," 20-year-old Pierre Donique said Friday at a
demonstration in Port-au-Prince. "When Aristide goes I don't know what will
happen, but it has to be better then this."

More than 30 people have been killed and scores wounded since September in
escalating clashes between protesters and government supporters that have
spread beyond the capital to the provincial cities of Cap-Haitien, Gonaives
and Jacmel.

As the sides harden, hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid
remains frozen, deepening hunger and poverty in the hemisphere's
least-developed nation.

Two hundred years after becoming the second colony in the Americas to
declare its independence, and the first black republic in the world, Haiti
is again teetering toward anarchy.

"It's a very dangerous moment," said Robert Fatton Jr., chairman of the
politics department at the University of Virginia. "I think we are in for a
long period of instability and uncertainty."

For the millions of poor who struggle to survive on a dollar a day, Haiti
today offers a sun-scorched landscape of denuded mountain slopes and
sprawling shantytowns, open sewers and spreading public dumps. Masses live
without water or electricity in tin-roofed wooden shacks or cement-block
cells.

The latest crisis stems from the disputed parliamentary elections of 2000.
Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept the polls, but opposition members and
international observers say some of the races should have gone to a second
round of voting.

Ten years after sending military forces to restore Aristide to power, the
United States and other international donors have suspended about $500
million in aid, a sum roughly equivalent to Haiti's annual national budget.

Aristide says he has tried to hold new elections, but an opposition that
would be unlikely to win at the polls has refused to cooperate, hoping
instead to undermine his government. Opponents say Aristide has failed to
guarantee the security necessary to hold fair elections.

As the stalemate grinds on, the population of 7.5 million is slipping deeper
into despair.

Unemployment hovers around 70 percent; the vast majority of people scrape by
on a dollar a day. Nearly half the population suffers from hunger, and
infection rates of HIV and AIDS are the highest outside of sub-Saharan
Africa.

It hardly seems the victory that Gen. Jean-Jacques Dessalines envisioned
Jan. 1, 1804, when after more than a decade of bloody rebellion he declared
Haiti's independence from France.

"Citizens, it is not enough to have expelled from your country the
barbarians who have bloodied it for two centuries," the former slave said.
"We must at last live independent or die."

Going into the bicentennial, Aristide has cast Haiti's woes as a
continuation of its struggle against a conspiracy of rich nations versus
poor that dates to colonial Saint-Domingue.

"Poverty today is the result of a 200-year-old plot," he told thousands
during a speech last month to mark the anniversary of the pivotal Battle of
Vertieres. "Whether it be slavery or embargo, it's the same plot. You are
victims. I am a victim."

In that spirit, Aristide has directed his government to prepare a $21.7
billion claim against France, a repayment of the 90-million-franc ransom
that Paris demanded of its breakaway colony in exchange for diplomatic
recognition, trade relations and a promise not to reinvade. The sum, which
the fledgling nation borrowed from French banks at exorbitant interest
rates, crippled development for decades.

The claim that Haiti's problems lie in the past, celebrated in song on state
radio, has found some support.

"We're still suffering here because of slavery and the trouble the French
gave us after we kicked them out," 25-year-old Kilmen George said after the
Vertieres speech. "Aristide's the only one brave enough to do something
about it."

But critics say Aristide is trying to divert attention from his own
failings. His government is accused of trafficking in drugs and paying armed
thugs to stifle dissent, as during demonstrations this month outside the
National Palace and at Haiti State University.

In Gonaives last week, government supporters allegedly opened fire on
protesters, killing eight.

"Aristide wants to use the restitution issue to turn France into a scapegoat
for his own ineptitude and corruption," sociologist Laennec Hurbon said.

The opposition has broadened beyond the elite of the Democratic Convergence
coalition of opposition parties and the so-called Group of 184 civil-society
institutions to the students of Haiti State University and several former
political allies. Key defectors in recent weeks include three Cabinet
ministers, two Lavalas senators and the ambassador to neighboring Dominican
Republic.

The movement now ranges across traditional lines of color and class, and
from peaceful protesters to armed thugs. But it is unclear whether they have
the organization and support to present a viable alternative to Aristide.

"I think there is utter cynicism on the part of the vast majority of
Haitians," Fatton said. "They thought that Aristide was the savior, but he's
not. But they are not prepared to join the opposition, because I think they
look at the opposition as also irrelevant to their particular desires and
needs.

"What is clear is that Aristide is facing the most serious crisis and
challenge that he's ever faced since he's come back to power."

Letta Taylor of Newsday, a Tribune Publishing newspaper, contributed to this
report, which was supplemented by wire services. Matthew Hay Brown can be
reached at mhbrown@tribune.com or 787-729-9072.




Copyright © 2003, Orlando Sentinel

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