17651: Lemieux: The Hill ( The Newspaper for and abour the US Congress: (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

January 6, 2004

CBC draws fire for Haiti support
By Sam Dealey


PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haitians celebrated their bicentennial of
independence on New Year’s Day not with the patriotic
groundswell of support that President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide hoped for but with burning barricades,
stone-throwing and calls that he resign over his widely
perceived misrule.

Despite this, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)
officially is not backing away from its longstanding
support for Aristide.

“The [CBC members] have made it clear that they support the
sovereign government of Haiti,” said a spokeswoman for Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.), dean of the caucus.

Wracked with poverty and AIDS, and a haven for corruption
and drugs, Aristide’s Haiti is slipping from his grasp.
Hailed as a hero of democracy when elected by landslide in
1990 and restored to power by U.S. threats of force in 1994
after a coup, the priest-cum-strongman now finds few
friends at home or abroad. His traditional support in
Haiti’s slums is dropping precipitously.

His government is crumbling, too. Three Cabinet ministers
quit to protest Aristide’s suppression of demonstrators, as
did the country’s ambassador to the neighboring Dominican
Republic. A government attorney fled to the United States
on Dec. 26 after he refused to sign what he termed an
illegal arrest warrant for opposition leaders. Aristide has
suffered embarrassing defections of parliamentarians from
his ruling Lavalas Family party.

“Things have gotten so bad under Aristide that even the
Haitians who supported him years ago have backed away,”
said Ian Vasquez of the Cato Institute. “Basically, people
are realizing the guy’s a crook.”

The belief is widespread in Washington — President Clinton
led financial institutions in imposing economic sanctions
against Haiti in 1999, and the Bush administration has kept
them — but is slow taking hold in the CBC, Aristide’s
staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill.

“I think they’re indulging in the politics of nostalgia —
nostalgia for the days when Aristide was an embattled
democrat,” said Tom Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. “Embattled democrats are great at some
times in history, but they can go sour, and unfortunately
Aristide has done that.”

James Morrell, executive director of the Haiti Democracy
Project, attributes it to loyalty, charging that caucus
members blindly follow Conyers. Among Haiti’s leading
lobbyists in Washington is ex Rep. Ron Dellums (D-Calif.),
former chairman of the CBC.

“When you’re in the CBC, the prevailing custom is
seniority, and this Haiti issue is seen as Conyers’s bag,”
said Morrell. “And so you follow, you don’t question. This
caucus — it’s already weak enough, so if they start
questioning it will break up into divisions. Plus there’s
been the perception that there will be a political cost to
be paid if you’re seen as anti the government of Haiti.”

Carothers said: “Unfortunately, we project our own racial
politics onto Haiti, which is inappropriate and doesn’t do
Haiti any good. A clear-eyed view of Aristide is not hard
if one follows Haiti for any bit of time, and a clear-eyed
view is not very favorable towards Aristide.”

Despite Conyers’s assertion that caucus support for
Aristide remains strong, there are signs of strain. Though
every member co-sponsored resolutions by Rep. Barbara Lee
(D-Calif.) since 2002 calling on President Bush to end the
embargo, several in the caucus are explicitly cool on
Aristide.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), once a staunch supporter,
held meetings with the Haitian leader and came to see him
as a cause of, and not a solution to, the country’s
problems.

“Charlie’s intent in those meetings was to let Aristide
know that his support in Washington was deteriorating due
to continuing reports of problems, corruption and drug
trafficking,” said George Dalley, Rangel’s chief of staff.
“And Charlie was disappointed, because despite feeling in
each occasion that he was heard by Aristide, he …
increasingly thought it was a futile effort to change the
course of President Aristide.

“As admirable as Aristide appeared and as important as his
restoration was, the qualities that required his
restoration are no longer being exhibited.”

Despite those misgivings, Dalley did not dispute that CBC
policy on Haiti is driven from the top down.

“What has happened in the CBC is that the people who have
been most supportive of Aristide have earned a great deal
of respect among those in the Black Caucus,”
Dalley said. “Conyers has earned a great deal of respect,
and people are loath to take him on. It’s not just
seniority, it’s seniority plus respect for the leadership
he has generally taken.”

With CBC support weakening, only one member, Rep. Maxine
Waters (D-Calif.), attended the bicentennial celebrations.

“The people who did attend were in effect supporting
Aristide,” said Morrell. “Enough political violence has
occurred that they were standing there with a dictator. You
can say, ‘Well, this is a poor country celebrating an
important marker in history,’ but you can also celebrate
that in a different way.”

E-mails sent throughout the CBC highlighted recent public
comments by Aristide in which he portrayed the arrival of
various dignitaries as support for his government.

All heads of state in the region declined to attend. Only
South African president Thabo Mbeki showed up, and his
motorcade was fired on as he traveled with Aristide; his
knees shook visibly as gunshots were heard while he stood
by Aristide during a speech. Upon returning to South
Africa, Mbeki also has faced an outcry for attending.



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