17843: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Four men on varying paths press for ouster of Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Jan. 11, 2004

HAITI
Four men on varying paths press for ouster of Aristide
Four opposition leaders with separate agendas want to force out a president
they say has let Haiti down.
BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY
mottey@herald.com




HIGH PROFILE: Pedestrians pass a mural depicting Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Creole words mean 'restitution for Haiti.' CARL
JUSTE/HERALD STAFF


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- They don't necessarily see eye to eye, but Haiti's
four key opposition leaders appear more emboldened than ever in their
campaign against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Since university students and faculty members were attacked by Aristide
supporters on Dec. 5, the anti-Aristide movement has picked up steam and now
sees itself as on the brink of forcing the former Catholic priest from
office.

The four men who lead the major streams of opposition to Aristide are now
urging followers to protest, paralyze the capital through labor strikes, and
speak out against a government they say is trampling constitutional
freedoms, violating human rights and driving Haiti deeper down a path of
poverty and despair.

Edouard Paultre is a soft-spoken but determined man who heads a church-based
group that he says has had it with Aristide. Rosny Desroches leads a
coalition of faith-based organizations and workers unions.

Andy Apaid is the public face of a coalition that includes some 300 groups
from the public and private sectors. And Evans Paul is a politician well
known for his activism against former dictators.

GOVERNMENT VIEW

The government dismisses them as elitists in a nation of poor people -- the
poorest in the Western Hemisphere -- and a disloyal opposition bent on
toppling a president democratically elected to a five-year term that ends in
2006.

''Those people are the real actors of the class fight that is going on in
this country,'' said government spokesman Mario Dupuy. ``They are trying to
obtain through violence what they could not obtain through the ballot. The
only way they can ascend to power is by violence and coup.''

Yet they have so many differences among themselves that when South African
President Thabo Mbeki wanted to meet with the opposition last week, he was
forced to hold separate meetings with Apaid, Paul and others.

Indeed, no one leader leads the fight in Haiti against Aristide. And despite
the president's views to the contrary, his opponents now seem to spring from
all walks of Haiti's life: rich, poor, young, old, black, mulatto, and many
more in between.

That diversity was evident during protests last week, when thousands of
Aristide opponents took to the streets in the face of danger, as heavily
armed Aristide backers took up firing positions around the capital, roamed
the streets and assaulted demonstrators.

In interviews with The Herald, the four opposition leaders said there is no
turning them back. But they seemed to point to different paths.

ROSNY DESROCHES

Seated on the porch of his secluded home in the wealthy suburb of
Petionville, Desroches, 60, a former education minister, said he never had
any love for Aristide.

''I saw that he was committed to violence,'' said Desroches, head of the
Civil Society Initiative, a group of 20 institutions and associations that
includes churches, five chambers of commerce and two workers unions.

Yet Desroches, unlike the three other opposition leaders, said he believes
that Aristide should be allowed to complete his presidency in order to
preserve democracy. ''I would prefer he finish his term,'' Desroches said.
``I know it's not a majority opinion today.''

A former Roman Catholic priest beloved by the nation's poor, Aristide won
election in 1990 as Haiti's first democratically elected president after
years of dictatorships but was ousted in a military coup less than a year
into his term. After years in exile garnering international support, he
returned to power in 1994 on the back of a U.S. military intervention.

Haitians looked to their returned leader to improve their lives and end
repression. But lives in Haiti did anything but improve. Haiti's currency
lost half its value. The economy worsened. Unemployment increased. Poverty
deepened. Drug trafficking became a mainstay.

With all this, Aristide has seen his support erode dramatically, even as he
continues to maintain that he enjoys the support of a majority of the
Haitian people. (There are no trustworthy public-opinion polls in this
nation of 7.5 million people.)

Desroches stressed that his view that Aristide serve out his term is a
personal one, not necessarily shared by members of his own group. The goal
of the Civil Society Initiative, established two years ago, is to reinforce
democracy, the rule of law, economic progress and social justice, he said.

It counts among its members the National Confederation of Haitian Teachers
-- the largest teachers union in the country, with 9,000 members -- and one
of the largest private-school organizations, with 6,000 member schools.
Eighty-five percent of the students in Haiti attend private school.

''Today [Aristide] only has the support of people who are benefiting from
his regime and people he can hire for demonstrations,'' Desroches said.
``What also makes him very confident is the support he has from the
international community, including the United States.''

EDOUARD PAULTRE

Edouard Paultre, 48, the secretary general of the Protestant Federation of
Haiti, said he initially supported Aristide's return to power as a victory
for democracy. But he said his group later ''lost all confidence . . . on
Aristide'' because the president broke his promises to rule democratically.

''As a method of governing, President Aristide adopted corruption and
violence and has armed a lot of gangs. His method of governing is not
compatible with the method of government we're looking for,'' said Paultre,
whose 16-year-old group is made up of churches and missions representing 60
percent of Haiti's Protestant community.

Instead of working for reconciliation, Aristide works for division,
employing the repressive methods of former dictatorships, Paultre added.

''Aristide has never had a fire for justice,'' he said. ``There has never
been an investigation of political assassinations. Instead, he has
surrounded himself with people who have dealt with the illegal and corrupted
world.''

Paultre said that members of his group have been attacked by pro-Aristide
agents with guns, knives and rocks, and that Aristide never condemned those
acts of violence.

EVANS PAUL

Evans Paul, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince and a leader of the Democratic
Convergence, a Washington-supported alliance of 14 right-of-center and
social democratic parties, said the only demand on his group's table is that
Aristide resign.

''Leaving him in power for two years is to prolong the suffering of the
masses,'' said Paul, 48. ``The press is persecuted, political parties are
persecuted, leaders are not free to move about, and students are also
persecuted.''

A social democrat and former Aristide supporter, Paul said Aristide has not
respected any of the accords he made with opponents over the years. ''We no
longer have any confidence in this person, Aristide,'' he said.

Paul also said his headquarters has been set on fire by pro-Aristide
militants and claimed that 20 members of his political party have been
assassinated during Aristide's rule.

And Haiti's police, instead of protecting the rights of citizens, have
turned into a virtual gang that terrorizes those who oppose Aristide, he
added.

''With such behavior, leaving Aristide in power for two more years is to
push the country into civil war,'' he said.

ANDY APAID

Andy Apaid, 51, a spokesman for Group 184, an alliance of nongovernment
organizations and institutions that started with 184 members and now has
about 300, said his group no longer favors negotiations toward a compromise
with Aristide.

''For three years, we have been in a different position than the opposition,
as a civil society movement asking for a reasonable compromise with Aristide
remaining as president to give hope to the democratic process,'' said the
wealthy U.S.-born businessman.

``Throughout those three years, President Aristide refused to make the
necessary concessions at the level to ensure good elections. He always
maintained his concessions below the limit where he felt he could take back
what he gave. He never went over the bar of assurance.''

Apaid said that with the deterioration of human rights and freedom of
expression, the persecution of journalists and restrictions on the right to
assemble, Aristide ``broke the camel's back, so civil society joined the
position that he should leave.''

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