[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
18097: haitiinfo: Aristide's Brutal Tactics Further Inflame Haitians (fwd)
From: Haiti Info <hainfo@starband.net>
Wall Street Journal January 23, 2004
THE AMERICAS
Aristide's Brutal Tactics Further Inflame Haitians
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
"You had armed, pro-government people shooting at demonstrators and so on.
I
myself was surrounded by those individuals with the masks, their faces
covered,
heavily armed, who were setting up positions along the city high up waiting
for
the demonstrators to come by. So on those days there is a lot of rock
throwing,
people driving around in pickup trucks with the guns. And it can get pretty
scary."
That was the Miami Herald's Michael Ottey on National Public Radio Monday
reporting from Port-au-Prince. The shooters are called chimeres, Mr. Ottey
explained. "That's the term that's used, but that translates to thugs
basically.
And these are individuals who support [President Jean Bertrand] Aristide.
Some
say that they're paid by Aristide for their support . . . you know, he
condemns
the violence on both sides, but these guys still roam around with weapons."
The last time a Haitian government used this kind of force against its own
people the U.S. military intervened. The year was 1994 and Gen. Raoul
Cedras had
forcibly removed President Aristide from power. Mr. Aristide's supporters
in
Washington argued that Mr. Cedras was violently purging his opposition and
that
U.S. military assistance would save Haiti's fledgling democracy. Now Mr.
Aristide is waging his own jihad against his opponents to squelch dissent.
Expression of that dissent has ballooned across Haiti since Dec. 5, when
student protestors were attacked by government supporters. In that
incident, the
university's rector who went to mediate had his legs broken with an iron
bar.
Mr. Aristide's use of government resources to put down dissent is also
becoming
less discreet. His opponents report that during one protest march armed
government supporters emerged from the government-owned telephone company
and
that they have been seen driving around in public-utility vehicles.
This week the Catholic Church, an important mediator in the crisis,
withdrew a
proposal it had on the table for a negotiated settlement with Mr. Aristide.
Most
of his opposition, which now includes many groups that once supported him,
have
also withdrawn from a negotiating stance, demanding instead his
resignation. The
opposition wants the U.S. government to support its position on the grounds
that
the systematic intimidation and brutality that is being employed by the
president to achieve absolute power is flatly undemocratic.
Opposition leaders believe that the longer the U.S. clings to the notion
that
negotiation with Mr. Aristide is an option, the more potentially flammable
the
situation grows and the more chaotic his eventual removal will be.
Mr. Aristide's election victory in 2000 was notable because voter turnout
was
under 10%. Independent international observers judged the 2000 senate
elections
to be fraudulent, concluding that his opponents were right in their
allegation
that his Lavalas Party openly stole seats. On Jan. 12, parliament's term
expired
and due to the political logjam there were no new elections. Mr. Aristide
is now
ruling by decree.
The collapse of the democracy and the deteriorating economic conditions
have
swelled the opposition. Far from the few "light-skinned oligarchs" whom Mr.
Aristide's supporters once claimed were his only opponents, the democratic
opposition now looks like, well, Haiti. Mr. Ottey described the
demonstrators he
observed: "They're students. They're members of civil society. They're
church-based groups."
The Group of 184, a coalition of civic organizations hoping to promote
democratic change, is a key opposition leader. It says waves of students,
teachers, lawyers, doctors, churches, businesses and popular organizations
are
fast joining the ranks of Aristide opponents. One of the country's most
important peasant groups -- based in the Central Plateau and numbering well
over
100,000 -- was once closely allied to Mr. Aristide. Today it is a prominent
critic.
"Never in our history have we had such unity across classes," Andy Apaid,
the
titular leader of 184 told me by phone from Port-au-Prince this week. "The
population is longing for good governance," he says, adding that estimates
of
crowds marching for an Aristide resignation have now reached the tens of
thousands. "But because of the intimidation this mobilization is only the
tip of
the iceberg.
If the U.S. would show some leadership, we could turn this boat around."
According to Mr. Apaid, 184 worked for a solution that would have left Mr.
Aristide in office but would have allowed for a "neutral" government chosen
by a
mix of political interests. Mr. Aristide's response was to raise the level
of
violence, he says. Now, as Mr. Ottey noted on NPR, protesters are "saying
that
they want the president to resign because he's corrupt, he's trampled on
the
constitution."
On that count there seems to be little dispute. The U.S. State Department
has
issued this official statement: "We call on President Aristide to act to
end the
violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations by Haitian
government-sponsored
gangs. President Aristide must exercise responsible leadership and respect
the
fundamental rights of all Haitians including opposition parties and civil
society."
The European Union has a similar stance. It says that Haiti "cannot remain
indifferent to the reprisals which have been carried out or announced
against
members of civil society, the opposition, the universities and the press."
Even Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel, a prominent member of
Washington's
Congressional Black Caucus, seems to have lost the faith in Mr. Aristide he
once
had. Mr. Rangel's chief of staff, George Dalley, told the newspaper The
Hill
that his boss had met with Mr. Aristide to let him "know that his support
in
Washington was deteriorating due to continuing reports of problems,
corruption
and drug trafficking. He also said, "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."
That's the same conclusion that a majority of Haitians, victims of state
violence and poverty-inducing corruption, have reached. A U.S. recognition
of
Mr. Aristide's bad faith would go a long way in helping the destitute and
troubled nation begin to find a path toward peace.
****************************************************************************
*****