18894: Burnhman: Globe and Mail: For Aristide, power is the bottom line (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Those who were close to Haiti's embattled leader mourn a loss of innocence,
PAUL KNOX writes

By PAUL KNOX
Friday, February 20, 2004 - Page A17


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- In his tumultuous first term in office, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide learned two key lessons, according to people who have known him for
years.

One was that no matter what your political goals are, you can't achieve them
without holding on to power. The other was that for a poor, powerless
Caribbean country, there's no substitute for influential friends in
Washington.

Both lessons are being highlighted this week as Haiti's embattled president
prepares for a delegation including Canadian, U.S. and other envoys while
besieged by a political and military crisis.

Mr. Aristide's response to armed rebellion and political protest is deeply
coloured by the army coup d'état that overthrew him in 1991, said Patrick
Elie, a former cabinet minister and chief of security who has known him
since 1986.

The former priest was deposed even though he had won overwhelming support in
an election the previous year, Mr. Elie recalled. Only in 1994, after
extensive lobbying, did U.S. president Bill Clinton send 20,000 U.S. troops
to restore him to office.

"He realized that he had all the people with him, and yet that coup
happened," Mr. Elie said of his old friend this week. "Not only happened,
but it lasted for three years."

While in exile in Washington, the Montreal-educated Mr. Aristide forged
alliances to combat wealthy Haitian and U.S. foes, said Leslie Voltaire, a
cabinet minister who accompanied him during the exile years. "The President
learned that in Washington you pay lobbyists, and you have friends who are
lobbyists," Mr. Voltaire said.

One of the most prominent advocates for Mr. Aristide's government in the
United States is a prominent Washington lawyer, Ira Kurzban. In
Port-au-Prince, posters at a protest march Sunday warned U.S. officials
against being swayed in favour of Mr. Aristide by paid persuaders.

As Mr. Aristide confronts both armed and peaceful opposition, a central
question is whether there is anything left of the slum priest who won
Haitians' hearts during the eighties with courage in the face of repression
and talk of a fairer society for all.

In an interview this week, Mr. Aristide said the answer is yes. "I am
investing in human beings," he said, adding his government has built more
than 100 schools, tackled illiteracy and built a medical school despite
curbs on foreign aid.

But others say that for the President, power has imposed its own priorities.
"I don't think he has changed in his vision for the country," said Mr. Elie.
"But there's been a loss of innocence, or ideals."

Mr. Aristide, he continued, is "surrounded by people who think that if you
throw money at a problem you will solve it. . . . If the Haitian people have
some resentment about the regime, it's that particular one."

A source who sees the President regularly, and is impressed by his
intelligence and intense concentration, said he has difficulty using those
qualities to make bold decisions that bring about change.

"The bottom line has always been power since I've known him," the source
said. "As time goes on and the opportunities he's had have been frittered
away, I've come to think more and more that the bottom line is the only
line."

Gérard Pierre-Charles, a former political ally, said Mr. Aristide has
squandered a chance to lead education, land and other reforms. "He hasn't
left his mark on the country," he said. "He turned out to be quite a meagre
personality."

In the current crisis, Mr. Aristide's cabinet includes hard-liners and
champions of negotiation. "There are hawks and there are doves," said Mr.
Voltaire, the minister responsible for the estimated one million Haitians
living abroad.

The President remains above the fray, he said. "He is very calm when the
kitchen is hot."

Born in 1953 in tiny Port-Salut on Haiti's southwest coast, Mr. Aristide
moved to Port-au-Prince as a child with his mother and sister. He trained as
a Roman Catholic priest in the Salesian order and studied in the Dominican
Republic, Israel, and at the University of Montreal.

He won a reputation as a political firebrand from the time he returned to
Haiti in 1985, in the final months of the dictatorship of Jean-Claude (Baby
Doc) Duvalier.

After repeated conflict with the Salesians over political activity, he was
expelled from the order in 1988. He resigned the priesthood in 1995 and
married Mildred Trouillot, a Haitian-American lawyer, in 1996. They have two
daughters.

Opposition leaders accuse Mr. Aristide of tolerating widespread corruption
to keep his grip on power.

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