19218: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Who's Who (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(AP, 25 Feb 04)


   Key figures in Haiti's crisis:

   JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE:
   A former slum priest, Aristide was extremely popular when he became
Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990. The army ousted him in 1991,
brutalizing and murdering his supporters until the United States intervened
in 1994. Aristide was re-elected in 2000 but has lost support since flawed
legislative elections that year led international donors to freeze millions
of dollars in aid.
   Opponents accuse him of breaking promises to help the poor, allowing
corruption fueled by drug-trafficking and masterminding attacks on
opponents by armed gangs -- charges the president denies.
   Besieged by a rebellion, Aristide has accepted a settlement plan
supported by the United States, other Western Hemisphere countries and the
European Union.

    ANDY APAID JR.:
   The most outspoken leader of the opposition coalition, Apaid is a
factory owner born in the United States. His family fled Haiti under
Francois Duvalier, or "Papa Doc," who ruled from 1957 to 1971.
   Favoring pressed pastel shirts and gold-rimmed glasses, Apaid looks like
a Miami businessman but says he is totally Haitian at heart.
   "I am just as much a part of this country as anyone," Apaid, in his
early 50s, said recently. "That's why I am saying we must choose another
path for the country."
   But without a constitutional amendment, he will never become president
because of his dual nationality. He has rejected the U.S.-backed settlement
plan, saying Aristide must leave office.

    EVANS PAUL:
   Another top figure in the opposition coalition, Paul is a former mayor
of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, who was in hiding from the brutal
military regime during much of his term until U.S. troops arrived in 1994.
   Paul, who is in his late 40s, was head of a center-left coalition that
nominated Aristide for president in 1990. Paul managed Aristide's
successful election campaign but broke ranks after Aristide left him out of
his inner circle.
   A playwright and journalist when dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled
Haiti, Paul was jailed for opposing him.

    GUY PHILIPPE:
   The 35-year-old leader of a motley band of rebels threatening to take
over Haiti, Philippe joined the revolt a week after it was started in
Gonaives by a street gang that used to terrorize Aristide's opponents and
turned on Haiti's president after its leader was assassinated.
   Philippe came from neighboring Dominican Republic, where he fled in 2000
amid charges he was plotting a coup.
   Philippe was born to peasants near the provincial town of Jeremie and is
a former army officer who training at a military academy in Ecuador when
Aristide disbanded the army. He returned to Haiti and was named by Aristide
as former assistant police chief for northern Haiti.
   Haiti's military has a history of ruling with brutality, but Philippe
says soldiers should stay in the barracks and insists that, under his
command, things would change.

   DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN:
   The French foreign minister who took the spotlight when he squared off
against Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.N. Security Council
debates before the Iraq war, de Villepin is now working with Powell to find
a solution to the crisis in Haiti, France's former colony. De Villepin is
trying to arrange separate meetings in Paris with Aristide and opposition
leaders later in the week.

    ROGER NORIEGA:
   The State Department's top official for Latin America, Noriega is
working closely with multinational bodies, such as the Organization of
American States and Caribbean Community, to find a peaceful, democratic
solution for Haiti.
   Noriega is a seasoned Latin hand who has singled out Fidel Castro for
destablishing democratic governments and called on Castro's friend,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to observe the rule of law. The U.S. czar
for Latin America was Sen. Jesse Helms' chief aide on the region before
being appointed ambassador to the Organization of American States. Last
year, with the support of conservative groups, he became the first
assistant secretary of state for Latin America to win Senate approval since
1996.

    BUTEUR METAYER:
   The street gang leader who started Haiti's rebellion freely admits that
he used to go around terrorizing Aristide's opponents. Metayer says
Aristide armed his Cannibal Army gang for that purpose. The gang turned on
Aristide after gang leader Amiot Metayer, Buteur's brother, was
assassinated last year, accusing the government of silencing him to prevent
him giving damaging information about Aristide. Aristide denies any
involvement with the gang. Buteur, who wears bands of bullets across his
chest, has small ambitions: Last week he declared himself president of
Haiti's central Artibonite district. Like the other rebels, he says
Aristide has to go before he'll lay down his arms.

    LOUIS-JODEL CHAMBLAIN:
   This sergeant in the now-disbanded Haitian army headed death squads in
1987 that intimidated voters before the army aborted November elections in
a bloodbath of voters. After the army ousted Aristide in 1991, he became
co-leader of the feared FRAPH death squad that is blamed for the murder,
torture and maiming of hundreds of Haitians, particularly Aristide's slum
supporters. He fled to the Dominican Republic when U.S. troops intervened
in 1994, and returned to the country two weeks ago to join the rebellion.
Chamblain has been convicted, in absentia, and received two sentences of
life imprisonment for his role in a 1994 raid on Gonaives' Raboteau slum --
where Metayer holds sway today -- and the 1993 assassination of Aristide
financier Antoine Izmery.