19488: Lemieux: PA NEWS (UK): Haiti Prepares for More Bloodshed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Sun 29 Feb 2004

8:32pm (UK)
Haiti Prepares for More Bloodshed

By Tom Whitehead and Pat Hurst, PA News


The deployment of US Marines on Haiti’s violent streets
today after President Aristide’s hasty departure marks
another milestone in the bloody recent history of the
troubled Caribbean nation.

President George Bush called it “the beginning of a new
chapter in the country’s history” as he sent in the troops.

But Haiti’s eight million people, the vast majority living
in grinding poverty, have seen many false dawns.

In fact the sudden exile of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s, the
country’s first freely elected president in its 200 years
of independence, was as predictable as night follows day in
a nation that has seen more than 30 coups.

One president was poisoned, one was blown up in his palace,
one was dismembered by a mob, nine fled and six were
overthrown.

Aristide, the former priest who ministered to slum-dwellers
and was the hope of the hopeless in the hemisphere’s
poorest nation, at least escaped with his life to a mystery
location.

Bloodshed on the streets, centuries of unrest and a
population in abject poverty – life in Haiti does not sit
easy with the rosy Caribbean image.

Lying in the heart of one of the world’s most popular
holiday destinations, this small nation is once again at
war with itself and facing a bleak dawn.

Sun-soaked beaches, palm trees swaying in the Caribbean
breeze and the cliched laid-back lifestyle that all form
the tourist trap have been a distant memory of Haiti’s
shores for many decades.

With rebel forces threatening to topple the government and
at least 60 dead in two weeks of bloody conflict, the
reputation of a relatively young nation is at rock bottom
yet again.

So why has Haiti suffered while its neighbours flourish
from millions of tourists every year and romantic images
around the world?

Charles Arthur, director of the Haiti Support Group and
experienced observer, said: “The reason there is so much
political turmoil and bloodshed is inextricably linked to
the manifest imbalance of the distribution of wealth in the
country.

“The basic cause behind all the disputes comes from the
fact we have a tiny percentage of the population who are
enormously rich, squeezing and sucking dry the population
for generation after generation.”

And Mr Arthur, an election observer in Haiti in 2000 and a
political analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, has
a valid point.

Of the near eight million population, 2% are “staggeringly
rich” and control most of the country’s economy.

“They cream off anything and everything that Haiti can
produce. They control the imports and exports and the
coffee trade,” Mr Arthur said.

Around 5%-10% of the population are deemed middle class and
tend to be government officials or administrators.

The remainder live in abject poverty and can be divided in
to two groups – peasant farmers who scrape a meagre living
off the land that is nothing more than self-sufficiency and
those who left for the cities and live in absolute squalor
doing anything they can to survive, including crime and
prostitution.

The international community has not helped with the current
suspension of aid worth 500 million dollars (£300 million).

The upshot is Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the
Western hemisphere, whose mainstay is basic agriculture
with no support from government.

The picture deteriorates further amid a long history of
political turmoil and violent upheaval.

Ever since it was put on the world map by Christopher
Columbus in 1492, Haiti has been plagued by revolt and
violence.

A huge slaves uprising led to the country gaining
independence from the French in 1804 and became the first
black republic to free itself from its colonial masters.

Unrest marred most of its new life and more than three
decades of dictatorship and then military rule ended in
1990 when Jean-Bertrand Aristide took power.

Aristide headed the Lavalas movement, which emerged in 1986
and meant, for the first time, the vast majority in Haiti
had a voice.

He lost power between 1996 and 2000 but his return was
marked with heavy criticism and allegations of corruption
and human rights abuse.

Ominous military figures of old have emerged in the latest
conflict and rebels control large swathes in the north.

Paige Wilhite, a Haiti researcher for Amnesty International
and a UN human rights observer there between 1993 and 1994,
said the problem is the country has never had the chance to
grow.

“Haiti is historically a country where the state
institutions, including the judiciary, police force, army
and prison system, were never intended for anything other
than a repressive arm of whatever government was in place,”
she said.

“It never developed as an independently functioning
institution that could be useful in protecting human
rights.

“Haiti does not have a history at all in democracy or rule
of law. This (uprising) is what happens when a state has
never been properly created, does not get the support it
needs and starts to crumble before our eyes.

“The future is quite terrifying. The rebels control much of
the north and notorious military figures from Haiti’s past
have emerged. These are the worst possible people who could
emerge in terms of respect for human rights.”

Haiti also has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in
the world – up to 10% of the adult population is HIV
positive.

Add also the, unfair and exaggerated, image of voodoo in
the West where stories of black magic and sacrifice mask a
genuine and serious religion, and the country is never
going to be top of the list for tourist hotspots.

Mr Arthur said: “There is always the tourism dream of
following the great strides other Caribbean countries have
made from tourism.

“But there is virtually no tourism in Haiti. No-one comes.
It does not have the kind of infrastructure of its
neighbours.”

However the author, who has written three books on Haiti,
believes there is potential.

The country is relatively untouched and for the more
adventurous traveller who steers clear of the package
tours, the beauty and relative wildness of Haiti could be a
big attraction.

And it’s not as if its neighbours are all shining bright.
Crime rates are much higher in Jamaica and there is
political unrest in the Dominican Republic next door which
some observers fear could undermine its democracy.

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail.
http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools