20332: (Hermantin) Palm Beach Post- Q&A with Haiti's new prime minister (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Q&A with Haiti's new prime minister

By John Lantigua, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 11, 2004



PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Interviewed at Miami International Airport and on
the plane to Port-au-Prince Wednesday, Gerard Latortue, the man selected to
be Haiti's new prime minister, spoke to The Palm Beach Post about major
issues facing his embattled and impoverished nation.


Q. Former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who was forced from power Feb.
29 and sent into exile in Africa, says he is still president of Haiti and
his supporters say he should return. What do you say?

A. Aristide is a thing of the past as far as I'm concerned. He will say all
kinds of things and you can't believe him. You never could. As for his
followers, when we start to give them better lives we will make progress in
cutting the strings that connect them to him. I want to work with the people
in (Aristide's) Lavalas Party. I want them to know that.


Q. Does that include the armed street gangs, or

chimeres
, who were aligned with Aristide?

A. Yes. Listen, many of the people in those gangs, they want jobs, too. If
you have a job, you don't have time to be a chimere.


Q. You'll need money and people willing to invest. Where will that come
from?

A. To begin, foreign governments cut off much of their foreign aid to Haiti
because of things Aristide did. When I get to Haiti much of that money will
start to come to Haiti again.


Q. But you'll still need private investment. Won't it be hard to attract
investment and create jobs with all the street violence? What can you do
about that violence?

A. I think it's good that the U.S. Marines in Haiti have announced they will
start to disarm people with illegal weapons. But I think it is very
important that they do it in cooperation with the Haitian police. If they
don't, they could antagonize many people in Haiti.


Q. You also have armed rebels, like former provincial police chief Guy
Philippe, who helped force Aristide out. He promised to lay down his arms,
but hasn't. The Bush administration says Philippe should have nothing to do
with any future government. What do you say?

A. Guy Philippe was one of those who helped reestablish democracy in Haiti.
I will speak to him just as I will speak to others there. But yes, the
rebels should disarm. If I have to go and disarm them myself, I will.


Q. Many of those Philippe troops want to see the Haitian army reestablished.
It was abolished by Aristide after he was returned to power by the Clinton
administration in 1994 and has a history of coups and human rights
violations. Should the army be reestablished?

A. According to the Haitian constitution, the country has an army. When
Aristide abolished it by decree, that was illegal. But it is also true that
the Haitian people have very bad memories of the army. It has been guilty,
as you say, of human rights violations. We cannot say right now that there
is going to be an army. Possibly in the future and then we will have to
decide what kind of army it will be, and who will be in it, so that it isn't
the army of the past.

john_lantigua@pbpost.com

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