20614: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Aristide spent millions to lobby (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Mar. 20, 2004


Aristide spent millions to lobby

BY FRANK DAVIES

fdavies@herald.com


WASHINGTON - The Haitian government spent almost $5 million on lobbyists and
lawyers, including a Miami firm, since former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide returned to power in 2000, according to reports filed with the
Justice Department.

Aristide's critics have called such expenditures exorbitant for the
hemisphere's poorest nation. But the use of $1.2 million in U.S. taxpayer
funds to help Aristide's opposition is also receiving scrutiny.

The twin controversies illustrate the gulf that exists between the allies
and foes of Aristide, who resigned and left Haiti Feb. 29.

How the money was spent on both sides of the divide has caused a debate
marked by rancor and suspicion.

Ira Kurzban's Miami law firm earned $3 million from the Aristide government
for legal work since 2000, according to the Justice Department records.
Other lobbying shops reported earnings of $1.8 million to put Aristide's
case before U.S. government officials, diplomats from other countries and
the media.

Kurzban said those activities were needed to deal with ``the reality that
Aristide had become a political football between Democrats and Republicans
in Washington. We had to address that.''

Much of the money for legal representation paid for efforts to recover
assets hidden overseas by the Duvalier family that once ruled Haiti and to
build cases against human rights abusers, Kurzban added.

The Justice Department records showed part of the money also went to lobby
for unfreezing U.S. aid to the Aristide government, cut off after disputed
elections in 2000.

Some Haiti experts question that level of spending. Robert Maguire, who
directs the Haiti program at Trinity College in Washington, said some small
countries pay for lobbyists to get better access in Washington when they
should beef up their embassies instead. ''Hiring people who get a paycheck
to make your case limits your credibility,'' Maguire said. ``Building up an
embassy with professional diplomats . . . is more effective.''

For the most recent six-month reporting period ending in June 2003,
Aristide's government spent at least $945,227 for legal work and lobbying.
In contrast, the neighboring Dominican Republic spent a mere $171,000.

Haiti also hired an Oakland firm that includes former Rep. Ron Dellums, once
a powerful member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a Washington shop
led by Hazel Ross-Robinson. Her husband, Randall Robinson, founded the
advocacy group TransAfrica.

Also paid was the powerhouse Washington firm of Patton Boggs.

On the other side of the political fence, the GOP-linked International
Republican Institute used $1.2 million that it received from the U.S. Agency
for International Development to arrange ''party building'' seminars for
members of the Haitian opposition in the Dominican Republic and Miami.

Like its Democratic counterpart, the IRI is a nonprofit group that tries to
promote democracy with training sessions for political parties, labor unions
and civic groups. It has programs in more than 50 nations.

But Democratic critics, led by Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, have
complained that IRI staffers with ties to Haiti's former military rulers
worked with the opposition to undermine Aristide.

Maguire and Alex Dupuy, a Haiti expert at Wesleyan University, said the
close relationship between U.S. officials and the opposition's umbrella
Democratic Convergence emboldened it to refuse to share power with Aristide
as a bloody revolt in February spread through Haiti.

''In a sense, the U.S. bought their allegiance by pampering them,'' Maguire
said. He added that the opposition may have received messages from friends
in Washington to not negotiate with Aristide.

IRI officials say their efforts in Haiti mirrored work in other countries,
have been above board and will stand up to any congressional scrutiny.

''In all our work with the opposition, we've always emphasized in sessions
that you can't just be anti-Aristide,'' IRI spokesman Thayer Scott said.
``The whole idea is to build democratic institutions.''

Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, the administration's point man
on Latin America, told a Senate committee last week that IRI vice president
Georges Fauriol ``spent numerous phone calls with opposition leaders trying
to convince them to join in this power-sharing deal.''

With the departure of Aristide, his backers and the IRI now share one thing
in common -- uncertainty over future finances.

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