20841: radtimes: Haiti official rejects U.S. muzzle (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Haiti official rejects U.S. muzzle

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak25.html

March 25, 2004
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- U.S. Ambassador James Foley on Monday passed the
word to provisional Prime Minister Gerard Latortue that his superiors in
the Bush administration were not happy about language used by the head of
Haiti's new government. Latortue refers to his country's rebels as
''freedom fighters.'' That designation, the prime minister responded, was
deserved by patriots who had ousted as president the oppressive tyrant,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The exchange reflected the delicate relationship between Port-au-Prince and
Washington at this new stage of Haiti's tortured history. Both the office
and person of Latortue, a 69-year-old retired United Nations development
official, are guarded by armed U.S. State Department security personnel. He
needs massive American help for this desperately poor country. But
Latortue, no politician and an outspoken technocrat, does not welcome U.S.
tutelage about his language or his policies.

The Americans are back in Haiti a decade after threats of massive U.S.
force restored Aristide. This time, however, Aristide would have been
overthrown even if U.S. Marines never arrived. The prime minister is
correct in calling the rebels freedom fighters.

This was my first visit here since 1993, before Aristide's restoration, and
Haiti is even more a Third World backwater. The radical president's reign
left a country without electricity, passable roads or public schools, with
a devastated economy and, according to Latortue, a looted treasury.
Interviewed in his office, the prime minister told me: ''The public finance
is in crisis. They [the Aristide regime] took everything they could from
the reserve of the country.'' His estimate: ''over $1 billion'' stolen in
four weeks.

During Aristide's last days, well-armed gangs supporting him went on a
rampage of destruction and looting across the country. It continued after
his departure and before foreign troops arrived, with pro-Aristide
demonstrators sweeping downtown Port-au-Prince to trash parked autos on
March 10.

When Caribbean neighbor Jamaica gave asylum to Aristide two weeks ago, an
infuriated Latortue immediately recalled Haiti's ambassador to Kingston. A
second return of Aristide as a free man is ruled out. Boniface Alexandre,
the Supreme Court chief justice who became provisional president upon
Aristide's resignation under Haiti's constitution, is a careful jurist who
measures his words -- except when it comes to Aristide. ''He cannot come
back to Haiti,'' Alexandre told me.

Latortue's simultaneous reliance on and independence from the Americans
were demonstrated last weekend when U.S. military helicopters transported
him to Gonaives, where the anti-Aristide rebellion began. He met ''freedom
fighters,'' in coats and ties for the occasion but disdained by the State
Department. ''They are not thugs,'' Latortue told me. ''They are people who
have suffered from the dictatorial practices of Aristide.''

The boycott by American officials of the leader of anti-Aristide rebels is
a small part of the American syndrome that includes lingering support for
Aristide within the U.S. political community. Latortue's words to me might
well be heeded in Washington: ''We are committed to not only democracy but
also development. You would not have total democracy here.''

I found the fear among many Haitians that John Kerry as president (under
Congressional Black Caucus pressure) will return Aristide. The Democratic
candidate should consider the experience of Mary Louise Baker, for 33 years
co-owner of a five-building apparel factory in the Cite Soleil
(pro-Aristide) slum -- employing 700 people and feeding 7,000.

On Feb. 27, two days before Aristide left, some 200 heavily armed
pro-Aristide gang members entered the Baker plant to loot and destroy
equipment, leaving it an empty shell. I asked Baker whether she will
rebuild. ''I will have to see what happens here, whether you Americans send
Aristide back again,'' she replied. Such widespread doubt stalls economic
recovery for this tragic land.

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