21060: Esser: HAITI-U.S.: Powell to Visit Latest Occupation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Inter Press Service News Agency
http://ipsnews.net

April 2, 2004

HAITI-U.S.:
Powell to Visit Latest Occupation
Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 2 (IPS) - Fresh from visiting U.S.-occupied Iraq and
Afghanistan, Secretary of State Colin Powell will set down in
Port-au-Prince on Monday to check out the Bush administration's
latest charge, Haiti, where Washington helped oust the democratically
elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, less than two months ago.

The one-day visit, the first by a cabinet-level official since the
administration of President George W. Bush began sending a contingent
of 2,000 Marines as part of a U.S.-led multinational force (MIFH)
that also includes some 1,600 troops from France, Canada and Chile,
is billed as a morale-booster for the soldiers and an effort to
highlight progress in stabilising the Caribbean country.

The latter purpose may be a bit difficult to achieve, according to
long-time Haiti observers here who note that, while superficially
quiet, the country has virtually no functioning government, and much
of its territory outside the capital is now ruled by armed rebels and
gang leaders.

''Everything has collapsed'', according to Jocelyn McCalla, director
of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights in New York. ''There is
no functioning state, and even the (anti-Aristide political)
opposition is very concerned that the order that existed before
Aristide was first elected in 1990 is being reinstated''.

Haiti was ruled by dictators Francois (''Papa Doc'') Duvalier and his
son Jean-Claude (''Baby Doc'') from 1956 to 1986 and by short-lived,
unstable governments until 1990.

While that might be a long-term concern, U.S. officials have
themselves not been particularly happy with the performance of the
transitional government that it helped install after Aristide's exile
aboard a specially chartered U.S. jet Feb. 29.

They have also been displeased by the refusal of Haiti's Caribbean
neighbours -- who Washington had hoped would also contribute
peacekeepers -- to recognise the new government, although officially
the State Department insists it is not too concerned.

''There's a lot of progress that is being made in Haiti by the new
government there with the support of the international community, and
we would hope that the CARICOM nations could be part of that'', said
spokesman Richard Boucher earlier this week.

Led by Jamaica, the members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM),
which, at Washington's behest, had been trying for months to mediate
a settlement to a long-running feud between Aristide and his
political opposition, have expressed frustration that Washington
never consulted with them in advance about removing Aristide.

They have asked that the United Nations General Assembly formally
investigate the circumstances of his flight from Haiti, which
Aristide, who was taken to the Central African Republic (CAR), has
claimed was actually a kidnapping, a charge strenuously denied by the
Bush administration.

Earlier this week, lawyers for Aristide who, with the help of members
of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) made his way from CAR to
Kingston two weeks ago, filed a lawsuit against a number of French
and U.S. officials in Paris who he says played key roles in arranging
his ouster and exile. They say they will launch a similar suit in
U.S. courts in coming weeks.

That Jamaica agreed to host the ousted leader for a period of up to
10 weeks has also angered Washington, despite the fact that Prime
Minister PJ Patterson instructed Aristide -- who maintains his
resignation was coerced and hence invalid -- not to comment on
Haitian politics during his stay on the island.

U.S. officials and their counterparts in the interim government have
expressed concern that Aristide's proximity might foster continued
instability in Haiti or even defiance of the interim government. By
all accounts, the exiled president remains by far the most popular
figure in Haiti, particularly among the poor who form the
overwhelming majority of the country's eight million people.

U.S. prosecutors are investigating whether to indict Aristide for
allegedly receiving millions of dollars from drug traffickers during
his tenure, as publicly charged by one convicted major trafficker and
one of his top security officials who was recently extradited from
Canada, according to an account in Friday's 'Wall Street Journal'.

Such charges, strongly denied by Aristide, have long shadowed the
former Catholic priest, but no concrete evidence of his personal
involvement has ever come to light.

Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who was selected by a
U.S.-backed council of ''eminent persons, has shown virtually no
political sense. A businessman and former U.N. official who served
briefly as Haiti's foreign minister in one of the military-dominated
governments that preceded Aristide's first election in 1990, Latortue
has spent most of his adult life in the United States and other
western nations.

He initially promised to appoint a government that would represent
all political sectors but ended up filling his cabinet with
technocrats, some with international connections like himself, on the
assumption they can facilitate the flow of donor aid that was largely
denied Aristide.

Most worrisome to human-rights groups here was Latortue's appointment
to head the Interior Ministry of retired Lt Gen Herard Abraham, the
former chief of staff of the army that was disbanded by Aristide in
1995 but is still permitted under the Haitian constitution.

Abraham has said he favours reconstituting the army, and his
appointment of some of his former colleagues as advisers is fuelling
concerns that a de facto restoration of the old order might indeed be
underway.

Not only have Latortue's choices managed to worry major figures in
both the political opposition and among Aristide's supporters, but
the interim leader has shown himself to be lacking a certain
diplomatic finesse, as well.

Thus, his decision to essentially cut off relations with Jamaica and
withdraw the Haitian ambassador after Patterson announced that
Aristide would be permitted to visit there was seen as a serious
blunder that served only to stoke CARICOM's anger over the way
Aristide was ousted.

Worse, however, was Latortue's trip to Gonaives two weeks ago, when
he publicly embraced Guy Philippe, the military chief of the rebels
whose armed takeover of much of northern and central Haiti in January
precipitated the crisis that led to Aristide's exile.

Latortue publicly praised the rebels -- who are led mostly by former
officers, like Philippe, of the disbanded Haitian army and its
paramilitary death squads -- as ''freedom fighters'', a move that
provoked red faces at the State Department and outraged editorials
by, among other major U.S. newspapers, 'The New York Times', the 'Los
Angeles Times', and the 'Washington Post'.

''He alienated many supporters in Haiti and abroad, because of that
embrace'', said McCalla. ''It was not a politic thing to do''.

The visit also underlined that the state is not in control, even of a
major city like Gonaives. Although some MIFH troops patrol there and
in some other northern towns and cities during the day, ''it's the
rebels who provide security at night'', according to McCalla, who
added, ''there's an unholy arrangement between the peacekeepers and
the rebels''.

U.S. military chiefs, who lead the MIFH, have also reportedly
reversed earlier plans to actively disarm the rebels and other armed
gangs.

''There's a real vacuum in the countryside, and it's being filled by
those with the guns'', said Robert Maguire, a Haiti specialist at
Trinity College here. He suggested similarities to Afghanistan, where
peacekeepers maintain order in the capital but leave the rest of the
country to warlords.

Many local officials associated with Aristide's party, he said, have
fled to Port-au-Prince, and there have also been reports of summary
executions against suspected Aristide supporters. ''There are even
credible reports of old section chiefs from the Duvalier period
returning'', he added.
.
.