21074: (Hermantin) Palm beach Post-Role Aristide-led party will play uncertain (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Role Aristide-led party will play uncertain

By Mike Williams, Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
Sunday, March 28, 2004



PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- It was a powerful political machine, one built
skillfully on a populist appeal to the impoverished masses long ignored by
Haitian leaders. Jean-Bertrand Aristide called his political party "Lavalas
Family," a Creole term that means "flash flood" or "deluge."

But on Feb. 29 it was Aristide himself who was swept away by the
unpredictable tides of Haitian politics and emotion, ousted by an armed
rebellion and a nonviolent coalition of business and peasant groups fed up
with what they charged was his corrupt, violent style of rule.

Now as Haiti struggles to rebuild its shattered government and economy, many
wonder what role Lavalas will play, and whether Aristide himself might seek
to maintain influence in Haiti through his followers, perhaps in hopes of
one day returning to the island.

His most vocal critics vow they will never let that happen. Some of them
also believe Lavalas itself was so tainted by corruption and violence that
its chances of playing an important part in Haitian political life again are
dim.

"So many of them were on the take, were involved with drug dealing and
political murders," said Charles Baker, a factory owner and leader of the
Group of 184, an opposition coalition that led demonstrations in
Port-au-Prince calling on Aristide to resign. "Anyone who was not a criminal
has a right to be involved, but the criminals will have to face justice. I
don't think the rest of them have much chance of becoming a political power
again."

Even before Aristide fled, several of his Cabinet members left the country.
Others went into hiding immediately after his departure, fearful of revenge
attacks or the chance they might be arrested on criminal charges. A few
party members already have been rounded up by police, charged with political
murders and attacks in the tumultuous weeks just before Aristide left.

But Lavalas appears far from dead. The party stood for something special in
Haiti: the inclusion, for the first time in Haitian politics, of the 80
percent of the country's 8 million residents who live in dire poverty.
Outside observers believe Haiti cannot build a working democracy while
ignoring those masses, and that most likely means Lavalas will play a vital
part in the country's future.

"Although Lavalas is only a pale shadow of what it was in the mid-1990s,
it's still one of the most important political forces in Haiti," said Dan
Erikson, a longtime watcher of Haiti at InterAmerican Dialogue, a Washington
think-tank. "It needs to redefine and rearticulate what it stands for, but
it seems any new government must include it."

Lavalas leaders say that process is under way. "Lavalas will change in the
sense that the charismatic leader (Aristide) isn't there, so it will be a
collective leadership that is more de-centralized," said Leslie Voltaire, a
party member who served in Aristide's cabinet. "But Lavalas is the first
party in Haitian politics to give power to the masses, and it cannot be
ignored."

Party leaders are planning a series of regional conferences and a national
congress that will reorganize Lavalas and choose a slate of candidates for
Haiti's next elections, he said. The exact date of the election is unknown,
with interim government officials sometimes saying a vote could be held
within months, but at other times saying it may take one to two years.

"That's too long," said Ivon Feuille, a Lavalas member and head of the
Haitian Senate under Aristide. "We believe elections should be held as soon
as possible. We feel a powerful country has come into Haiti and forced out a
democratically elected president. We are not an independent country now, and
this hurts every Haitian."

Aristide has charged that American officials sent an armed squad that forced
him to flee the country on Feb. 29, charges the Bush administration denies.
After spending two weeks in the Central African Republic, Aristide jetted to
Jamaica, where he has been invited to stay for up to two months. Jamaican
officials say he will settle permanently in South Africa. An Aristide
spokesman said no final decision has been made

Lavalas leaders say Aristide should be allowed to return, but they also seem
aware that the chances of such a return grow more dim with each passing day.

Haiti now has a functioning, interim government, led by Prime Minister
Gerard Latortue, a former diplomat chosen by a council of elders that was
organized by the international community after Aristide's departure.

Latortue recently chose a Cabinet, pointedly leaving out representatives
from any of the major political parties, hoping to avoid the open
hostilities between pro- and anti-Lavalas forces that paralyzed Haiti's
political life in the last years of Aristide's rule.

The question is whether Lavalas can refashion itself in Aristide's absence,
finding new leaders who will be credible, acceptable to its opponents and
the international community and popular among the people.

"Lavalas is the first movement in Haiti to stand against exclusion," said
Voltaire. "We are calling on the intellectuals and the professionals to
accept our representation of the poor. If they want to speak to the poor and
include them, they must go through us."

mikew@coxnews.com

_________________________________________________________________
Watch LIVE baseball games on your computer with MLB.TV, included with MSN
Premium!
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/mlb&pgmarket=en-us/go/onm00200439ave/direct/01/