21689: Esser: Deepening Poverty Breeds Anger and Desperation in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com

May 5, 2004

Deepening Poverty Breeds Anger and Desperation in Haiti
By LYDIA POLGREEN

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 4 - The pile of garbage behind the spot
where Marie Joseph sells tins of tomato paste started out small, the
usual primordial goo that coats this grimy capital's streets, binding
a putrid mélange.

But in the two months since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's
first democratically elected leader, was forced from power by an
armed rebellion, the pile has swelled like a rapacious tumor.

"I have never seen anything like this," Ms. Joseph said last week,
squatting near the 12-foot-high pile, wrinkling her nose at the
stench beneath a pair of gold-rimmed bifocals. "How can we live like
this?"

Difficult as it may be to believe, people here say, life in the
poorest nation in the hemisphere has gotten worse in the past two
months.

Mounds of garbage choke the streets. Electricity in the capital has
been scarce for weeks. The police force has fallen deeper into
disarray and crime has spiked, with a rash of kidnappings aimed at
wealthy businesspeople. The price of rice, the Haitian staple, has
doubled in some parts of the country.

A senior Western diplomat said the biggest concern was that the
interim government, led by Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, will face
mass unrest over the deteriorating conditions, which could reignite
violent clashes between Aristide supporters and rebels, who still
occupy large swaths of the country despite the presence of 3,600
foreign troops.

Other than small, symbolic transfers, supporters of the former
president and the rebels have both clung steadfastly to their
weapons. If violence flares, the diplomat said, the government might
not survive the next two or three months.

"The international community needs to help this government, we need
to get monetary support to them yesterday," the diplomat said. If
this government does not survive, it is not clear what comes after.''

But international help has been slow to arrive. The United States-led
force here is to hand over the job of stabilizing Haiti in June to a
United Nations force of about 8,000 troops led by Brazil. The brevity
of the United States military commitment and the molasses-slow
trickle of aid have led many people here to conclude that this
decade's effort to rebuild Haiti will be even less successful than
the United States effort in the 1990's.

Skeptical Haitians view the unelected government and its foreign
backers with a suspicion as brittle as the clay biscuits they now eat.

"No one has ever done anything for us," said Pierre Charlestin, 24,
who lives in a grim shantytown that sprang up a decade ago on the
grounds of Fort Dimanche, the Duvalier regime's notorious political
prison. "Why should we expect anything different now?"

Officials and supporters of the former president's party, Lavalas,
say the new government is persecuting them. The party has delayed
appointing a representative to the council that will organize
elections next year, a delay that could block a crucial step to
restoring democracy in Haiti.

Playing on his name, which means "turtle" in French, Prime Minister
Latortue acknowledged late last month at a donors' conference that
his government's pace had been slow.

"Some say the turtle goes slowly," Mr. Latortue said. "I need you to
help us go surely."

Today he faces an exhausted treasury, a vast corrupt and demoralized
state work force, wary international donors and lingering doubts
about the manner in which Mr. Aristide left the country.

American officials, who provided the plane that took him into him
into exile, say Mr. Aristide left willingly to avoid bloodshed. Mr.
Aristide has said his departure was a "modern-day kidnapping."

To many people here, Mr. Aristide remains the only legitimate leader
they have. "We believe in democracy, and we have a democratically
elected leader," said Alix Jean, a Lavalas partisan, at a recent
rally at the church in La Saline, the slum where Mr. Aristide once
preached his fiery sermons of liberation. "His name is Jean-Bertrand
Aristide."

Flawed legislative elections in 2000 led to the political deadlock
that culminated in Mr. Aristide's ouster and the suspension of $500
million in foreign aid. But the flow of cash that was expected once
Mr. Aristide left has yet to begin in earnest.

Officials here say they desperately need money. The United Nations
issued an emergency appeal in March for $35 million, but has
collected just $9 million.

The finance minister, Henri Bazin, said he discovered when he took
the job last month that the government had less than one month of
foreign reserves in the bank and that a $100 million deficit loomed.

"We are faced with an impossible situation," Mr. Bazin said in an
interview at his office near the National Palace. "We need $100
million immediately, absolutely right away, to do the bare minimum of
what the government should be doing. But we don't know where that
money will come from."

Mr. Latortue left Tuesday for Washington, where he is to meet with
Bush administration officials and seek aid commitments. Another donor
conference in June will start the flow of aid, but diplomats worry
the government cannot wait that long.

Officials here have accused Mr. Aristide of looting the public
treasury. A Western diplomat who is investigating charges of
corruption said the government's finances were in deep disarray.

"The previous government took money from official accounts and used
it for whatever purpose suited them," this diplomat said. "They
simply wrote checks, and the Central Bank covered them by expanding
the money supply."

Mr. Aristide's Miami-based lawyer, Ira Kurzban, said the former
president never stole money. "There may have been corruption at some
level," Mr. Kurzban said. "But the people at the top making decisions
and using money, all of these people were honest."

The national police force was decimated by last month's armed
rebellion; rebels set fire to police stations, killed as many as
several dozen officers, and looted their cars and equipment. "Our
biggest problem right now is security," said Police Chief Léon
Charles said in an interview. "But we have no resources."

Of a 6,000-member force, as few as half its officers can be counted
on to show up, police officials said. A recent recruiting drive
brought thousands of candidates, who rioted as they waited to fill
out applications; a student was killed in the stampede.

Privately, ministers of the new government marvel at how Mr. Aristide
was able to keep Haiti's government going.

Leslie Voltaire, who was Mr. Aristide's minister for Haitians living
abroad, said Mr. Aristide made the country work through sheer force
of will. He likened the country now to a heart-transplant patient.

"They have removed the heart, Aristide," Mr. Voltaire said in an
interview. "We are now waiting on the operating table for a
transplant, and the operation is being done without anesthesia."

Haitians who have suffered through decades of misrule say their
patience with the interim government is wearing thin. Derilus Joseph
Érine, a 42-year-old mason who lives in Cap Haitien, Haiti's second
largest city, warned darkly that dissatisfaction could turn violent
quickly.

"The political leaders are trying to get their piece of the cake,"
Mr. Érine said. "If we don't get a piece of the cake, too, we are
going to do whatever we can to make the cake fall so at least we can
pick up the crumbs."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
.