22925: radtimes: In Haiti, truth veiled by rumor, suspicion (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

In Haiti, truth veiled by rumor, suspicion

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/08/08/Perspective/In_Haiti__truth_veile.shtml

By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
Published August 8, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - My friend Stanley always greets me with the same
words. "David, welcome back to Haiti. Are you still looking for the truth?"

The first part of his greeting comes across as genuine. But the second half
is always accompanied by a mighty guffaw.

There's a simple reason for that. It's never been easy to distinguish
between fact and fiction in Haiti. Especially today, five months after
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was whisked away on a U.S. jet to Africa.

On my latest trip rumors were swirling as usual. One of my sources informed
me that four Israelis from New York had contributed $450,000 to finance the
overthrow of Aristide, including the hiring of foreign mercenaries. There
were also vivid allegations of a child sacrifice by Aristide supporters to
ward off evil spirits.

While a foreigner might find such stories - especially the latter -
far-fetched, many Haitians have no trouble believing them.

Traditional methods of journalistic investigation tend to be fruitless in a
place like Haiti. You can research the Internet all you like, request
interviews and attend press conferences, but in the end all you often end
up with are wildly conflicting stories.

You might just as well consult voodoo, the traditional religion of Haiti.
Indeed, for many Haitians, without Internet access, the ancestral spirits
of voodoo - the loas - remain the gospel. On an income of less than $1 per
day (that's what an average Haitian earns, according to the World Bank),
where else does one turn?

But in the search for what is real in Haiti, there are one or two other
options worth considering. Chief among these is La Souvenance, a cordon
bleu restaurant in the hills of Petionville overlooking the city slums.
This may be Haiti, but the filet mignon or shrimps in Creole sauce at La
Souvenance can rival the best Paris has to offer.

It is here that Haiti's tiny power elite gathers. These days, after the
ouster of Aristide, the place is also packed with visiting foreigners,
often from the World Bank or United Nations. Last month foreign donors in
Washington approved a $1-billion aid package for Haiti. You can be sure
that some of it will end up being spent at La Souvenance.

Once dismissed as the MREs (for "morally repugnant elite"), a wordplay on
the initials of U.S. military rations known as "meals ready to eat,"
Haiti's wealthy few are less morally repugnant these days.

To be sure, there's plenty of glee over the departure of their bete noire,
Aristide, the former fire-breathing liberation-theology priest. But Haiti's
elite are showing a good deal more maturity these days. That may come with
the uncomfortable realization that Haiti is on its last legs. If they don't
make this latest effort at reconciliation and nation-building work, there
may not be another.

After throwing the better part of $1-billion at Haiti in 1994 (ironically
to bring back Aristide after he had been ousted in a military coup three
years earlier) the international community has already been burned in
Haiti. "Donor fatigue" is just around the corner.

But part of the reason for the muddle in Haiti is that the West has
interfered so much in its affairs. It is only recently that have we begun
to promote democracy in Haiti. It was quite a different story for most of
the last 200 years.

After Haitian slaves declared independence in 1804, initiating the first
black republic, the United States and most of Europe did their best to
undermine the nation's economy. Slavery had yet to be abolished in the
United States, so Haiti was seen as a dangerous precedent.

At the beginning of the 20th century the United States occupied Haiti for
almost 20 years and dictated its foreign and economic policy. During the
Cold War the United States preferred to support the ugly Duvalier family
dictatorship, as a buffer against Cuban communism.

Far from improving Haiti's lamentable social conditions, outside efforts
have only deepened poverty. Poverty, and a lack of social spending on
education, breeds ignorance. That's why the truth is so hard to find in
Haiti. In a country where so few can read or write it's easy to manipulate
the truth.

A few streets away from the fine dining at La Souvenance you find another
kind of truth. Millennium is a Petionville nightclub that features scantily
clad women from the Dominican Republic. As far as I could gather on a
recent evening, there weren't any Haitian girls there at all. One Dominican
looked shocked when I asked why that was. Didn't I know that one in 20
Haitians are HIV-positive?

Millennium is a hangout for another kind of Haitian elite: Americans. My
visit was no disappointment. I spent the evening in the company of a group
of Americans who have worked closely with the Haitian government for
several years. Oddly enough, for all his anti-U.S. rhetoric, Aristide
relied heavily on Americans for his security, considering them more
reliable than the Haitians he was elected to rule.

Aristide, who liked Haitians to think the voodoo spirits protected him,
wasn't much of a voodoo believer himself, it seems. Instead, he spent
millions on a high-priced San Francisco private security firm that provided
his personal protection.

As the Dominican women sat on the Americans' laps we chatted about their
adventures in Haiti, ferrying Aristide - and mysterious boxes of cash -
around the country. "We weren't doing anything illegal - I think," said one.

There's plenty of speculation that Aristide siphoned off millions during
his years in power. Looters found some $350,000 in rotting $100 bills in
his house after he left. It's not known how much he may haven taken with
him. A U.S. Treasury Department team is in the country going over
Aristide's books. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is busy busting
the traffickers who set up shop in Haiti under Aristide. Many are singing
like canaries about their close ties to the palace. An indictment of
Aristide seems likely fairly soon.

And that's the truth.

.