23044: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Interim Haiti leader and Boca Raton resident takes on cr (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Interim Haiti leader and Boca Raton resident takes on critics



By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer

August 24, 2004

Port-au-Prince, Haiti -- Since becoming interim prime minister of Haiti five
months ago, Gérard Latortue has attracted his share of detractors.

Members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus and the Caribbean Community
have refused to recognize his government. Human rights organizations say he
has administered justice unevenly. And Haitians loyal to former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide accuse him of being part of a U.S.-led coup-d'état
against the departed leader.

But Latortue, a Boca Raton resident, said in an interview with the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel that the criticism has more to do with the U.S.
presidential elections than his policies.

"A lot of this is part of people who are fighting against the Bush
administration," he said from a parlor in his private residence. "It's not
about Haiti, really. They're doing all that because they believe this
government is supported by the present American administration, and they are
using it to fight against the re-election of President Bush."

Aristide left the country Feb. 29 as rebel forces advanced on
Port-au-Prince. He later accused the United States of forcing him from
office, a charge Washington denies. Since then, the international community
has been divided over his departure.

The 15-member CARICOM has called for an investigation, and the Organization
of American States agreed to look into the issue. Aristide is in temporary
exile in South Africa.

Latortue, a retired economist and U.N. official, was appointed interim prime
minister in March by a Haitian council of political leaders. He said the
government is making significant progress as it leads the country toward
2005 elections. He said the economy is being revived, schools are
functioning normally, electricity has increased, and political violence has
declined since Aristide's departure.

"We have a government that is committed to law and order, a government that
is in favor of total inclusion of all Haitians," he said. "A government that
will not participate in the next election, therefore has no political
interests. We just want the election to be as free as possible, as
transparent as possible, and what we want is the most popular man to be
elected."

In the meantime, he said, Haiti is back in the limelight of the
international community. Last week, the president of Brazil visited the
country for a friendly soccer match between Haiti and Brazil. Latortue said
he has also been receiving visits from other dignitaries from Latin America
and Europe.

"Haiti now is no longer as isolated as it was under the Aristide regime," he
said. "Hope is coming back to Haitians. And they realize that we're a
government that's functioning under the rule of law."

Shortly after his appointment, Latortue referred to armed rebels who led the
rebellion against Aristide in the prime minister's hometown of Gonaïves as
freedom fighters, which rankled some in the human rights community.

His relationship with the Caribbean Community soured earlier this year when
Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson granted Aristide a temporary stay in
Jamaica to visit his children. Members of the organization remain at a
stalemate over whether to recognize the Latortue government.

In recent months, the prime minister has also been criticized for the arrest
of his predecessor, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, and the government's
handling of the trial of ex-paramilitary chief Louis-Jodel Chamblain.

Chamblain, who helped lead the armed rebellion against Aristide, was
acquitted in a one-day trial last week in the 1993 political murder of a
strong Aristide supporter, Antoine Izmery. He had been tried and convicted
of the crime in absentia in 1995, while living in exile in the Dominican
Republic. At the time, he was also convicted of a massacre of Aristide
supporters in Raboteau, a slum of Gonaïves.

Chamblain and co-defendant Jackson Joanis, who also was acquitted, remain
incarcerated to face other charges.

Human rights organizations denounced the swift acquittals and accused the
government of showing impunity to the rebels while hunting down Aristide
supporters.

But Latortue prepared a statement over the weekend saying the government's
judiciary branch functions independently of the executive branch. He said
Haitian law requires that a person arrested in absentia receive a new trial
when he surrenders but does not allow for new investigations. He said the
verdict was rendered by a 38-member jury that didn't find the evidence
established under Aristide's government convincing.

"In those days, Aristide could do whatever he wanted with justice," Latortue
said. "So the dossier was not necessarily well-prepared, because the verdict
was known in advance. Those same papers today cannot resist the criticism of
the defense lawyer.

"We understand the emotion created by that, but we cannot do anything."

He also dismissed charges by members of Aristide's party, the Lavalas
Family, that the government is persecuting them. Many of them say they're
now living in exile in South Florida because they fear for their lives.

"Everybody realizes that Haiti has changed considerably, and for the
better," he said. "Even the Lavalas people recognize that after Aristide's
departure ,they did not suffer the way the Duvalierists suffered in 1986
when [ex-dictator Jean-Claude] Duvalier left the country."

Not everyone is convinced. A cruise marking the 200th anniversary of Haiti's
independence made only a brief visit to a remote beach last week. .

But Latortue said his critics are part of a campaign to discredit his
leadership.

"A large party of some leftist organizations are really biased in favor of
Aristide under the pretext that Aristide was fighting American imperialism,
and everything he did was good," he said. "And many of those people also
have profited a lot from the lobbyist funds so largely spent by Aristide to
pay foreign lobbyists."

Information from the Associated Press was used to supplement this report.

Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-
4523.
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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