24221: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Rebel Anniversary (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 6 (AP) -- Haiti's normally raucous carnival became
an afterthought this time last year as gangsters joined by ex-soldiers
sparked a deadly march that led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
   As the international community agonized over whether to intervene,
fighting and looting destroyed an already weak infrastructure, prompting
those who could to flee.
   Today, an interim government installed under the watch of a U.S.
led-multinational force has called elections late this year, and 7,400 U.N.
troops who replaced the Americans patrol the country.
   "Last February, we were in a period of people burning down stores," said
David Bazile, secretary of public security. "Today, we are talking about
carnival."
   But the way people are talking about it lends insight into a security
situation that some fear could bring civil war.
   "People are even more scared to attend than last year," said Guy
Alcendor, 48, painting a wooden stand for the pre-Lenten fete beginning
Sunday, the anniversary of the rebellion that began in northwest Gonaives
city.
   The men who forced out Haiti's first democratically elected president
remain armed and powerful. They may yet get their demand for the
restoration of an army blamed for coups and the slayings and maimings of
thousands of people before Aristide disbanded it in 1995.
   But they were not celebrating.
   "We can't celebrate when we have so much work left to do," said one
rebel leader, Remissainthe Ravix. "Aristide has left, but we still have
many problems."
   Since Aristide supporters intensified protests in September to demand
his return from exile in South Africa, shootouts involving street gangs,
police, U.N. peacekeepers and protesters have killed more than 250 people.
   Pro-Aristide gangs still control slums housing some of the hundreds of
thousands who reject the interim government of Prime Minister Gerard
Latortue, a technocrat who spent years in exile in Florida, as does the
14-nation Caribbean Community.
   The community wants an international probe into Aristide's charges that
the United States forced him out. U.S. officials say they did not help
Aristide keep power because he was profiting from a brisk business in
cocaine smuggling -- charges Aristide denies.
   With scores of officials and supporters of Aristide's Lavalas Family
party in overcrowded jails, Latortue denies his government is conducting a
witch hunt.
   "They are not in jail because of being Lavalas members or supporters ...
(but) because they broke the law," police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou said.
   However, few people have been charged. Lavalas says it will boycott the
elections.
   Justice is as elusive as peace in Haiti. On Saturday, two bodies lay in
a busy road. Police said a crowd bludgeoned the men after they tried to
steal a wallet.
   "We cannot change the country without a change in the (corrupt) justice
system," said Pierre Esperance of the National Coalition for Haitian
Rights.
   Others say disarmament is more urgent. U.N. officials are negotiating
with the government on ways to disarm all factions.
   Deadly floods in May and September that killed thousands and left more
missing sidetracked the peace mission and further burdened Latortue's
cash-strapped government.
   Business leaders say the government has balanced the budget and
normalized foreign debt payments but created no new jobs. Two-thirds of the
work force are unemployed or scrape by on odd jobs.
   In July, several countries and international institutions promised Haiti
more than $1 billion, but only about $200 million has been disbursed.
   Philippe Armand, president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Haiti,
was hopeful about opening a Florida chapter next month to help exiles start
businesses in their homeland.
   "There is a better business climate now," he said, "a sense we're moving
toward elections and will finally put the country back on its feet."
   Ordinary Haitians disagree.
   "Either there has been no change since Aristide left, or things are
worse," said Car Monique, a 35-year-old mother of five who sells moonshine.
"It seems like even more people are without jobs now."