24368: Hermantin( News)A year after Aristide ouster, Haiti is remarkably unchanged (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Commentary
Opinion
from the February 28, 2005 edition

A year after Aristide ouster, Haiti is remarkably unchanged

By Kathie Klarreich

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI .   Earlier this month, passengers arriving at and
departing from the airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince were
greeted
by attractive young women handing out free T-shirts with the 2005 carnival
slogan "dantanm se kinam" - Creole for "My Past Belongs to Me." An odd
choice,
given Haiti's history, which, while boasting many accomplishments, including
the
distinction of being the first black independent country, has also had
extraordinary turbulence: 45 changes of government since 1804, with nearly a
dozen since 1986.
Still, the public relations campaign was an admirable attempt to put a
positive
spin on the suffering of a deeply troubled nation.

In the year since the controversial circumstances surrounding the Feb. 29
departure of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who boarded a
US
airplane and was let off in the Central African Republic, things haven't
improved much; some argue that they are worse.

The former president, who now resides in South Africa with his wife and two
children, dreams of returning to finish the last 11 months of his second
five-year term - just as he did when international forces reinstalled him in
1994 after a coup just months into his first presidential term in the early
'90s.

But rogue security forces, whose only legitimacy comes from the arms they
carry,
seem to be running the show in the absence of any legitimate Haitian
government.

President Aristide's departure was hardly the panacea many had hoped for.

Corruption, insecurity, injustice, and chaos seem to be Haitian constants.
Violent musclemen with big guns, loyal to Aristide, control more than a
dozen
sections of the capital, despite the presence of a US-endorsed Haitian
technocrat who is caretaker of the government until presidential elections
later
this year.

The Aristide proxies are collaborating - and competing, too - with members
of
the former military, many of whom returned from exile in the Dominican
Republic
to join their corrupt colleagues.

The thugs - from all sides - are the only security force in numerous towns
in
the countryside.

The Haitian National Police control next to nothing, though they put on a
good
show patrolling the capital for Carnival (Feb. 6-8) alongside members of the
6,000 blue-beret peacekeepers from the United Nations.

Port-au-Prince's Carnival is a bellwether of the state of the nation.
Although
there is no such thing as "normal" in Haiti, Carnival is usually the one
time of
the year when a large cross section of the social strata gathers in one
place,
with government officials straining to see the parade from the balconies of
the
National Palace and other nearby offices.

The business sector builds stands along the route by the National Palace,
and
then fills them with clients, friends, and family - at symbolic remove from
the
masses of thousands of poor Haitians (joined by adventurous tourists) who
cavort
through the streets all night long.

Even last year, with the drama that foreshadowed Aristide's departure
unfolding
all around them, partygoers carpeted the streets. Not this year. The
business
community - distrustful if not disdainful of this government, and
financially
strapped by the perpetual political and social upheavals - boycotted this
year's
celebration. Stands that have always doubled as advertising billboards were
eerily absent. The few stands that were built, mostly by the government,
were
empty - its own unintended display of the government's lack of support in
any
quarter.

This year several people were killed during Carnival; the circumstances
remain
unclear and no arrests were made - another of Haiti's sad trademarks. Nearly
all
of Haiti's crimes go unpunished - the most notorious assassins have never
been
brought to justice, while hundreds of others languish in Haiti's jails.

Jailbreaks are as common as storms during the rainy season, which left more
than
4,000 dead and tens of thousands homeless last year.

On Feb. 19 an unidentified group of "commandos" stormed the National
Penitentiary, and nearly 500 of the 1,2OO-plus prisoners escaped. The two
most
high-profile inmates - Aristide's prime minister, Yvon Neptune, and interior
minister, Jocelerme Privert - were escorted back to prison just hours after
their release.

Meanwhile, one of the lead instigators of Aristide's departure - former
military
man Ravix Remissainthe - roams freely, despite a $7,000 reward for his
arrest in
the alleged assassination of four policemen this month.

Not that the government has money to spare for rewards. Less than 10 percent
of
the $1.4 billion pledged by the international community has been issued to
the
Haitian government, and salaries and the cost of electricity - not programs
that
ultimately benefit the population - eat up most of what aid does come
through.

Remittances from Haitians in the US are believed to be about $1 billion a
year -
without that, it's hard to imagine how Haiti could survive at all.

Sadly, it is going to take more than a T-shirt from Carnival to change
Haiti's
image.

National reconciliation and a long-term commitment from the international
community is as perennial a need as Carnival is a perennial symbol of hope
that
a brighter future belongs to Haiti.


Kathie Klarreich, author of a forthcoming memoir on Haiti, 'Madame Dread,'
lived in and has covered Haiti for nearly 20 years.