24425: Hermantin(News)MOVERS AND SHAKERS (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Feb. 27, 2005





MOVERS AND SHAKERS


• Andy Apaid: Was and remains a businessman and head of the Group of 184, a
coalition of business groups, associations and political parties that
mobilized against Aristide. Now pushing interim government to adopt the same
''New Social Contract'' -- a list of social, economic and political changes
-- that Group of 184 was pushing on Aristide.

• Charles Baker: Factory owner, vice president of the Association of Haitian
Industrialists and member of the Group of 184, jailed for two months under
Aristide. He continues to be active with the Group of 184 but often
criticizes interim government for Haiti's insecurity and poor business
climate.

• Jean-Marie Paquiot: Dean of the State University of Haiti, he suffered two
broken knees in an attack by pro-Aristide thugs Dec. 5, 2003, after
university students joined anti-Aristide protests. Paquiot, who suffered
permanent damage to his legs but can still walk, is still dean but the
university remains in deplorable condition. Its promised new campus, on an
Aristide-linked facility, is now occupied by U.N. peacekeepers.

• Guy Philippe: A former top police official who fled Haiti in 2000 amid
allegations he was plotting against Aristide, he returned in early 2004 at
the head of a group of former soldiers who helped topple Aristide. He is now
general secretary of a political party, the National Front for the
Reconstruction of Haiti, and is expected to run for president.

• Butteur Metayer: Led the Cannibal Army, an armed gang in the port city of
Gonaives that teamed up with Philippe's former soldiers to topple Aristide.
Now president of the NFRH.

• Yvon Neptune: Prime minister during Aristide's second term, he stayed in
Haiti and facilitated the transition after the president left the country.
He was arrested in June for investigation into a February massacre of
Aristide opponents. He remains in jail, though he's never been charged.

• Josue Merilien: Head of the Haitian National Teachers Union and outspoken
critic of Aristide, frequently mobilizing teachers and students for street
protests. Today he is highly critical of the interim government for its
alleged corruption and refusal to answer teachers' salary and other demands.

• Mario Dupuy: Secretary of state for communications under Aristide, fled
Haiti and now lives in Miami, serving as a member the communications
commission of Aristide's Lavalas Family party and regularly accusing interim
government officials of executing hundreds of Aristide supporters.

• Annette Auguste: Sister Ann, well-known singer and Lavalas backer,
arrested May 24 by U.S. Marines and jailed in connection with the attack on
Paquiot. She says she is a 'prisoner of conscience' and victim of `a
concerted effort to break the back of the Lavalas movement.'

• Robenson Tomas: Nicknamed La Banire, leader of a pro-Aristide armed gang
in a Port-au-Prince slum, switched sides in September 2003, claiming he had
been paid to terrorize opposition members. Today he runs an armed gang that
clashes regularly with pro-Aristide gunmen.

• ''Dread'' Mackenzie: Pro-Aristide leader of the Iron Teeth gang in the
slum Bel Air, killed on Dec. 7, 2004, by members of a rival gang known as a
'Scie Mιtaux' -- Hacksaw.