24474: (news) : Holmstead- Haiti still struggling a year after Boca man (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cdiaspora07mar10,0,6416019.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla
Haiti still struggling a year after Boca man assumes
control as interim leader
By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer

March 10, 2005

When Boca Raton retiree Gerard Latortue was appointed
interim prime minister of Haiti, he personified the
dreams of Haitians living abroad who always have
wanted to rebuild their country.

A year later, as some expatriates reflect on a year in
which Haiti has seen continued violence, natural
disasters and charges of human rights violations, they
are less optimistic.

Haiti remains a country in crisis. Poverty is endemic.
Environmental threats persist. The economy is
stagnant.

Violence is rampant with more than 400 people slain
since September because of political instability.
United Nations forces are unable to maintain peace.

"The only hope I have now for the country is that
somebody will take it over and run it for us," said
Kathy Holley, a Pembroke Pines resident who
participated last year in South Florida demonstrations
against ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "We
have to be the most unlucky country in the world. No
matter what we do, we can't get the country together."

When 500 prisoners escaped from the National
Penitentiary on Feb. 19, many Haitians called for
Latortue's resignation. Some were the same people who
called for the removal of Aristide a year ago.

Gerard Ferere, a Latortue supporter and fellow Boca
Raton retiree, said Haitian politicians have feared
that the diaspora would return to the country and
seize power ever since the 1986 departure of former
dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

"The prime minister was dreaming when he thought they
were going to receive him well, and so was I," he
said. "If my name was Gerard Latortue, it would have
been a long time ago that I would've been in my
swimming pool in Boca Raton. I would tell them, `Hasta
la vista, baby.'"

Haitians living abroad represent Haiti's middle class.
They keep the country afloat with about $1 billion in
annual remittances. Many Haitian nationals and U.S.
politicians think the immigrant population with its
economic, educational and political resources is the
answer to the country's woes. At more than 260,000,
South Florida's Haitian community is the largest in
the nation.

As the country prepares for fall elections, many
Haitian Americans, with the help of U.S. Rep. Kendrick
Meek, D-Fla., are pushing for the Haitian government
to allow its nationals abroad to vote. Some nationals
in South Florida plan to run for president.

Samir Mourra, 49, a Miami businessman running under
the Mobilization for the Progress of Haiti party,
wants to revive the country, which he says was
destroyed under Aristide. A former brother-in-law of
"Baby Doc," he says he had no connection to the
dictator's regime.

"I decided to get involved in this battle because I
have strong support," he said. "Where there's a will,
there's a way."

Another presidential candidate is Dr. Gregoire Eugene
Jr., 51, a Fort Lauderdale physician. He is running
under the Social Christian Party of Haiti, which was
founded by his late father in 1979 to oppose the
Duvalier government. His father fled the country in
1980, and died in exile in Miami 15 years later.

"I think I can do better than what I see in the
political field now," Eugene said. "I want to take my
chances and struggle for what I believe."

Aristide, exiled in South Africa, left the country for
the Central African Republic on Feb. 29, 2004, at the
height of an armed rebellion. He traveled on a U.S.
plane and claimed he was kidnapped by the U.S.
government. In a recent interview with The Washington
Times, he said he stills considers himself the
country's democratically elected president.

The U.S. government has denied Aristide's kidnapping
charges and continues to back Latortue, who was named
interim prime minister March 9.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Cal., and others continue
to call for an investigation into Aristide's
departure. On Monday, Waters led a delegation to
Port-au-Prince to visit Aristide's former Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune, who is in prison. Neptune was
arrested by the Haitian government in June for his
alleged involvement in a February 2004 massacre that
left more than 50 people dead in the city of St. Marc.

Neptune, who denies the charges, has been on a hunger
strike at the National Penitentiary since Feb. 26.
Waters said she encouraged Neptune to see a physician
and seek temporary asylum in the United States, but he
refused.

"Prime Minister Neptune was weak and could only speak
in a whispering voice," she said in a news release.
"He insisted that he had been jailed without
justification and that he had committed no crime ...
He believes he has been targeted to be killed."

Ira Kurzban, a Miami attorney who represents Aristide,
traveled with Waters to the country, but was denied
entry by the government, he and Waters said.

"It was clear that the reason they were not letting me
in is because I'm a critic of the government," Kurzban
said Tuesday. "It confirms the illegitimate and
autocratic nature of this so-called government of
Haiti."

Haitian government officials could not be reached for
comment. But Latortue supporters say the interim prime
minister is doing his best under daunting
circumstances. They dismissed calls for his
resignation.

"If you remove the prime minister it will be very hard
to have a new government," said Olicier Pieriche, a
former consul general to Miami appointed by Latortue.

Ferere said promises of foreign aid never
materialized, so Latortue has not been able "to
demonstrate his ability to rebuild the country."

But Lucy Orlando, a Haitian American activist living
in Weston, said she borrowed money against her house
last year to finance bus trips to New York and
Washington, D.C., for demonstrations calling for the
ouster of Aristide. She thought the country would have
made more progress by now.

"I feel very depressed and very disgusted about what's
going on in Haiti right now," she said. "I don't call
it freedom or liberation. It's condemnation because
Haiti is worse than before."

Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel



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