24474: Hermantin(News)Haiti still struggling a year after Boca man assumes control (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


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