27270: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Candidate (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Chamberlain:


   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 17 (AP) -- Haiti's front-running presidential
candidate said Tuesday that he has emerged from the shadow of ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, his former mentor who fled Haiti amid a
rebellion and accusations of corruption.
   "I don't want to be compared with Aristide or with anybody else. I want
to be compared with myself," Rene Preval told The Associated Press in the
first interview he has given since he declared himself a candidate.
   Elections, set for Feb. 7, have been postponed several times because of
organizational problems and violence. There was more bloodshed Tuesday as
gunmen shot and killed two Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers and wounded a third
in the Cite Soleil slum, a stronghold of Aristide supporters. It was the
bloodiest day for the 9,000-member peacekeeping force since being deployed
in June 2004.
   Preval was elected president in 1995 and served until 2001.
   Many Haitians fear that if Preval wins the presidency again he will
bring Aristide back from exile in South Africa. Preval, who turned 63 on
Tuesday, insisted he will govern without being influenced by Aristide.
   Aristide was Haiti's first democratically elected leader since the
Caribbean country won independence from France in 1804, but was accused by
opponents of masterminding attacks by armed gangs and breaking promises to
the poor. Aristide has denied both.
   Preval, who has never been a member of Aristide's Lavalas Family Party,
expressed concern about Haiti's violence. Pointing out the electrified wire
and high walls surrounding his home, Preval said: "Fear has isolated
everybody."
   Since the February 2004 rebellion, the situation in the Western
hemisphere's poorest nation has not improved despite the presence of a U.N.
peacekeeping force charged with providing security and ushering in
elections to restore democracy.
   Kidnappings have engulfed Haiti's capital, snaring ordinary Haitians as
well as international election workers and journalists.
   Preval said the U.N. mission "should stay as long as it is necessary" to
re-establish security. Aristide, by contrast, has compared the U.N. mission
to French troops that invaded Haiti in 1802 to re-establish slavery.
   Preval followed Aristide into exile after a bloody 1991 coup and
returned to Haiti during the U.S. military intervention that restored
Aristide to power in 1994.
   In his 1996 inaugural address, Preval promised to turn Haiti into "a
vast construction site" and "re-establish the authority of the state."
   He now acknowledges he failed, but said "we didn't steal and we didn't
violate human rights."