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27475: Craig (news) Hope Seems Elusive As Haiti Elections Near (fwd)






From: Dan Craig


February 4, 2006
Hope Seems Elusive As Haiti Elections Near
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:52 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- A rusty pickup carrying two wounded young men speeds through a slum as a paramedic sticks a barely audible siren out a window, hurtling past scrap-metal shacks and the same blue-helmeted U.N. troops who allegedly shot the men.

The makeshift ambulance, its Red Cross flag flapping, is just one snapshot of the horrendous conditions and failing international support in Haiti as the desperate country prepares for Tuesday's long-delayed elections to replace a weak interim government.

Conditions are going from very bad to even worse for the 8.3 million people in one of the world's poorest countries. An estimated 80 percent of Haitians don't have jobs. Kidnapping for ransom might be the only growth industry. Rich and poor view each other with suspicion and loathing. Hope appears as wispy as the smoke that permeates the capital from burning garbage.

Haiti's problems have deepened profoundly since the February 2004 rebellion that ousted elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was accused of corruption and of using thugs to attack his opponents.

Experts say Tuesday's voting is crucial to pulling Haiti from its poverty and despair. High turnout and the installation of a legitimate government could increase stability, encouraging rich nations to pour more money into aid and development.

But with 33 candidates, from a former president to an ex-rebel commander, running for president and dozens of parties vying for 129 legislative seats, it's unlikely anyone will be able to claim a mandate to form a cohesive government.

Many fear Haiti is nearing a point of no return.

''If we do not stop the decay of institutions and we do not support a legitimate government, we could come to a situation in which a total collapse is possible,'' Juan Gabriel Valdes, the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti, told The Associated Press. ''The international community cannot allow that to happen.''

Life expectancy for Haitians is 52 years. For those lucky enough to have a job, the average wage is $1.07 a day. Half the people can't read or write.

In the capital's sprawling Cite Soleil slum, gangs are on a kidnapping spree, snatching up ordinary Haitians, foreign missionaries and international election workers.

Haitians blame a multitude of suspects. The poor accuse the rich of paying gangs to carry out kidnappings. Some say Aristide is orchestrating the kidnappings from exile in South Africa. The rich complain that the United Nations hasn't stepped in firmly.

In a rare interview, a gang leader implicated a local police commander.

Wearing designer sunglasses with his Che Guevara T-shirt and black jeans, ''Toutou'' -- ''Dog'' in Haitian Creole -- said he knows many policemen because he used to be one. While denying personal involvement, Toutou alleged the police commissioner arms gangs to carry out kidnappings and then intercepts ransom payments.

National Police Chief Mario Andresol acknowledged problems in the police. ''About a quarter of the force is involved in corruption, kidnappings or even arms trafficking,'' he said.

Georges Sassin, a wealthy owner of a textile factory, hopes the election will calm Haiti. If not, he plans to join others who have closed up shop and fled. Only 15 business owners still operate assembly plants in Haiti, down from more than 100 in the late 1990s. At least 6,000 jobs have disappeared in the last year alone, he said.

''If elections happen and a majority of voters go down and vote, then I'm optimistic,'' Sassin said. ''But if the contrary happens, I'm already planning on packing up and leaving.''

Sassin, whose wife recently lost a cousin to gunfire, says U.N. troops should do more to crack down on gangs. ''There is a lot of frustration because we see the presence of all that military might, and nothing is being done to prevent bad things happening to people,'' he said.

The peacekeepers, fearing widespread civilian casualties, have refrained from making a large-scale assault on the Cite Soleil gangs. Election organizers decided not to put voting booths in the slum, citing the lack of security.

Even the peacekeepers' limited presence in Cite Soleil is problematic. Nine peacekeepers have been killed since the force arrived in June 2004.

Slum residents are often caught in the crossfire.

On Wednesday, George Alain Colbert, an 18-year-old shoe shiner, was on a main Cite Soleil road when a U.N. armored personnel carrier appeared in the distance. A burst of gunfire erupted from its machine gun. Colbert fell, part of his heel blown away. Another bullet hit him in the testicles. A second man was wounded in the chest.

Neighbors and relatives carried them into a nearby alley and wept as the Red Cross medics rushed to the scene.

''He only had a shoeshine box,'' one sobbing woman yelled over and over.

There were no peacekeepers around to hear her anguished words. But later that day, hundreds of people marched past a U.N. fort in Cite Soleil. Some made obscene gestures at the Jordanian soldiers inside.

Brazilian Lt. Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho de Siqueira, the new U.N. commander, said the troops only fire when attacked.

''They have strict orders not to shoot without identifying the problem. But we need to return fire sometimes to control the situation,'' he said.

Speaking on the patio of his guarded suburban villa, Valdes, the U.N. envoy, said wealthy countries must come through with promised aid to rebuild Haiti's crumbled infrastructure and fund social projects. If not, he worries Latin American countries might withdraw peacekeepers.

''There would be no reason to stay here if the only role that is assigned to the Latin American troops is the role of a policeman of a situation that continues to deteriorate,'' he said.

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Associated Press writer Stevenson Jacobs contributed to this report.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-on-the-Edge.html