27509: Holmstead (news) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: John Holmstead


Dark storm brewing over elections in Haiti

Monday, February 6, 2006

HIP, Haiti - Since a CID-Gallup poll taken in Haiti
last December showed Rene Preval leading in the
upcoming elections with 37%, the political forces that
banded together to oust Aristide in Feb. 2004 have
been organizing to contest the expected results.

Rene Garcia Preval was the former prime minister for
six months under Aristide's first administration
before a brutal military coup in September 1991.  An
agronomist educated in Europe, he is also a former
president of Haiti whose term ran from 1996 to 2001.

Preval's closest rival, Charles Henry Baker, is a
wealthy sweatshop owner and a co-founder of the Group
184, a so-called civil society organization that
helped to overthrow Aristide and was heavily funded by
the United States, France and Canada through an
intriguing web of foreign non-governmental
organizations (NGO's).

What the CID-Gallup poll inadvertently exposed was the
true numbers and strength of the movement that ousted
Aristide. While the opposition to Aristide was
portrayed in the press as a broad movement with
widespread public support, the poll shows the
political parties that led the movement are mostly
polling in single digit numbers and combined represent
less than 30% of the electorate. The major candidate
representing the movement, Baker, is only polling at
10%.

On the eve of the elections, what is equally clear is
that the majority of Preval supporters are drawn from
the same base of the electorate that supported
Aristide and his political party known as Lavalas. It
is comprised mostly of peasant farmers in the
countryside and urban slum dwellers in Haiti's major
cities.

Recent statements by Preval indicate that he will not
interfere if Aristide wants to return to Haiti as a
private citizen. This has incensed the political
forces that worked to oust Aristide and who are now
clamoring to make tomorrow's election a referendum on
the question. They are unfortunately running against
the grain of another poll conducted from Nov. 6 to
Nov. 16, 2005. The Democracy Group conducted the poll
for the National Organization for the Advancement of
Haitians (NOAH), an organization known for its
hostility against Aristide and his Lavalas party. The
results concluded that 51% of the respondents support
Aristide's return to Haiti.

Perhaps more menacing, and a portent of things to
come, is a recent editorial entitled "Reconstructing
the Lavalas Anarchy" written and circulated by Raoul
Peck. Peck is the writer/director of the film Lumumba
and HBO's Sometimes in April (2005). He served as
Haiti's Minister of Culture from 1995 until 1997.

In a virulent diatribe Peck writes, "Is the UN
commitment to support the restoration of democracy in
our country only lip service? Is the botched electoral
process that our friends are endeavoring to shove down
our throats "no matter what" consistent with the
generous plans laid out by the UN Secretary-General
for Haiti in the aftermath of the Aristide's
downfall?"

Peck concludes with the threat, "The International
community did not learn the lesson of Aristide's
dismissal. They continue to call instability what is
after all the historical capacity of the Haitian
people to get rid of whoever is trying to take
advantage of them. And it has a name: Resistance."

Peck represents the intellectual tendency of those
behind the forced ouster of President Aristide in Feb.
2004. His sentiments are currently being echoed in
hundreds of letters currently circulating on the
Internet to plant the concept of "resisting" the
outcome of the elections if Preval wins as expected.

What all of this really shows is that the so-called
"forces of democracy" that overthrew Aristide, and
were backed by the United States, France and Canada,
were anything but democratic. They were actually a
minority of spoilers, a paper tiger and a creature of
the media.

Peck's diatribe exposes that, not unlike the history
of U.S. foreign policy in the region, those who ousted
Aristide are only willing to accept the principals of
democracy if it results in elections that bring
victory to candidates that represent their own
political views and interests. It is an all or nothing
political mentality that led Haiti into this current
mess and unfortunately it shows no signs of changing.



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