27644: (news) Chamberlain: U.S. prods likely Haiti victor to shun Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Saul Hudson

     WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday urged
Haiti's likely new leader Rene Preval to oppose any return from exile of
his ally, ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     The move, which avoided unconditional backing of Preval despite his
apparent easy win in an election the United States promoted, could
immediately undermine the incoming president in the impoverished, unstable
Caribbean nation.
     It will also likely maintain a fissure in U.S. policy-making, which
has been polarized between administration conservatives opposed to Aristide
and the congressional Black Caucus that backed his leftist leadership.
     Preval, who was president from 1996 to 2001, appeared headed for an
outright victory in the first election since Aristide was ousted two years
ago in the face of an armed revolt and Bush administration pressure.
     Preval, who found his strongest support in the same slums that formed
Aristide's political base, has not said if he wants to bring the firebrand
former Roman Catholic priest back from his exile in South Africa.
     The United States sought to pre-empt such a move.
     "He wasn't on the ballot. And he is in South Africa, and I would
expect that he would stay there," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack
told reporters.
     "We think the Haitian government should be looking forward to their
future, not to its past," he said.
     Preval's win is discomforting for the United States.
     It further exposes a trend in Latin America and beyond, where voters
have instinctively opted for leftist candidates opposed to U.S. policies in
elections promoted by Washington.
     With President George W. Bush vowing to spread democracy worldwide,
his administration praised Haitians for holding a generally fair election
and promised to work with the incoming government regardless of its
political leaning.
     With policy toward Haiti underpinned by a concern to maintain enough
stability to avoid a repeat of the mass 1990s exodus prompted by rampaging
death squads, Washington offered to continue to help the government train
its police.
     McCormack also used language usually reserved to warn leftist leaders
in Latin America, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia, to
follow U.S. policies.
     "Our interest is in seeing that they govern in a democratic manner.
And a democracy is not just about election day; it is about how you
govern," McCormack said.
     Peter Hakim, of the Washington-based think tank the Inter-American
Dialogue, worried that was a code that could undercut Preval at a time when
any Haiti government needs the superpower's support to help stabilize the
chaotic nation.
     "It's now in the interest of the United States that Preval is a
success. It should unconditionally support a government that wins a
democratic election," he said.
     "It's probably not a good idea for Preval to bring back the divisive
figure of Aristide, but it's not for the United States to decide," he
added.
     Before the armed revolt that forced him out, Aristide had long been
accused by opponents at home and critics abroad of corruption and
authoritarian tendencies.
     Larry Birns, a longtime critic of what he believes is U.S.
interference to impose free-market economic policies in Haiti, said the
administration was signaling Preval would have to toe the American line or
struggle to win aid.
     "The final arbiter of Haiti's domestic policy is the U.S. ambassador
because he has the ability to block international funds," said the director
of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs think tank.
     Rep Barbara Lee, a California Democrat in the Black Caucus, urged the
Bush administration against undercutting Preval.
     "The United States must fully support and respect, rather than
undermine, democracy in Haiti," she said. "We must provide the vital
humanitarian and economic assistance the country so desperately needs."