17580: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Most Haitians reject Aristide's leadership (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Dec. 26, 2003

HUDES DESRAMEAUX,
Most Haitians reject Aristide's leadership

The Haitian community loves lawyer Ira Kurzban as he was the lead attorney
who in the 1980s won for us a landmark court decision paving the way for our
community's political success today. But it is Kurzban's current lobbying
that our community can't fathom, because the Haitian government that he
represents has lately unleashed a wave of repression against students and
the opposition.

Kurzban's Dec. 22 column, Great powers attempt to undermine Aristide, all
but seeks to cloak the role of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti's social and
political crisis. It is not true that ``Haiti has faced an international
embargo by all the great powers.''

What embargo, when all types of commerce are thriving between Haiti and the
rest of the world? As to the withholding of international assistance,
Aristide is the prime one responsible for not acquiescing on time to the
international community's demand to recount ballots in seven Senate races in
the 2000 elections.

Why is this government begging for international assistance today when in
1990 Aristide told us that Haiti could develop itself with its own means? It
is not true that ''there is a small, well-financed but vocal opposition that
is out of step with the vast majority of Haitians.'' Literally hundreds of
thousands of Haitians have been taking to the streets to protest the
Aristide government.

Certainly democracy is not flourishing in Haiti. More journalists have been
exiled and killed during this government than during the Duvalier
dictatorships. Students have been attacked more so today than at anytime in
Haiti's history.

I always thought a lobbyist's job is to lobby. Kurzban has just proved me
wrong.

Pembroke Pines

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