18107: (Chamberlain) Former OAS chief in Haiti writes (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(The Nation, Barbados, 25 Jan 04)


Haiti: When Will It End?

By Orlando Marville



As North Americans are wont to say, it is déjà vu all over again. Like
President Preval, when the Senate refused to appoint his nominee as Prime
Minister (The Senate in Haiti, like that in the United States has, as
distinct from ours, at least in theory, real teeth.), Aristide has decided
to rule by decree. The mandate of the Parliament has expired and he intends
to rule by Presidential decree, evidently beyond the date of the end of his
mandate. He has also made another of his empty promises to have elections
in six months.

How can elections be conducted in six months, when both he and the
Opposition have stubbornly refused to have anything of a dialogue with
respect to the composition of the Electoral Council? How much time will
this take and how much more will it take to have a voting system in place?
It should be remembered that since Haiti has never had a permanent
electoral body, a complete new census will be required (and the logistical
difficulties are a nightmare) and that it is actually not possible without
several million dollars in not available resources to pull this off.

The dispute here is real. On the last occasion when yet another Provisional
Electoral Council was created, although it was during the presidency of
Preval, Aristide made sure that he planted a spy within the council, and no
matter what the Council decided, he was privy to it within the hour.
Additionally, the body was ultimately controlled by the administrative
secretary of the council, even though he did not sit in on the meetings of
the council.

In any case, when the president of the Provisional Electoral Council, who
was and remains an honourable man, refused to sign off on the cooked up
results of the elections for the Senate, he had to flee the country for
fear of his life. The Aristide camp then put out the rumour that he had
been kidnapped. The story of that “kidnapping” would bear some telling, but
it must remain a deep secret.

Finally, Sir John Compton, CARICOM’s constant envoy to Haiti – his Creole
has clearly been helpful in getting him generally understood by many
outside of the Aristide camp – has recommended that Haiti be suspended from
CARICOM. Interestingly, Haiti should never have become a full member of
CARICOM. It had been agreed that Haiti would become a full member when it
had a duly elected Senate to ratify the provisional agreement on trade and
other issues that had been reached after several negotiating sessions
between Haiti and CARICOM.

Since the Aristide Senate was anything but duly constituted, there should
not have been the final step taken to have the agreement ratified. However,
after some sentimental mouthing by some CARICOM leaders and the usual
reluctance of the five or more Heads of Government who were not keen to
admit Haiti at that time, the decision was made. It has taken Sir John all
of three years travelling back and forth, paralleling the OAS effort, to
agree that Haiti does not yet belong to what is touted as the democratic
Caribbean.

In the interim, the demonstrations go on. Ever since the killing, allegedly
by Aristide’s own people of an OP gang leader, who claimed to be pro
Lavalas (Aristide’s Party), the population in general has been in revolt
and demonstrations take place now even in the heart of Port-au-Prince as
well as in Cap-Haitien in the North, which has tended to be a Republic in
its own. It is now clear, that in spite of Aristide’s arrangement of the
occasional counter-demonstration, that the people of Haiti no longer want
the monster that the poor, demagogue of a priest has become.

Regrettably, this dislike of Aristide will inevitably spill off on CARICOM
and the OAS, both of which have hesitated to come to grips with the
manoeuvres of Aristide, while naively believing that he would come around
to being a democrat and play by the rules.

One wonders whether Sir John’s call will be acted upon or whether there
will be further delay while Aristide switches tactics much in the way that
his spiritual predecessor, Dr Duvalier, was so adept at doing. While
Duvalier kept playing the Communist card – the Communists are coming, the
Communists are coming – an option no longer available to Aristide, he will
undoubtedly promise elections, declare his willingness to effect compromise
and so on.

The problem is that all the middle class Haitians who once believed that
Aristide could bring democracy to Haiti have long since denied ever having
any sympathies for him, and the population at large has had enough. The
only question is when and how he will leave.

It is therefore absolutely important that CARICOM heads declare that they
are unable further to support the lack of governance that the Aristide
regime has fostered and is now desperately trying to blame all and sundry
for. This would at least give some comfort to the thousands of civic and
religious groups that have for so long opposed Aristide.