24807: Hermantin (News) Haiti receives promise of support from U.N.

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haiti receives promise of support from U.N.
By Mike Williams
Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
Sunday, April 17, 2005

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Wrapping up a four-day visit Saturday, top United 
Nations officials vowed continued support for Haiti's struggling interim 
government and expressed hope that upcoming fall elections will set the 
troubled Caribbean nation on the road to stability.

"The elections are the necessary first step," said Ronaldo Sardenberg, 
Brazil's United Nations ambassador and head of the U.N. Security Council's 
delegation to Haiti. "This is the future of Haiti. It is not our future. But 
our visit shows our determination to give priority and special attention to 
Haiti."

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It was the Security Council delegation's first official visit to any Latin 
American or Caribbean country.

Violence continued to plague parts of the country, as it has since an armed 
rebellion a year ago forced the departure of former President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide.

Gun battles Thursday and Friday between blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeeping 
troops and Aristide supporters holed up in one of the capital's most 
notorious slums left a peacekeeper from the Philippines and a reported 10 
Haitians dead. The Filipino was the third member of the international force 
killed violently in Haiti.

Members of the delegation said they planned to extend the year-old U.N. 
mission when its mandate expires in June, and will consider adding more 
foreign police to the 1,400 in the country in an effort to bolster the 
under-manned Haitian police force. The U.N. mission also includes about 
6,000 soldiers.

Although the overall tone of the diplomats' comments was positive, some 
delegation members expressed concerns after meetings with local political 
leaders.

"It was all very disparate and about what happened in the past rather than 
focusing on the future," acting U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Anne Patterson 
told the Associated Press after a meeting with local politicians. "There's a 
lot of work to be done on national reconciliation."

The lack of trust among the Haitian political parties has its roots in the 
troubled circumstances surrounding Aristide's departure in February 2004.

A former parish priest who became Haiti's first democratically elected 
president in 1990, Aristide was a champion to the millions of Haitians who 
live in dire poverty. The nation is the poorest in this hemisphere, with an 
estimated 75 percent of its 8 million residents surviving on the equivalent 
of less than $2 a day.

Aristide mobilized the poor but eventually became isolated from the 
international community, which withheld desperately needed aid because of 
charges that his political party, Lavalas Family, illegally manipulated the 
2000 legislative elections. Meanwhile, political opponents labeled Aristide 
a virtual dictator, saying he hired armed thugs to kill and terrorize his 
enemies.

Aristide now lives in South Africa, where he has expressed his desire to 
return to Haiti.

His supporters believe the Bush administration forced him from power, which 
the administration denies, and say they will accept no alternative other 
than Aristide's return.

"Aristide is the only one we can depend on," said Florette Pierre, 25, who 
led a small march in the capital's troubled Bel Air neighborhood on Friday. 
"The U.N. is doing nothing here. They are killing people every day."

Aristide's supporters claim they are being persecuted by the U.S.-backed 
interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, charges that are 
echoed by several human rights organization.

Others in Haiti, however, say the international force hasn't been tough 
enough.

As recently as last month, Latortue complained that the peacekeepers were 
not moving aggressively enough to restore order, although he praised the 
U.N. forces last week, saying the situation had improved dramatically.

He also vowed that the elections will go forward as scheduled this fall, a 
commitment Sardenberg echoed.

Haitian elections officials say they have been attacked several times as 
they attempted to begin a voter registration process that is already weeks 
behind schedule.

Some here question whether the registration can be completed before the 
scheduled Oct. 9 local elections and Nov. 13 presidential and legislative 
elections, and whether security forces can provide a stable enough 
environment for a valid vote to take place.

Haitians interviewed on the streets typically shake their heads when asked 
who will be the next president. The anti-Aristide opposition has fractured 
into a confusing array of parties, and no single leader seems to have enough 
national standing to pull together the strife-ridden country.

Meanwhile, the smoldering resentment of Aristide's supporters threatens the 
hopes for reconciliation.

"This so-called government was put in by George Bush," said George Brutus, 
41, a businessman who lives in Bel Air and joined the Friday march calling 
for Aristide's return. "Our legal president was kidnapped. Since then, the 
Haitian people are dying at the hands of government death squads."