25444: Hermantin(news)Interim Haitian leader cites progress despite critics (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Interim Haitian leader cites progress despite critics
By Mike Williams

Palm Beach Post-Cox news Service

Sunday, June 12, 2005

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Gerard Latortue was summoned to lead his country at 69, 
an age when many might have chosen to avoid the rigors of such a challenge.

Haiti was a shambles, its economy a wreck and its political system riven by 
violence and discord. Foreign troops were on the ground to provide stability, 
and the populace was mired in the worst poverty in this hemisphere.

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Many say the situation hasn't changed much — perhaps it has grown worse — since 
March 2004, when Latortue took over as Haiti's interim prime minister.

But in an interview with Cox Newspapers, the former United Nations official 
vowed he would leave office as promised in February, when a freely elected 
government is to take power.

Worn by 17-hour work days and a challenge he admits has been tougher than he 
imagined, Latortue, who turns 71 June 19, looks forward to returning to his 
home and family in Boca Raton.

"The experience of the last 14 months indicates Haiti is a country that is very 
difficult to govern," Latortue said. "There is a tradition of a lack of good 
governance, a lack of political stability and a lack of tolerance in Haitian 
society.

"They never tell you the truth in politics here. There is always a double 
language. When I talk to people here, I say what I think and they are not used 
to that. Many of them think I'm naive."

Latortue has drawn plenty of criticism since a "council of sages" selected him 
to rule Haiti after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled in February 
2004 in the face of an armed rebellion. Critics say his government has 
persecuted Aristide supporters, jailing hundreds without charges, while doing 
little to heal the deep divisions left in the wake of the once wildly popular 
Aristide's departure.

On Haiti's streets, the sharpest criticism of Latortue is that he has allowed 
parts of the country to descend into lawless violence. Gun-toting thugs have 
paralyzed several large slums in the capital, often battling with police and 
U.N. peacekeepers, choking off economic activity, discouraging foreign 
investment and raising doubts about whether elections can succeed next fall.

All but his fiercest critics, however, admit that Latortue inherited a 
nightmarish situation, and some say he has done a solid job on many fronts.

"He was faced with an extremely difficult job," said Dan Erikson, head of 
Caribbean programs at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy group. 
"Running the interim government in a country like Haiti in turmoil is a 
thankless task. But the overall economic management of the government has been 
clean and well-run, and that's saying a lot for Haiti. The area where he's 
achieved the most has been in winning the confidence of the international 
community and getting a renewal of aid assistance."

Fled to escape dictatorship

Born in Gonaives, a gritty port city on Haiti's western coast, Latortue was 
educated in Paris, where he studied politics and economics. He came back to 
Haiti with a law degree and taught as a law professor.

In 1963, however, he fled the country to escape the dictatorship of Francois 
"Papa Doc" Duvalier. He found a job with the United Nations, working as chief 
negotiator for the Industrial Development Organization.

After one brief return to Haiti in 1988 to work in the government of Leslie 
Francois Manigat, who was overthrown in a military coup, Latortue semi-retired 
to Boca Raton. He remained active in the Haitian community, hosting two talk 
shows on a Haitian and Creole-language television network.

After a career spent mostly out of Haiti, Latortue said his sudden return last 
year was something of an eye-opener.

"I respect law and order," he said. "These virtues existed in Haiti at one 
time, but progressively declined since the dictatorships of the Duvaliers. 
There is no respect for institutions. Everything is seen from a personal point 
of view."

Although Latortue has drawn praise for his dealings with foreign governments 
and the 7,400-strong U.N. peacekeeping contingent that has served in Haiti 
since last summer, he has had his battles with the international community.

"As far as the use of money, I'm 100 percent for control of it," he said. "When 
a foreign government donates money to Haiti, those checks should require two 
signatures, one from the Haitian government and one from the donor country. But 
it becomes a conflict when some of the diplomats want to micromanage, to tell 
you who should be hired and how the job should be done."

Latortue also has clashed with the U.N. mission over security issues, at times 
demanding that the foreign troops take a more aggressive stand against the 
violence that continues to plague parts of the capital.

He admits, though, that his government has been partly at fault.

"Everything has not been a success," he said. "We need a new strategy and 
approach to the situation in Belair and Cite Soleil," Port-au-Prince slums 
where pro-Aristide armed thugs routinely battle police and U.N. troops. "We 
need a more comprehensive approach. That means not only a police and military 
solution but also to improve the living conditions in those areas, to create 
jobs and give those people some hope."

Along with the security situation, Latortue has drawn criticism for his 
handling of Aristide supporters, many of whom have been jailed for months 
without the start of judicial proceedings.

"He hasn't been neutral, which is the role of an interim government," said 
Henry Carey, a Haiti specialist at Georgia State University. "He says he's 
enforcing the rule of law, but he hasn't done it evenhandedly. It's polarized 
an inherently polarized situation even further."

Aristide backer slams him

The Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, an Aristide supporter and Port-au-Prince priest, 
was even more critical.

"Cite Soleil is like a concentration camp," he said. "It's a disaster. Latortue 
has made it worse with his attitude. In his speeches he's arrogant and 
negative, pushing us to fight each other, not reuniting us."

Although acknowledging that Haiti's judicial system has problems, Latortue 
dismissed the charge that his government has violated the human rights of 
Aristide supporters, most of them members of the Lavalas Family political party 
the former president founded.

"They are our friends," he said of Lavalas. "Aristide is the one that his 
followers fear. We want them to participate in the political process."

Latortue also rebutted charges that Aristide's prime minister, Yvon Neptune, 
has been unfairly jailed since last year on charges that he masterminded 
several murders during last year's uprising. Neptune has been on a hunger 
strike in recent months, and his case has drawn concern from international 
diplomats.

"At no moment did my government want to keep him in jail without seeing a 
judge," he said. "He refused to see a judge. We deplore the tradition of 
inefficiency in Haiti's judicial systems, and I believe in human rights. I have 
spoken to the judge in Neptune's case, and I expect him to make a decision in 
the days to come."

Latortue pointed out that, when he took office last year, he kept all of 
Neptune's key assistants in their jobs, adding, "Is that someone who wants to 
persecute Lavalas?"

Image pivots on elections

Many say Latortue's tenure will be judged largely on whether international 
observers and the Haitian people will view this fall's elections as free and 
fair. With parts of the capital beset by violence and the voter registration 
process already behind schedule, many wonder whether elections can even be 
held.

Latortue believes the schedule will be met and a new government will take over 
in February, even if the voting is delayed slightly.

"We still believe we can make the calendar," he said. "There have been 
elections in other countries with troubles, including Jamaica and Colombia, not 
to mention Iraq and Afghanistan. We have to recognize the insecurity problem, 
but we're considering steps to strengthen the national police and at the same 
time we're negotiating changes with the U.N. in the structure of their effort 
to make them more effective."

The steps, which Latortue said would be implemented as soon as possible, may 
include changes in leadership and redeployment of UN peacekeepers and Haitian 
police from calm areas to the trouble spots.

Latortue also plans to appeal to the U.S. government to end the deportation of 
Haitians convicted of crimes in America to Haiti during the election period, 
saying studies show the deportees typically resort to crime when they return to 
their home countries.

Reflecting on his tenure, Latortue is proud that his government managed to pull 
Haiti back from the brink of a civil war, a threat that some say still exists 
in Haiti.

He also believes he has established principles of ethics and good governance, 
saying that Haiti's once bankrupt treasury is now operating in the black and is 
on good relations with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

And he is immensely proud that he has reorganized the civil service, saying he 
has eliminated the patronage system that for decades made Haiti's governmental 
institutions weak, inefficient and corrupt.

"We're strengthening the institutional framework of the Haitian government," he 
said. "We're building institutions so that tomorrow they won't depend on one 
political leader. Power in Haiti has always been a source of privilege. To me, 
power means to serve."

However, Latortue acknowledges that he had hoped to accomplish more.

"When I decided to leave retirement, I looked at my life and said this was a 
wonderful opportunity to apply the lessons I had learned working with the 
U.N.," he said. "Well, that has not been the case. You find a resistance to 
change here. Perhaps I came at the wrong time. But I am not the type of man who 
would quit. When I start something, I try to take it to the end."

Now, Latortue said, he looks forward to a "full retirement" with his family in 
Boca Raton, noting that his wife has remained in Florida, which the couple 
considers home.

"I'll take care of my grandchild and write my memoirs," he said.