27475: Craig (news) Hope Seems Elusive As Haiti Elections Near (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig


February 4, 2006
Hope Seems Elusive As Haiti Elections Near
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:52 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- A rusty pickup carrying two wounded young men 
speeds through a slum as a paramedic sticks a barely audible siren out a 
window, hurtling past scrap-metal shacks and the same blue-helmeted U.N. troops 
who allegedly shot the men.

The makeshift ambulance, its Red Cross flag flapping, is just one snapshot of 
the horrendous conditions and failing international support in Haiti as the 
desperate country prepares for Tuesday's long-delayed elections to replace a 
weak interim government.

Conditions are going from very bad to even worse for the 8.3 million people in 
one of the world's poorest countries. An estimated 80 percent of Haitians don't 
have jobs. Kidnapping for ransom might be the only growth industry. Rich and 
poor view each other with suspicion and loathing. Hope appears as wispy as the 
smoke that permeates the capital from burning garbage.

Haiti's problems have deepened profoundly since the February 2004 rebellion 
that ousted elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was accused of 
corruption and of using thugs to attack his opponents.

Experts say Tuesday's voting is crucial to pulling Haiti from its poverty and 
despair. High turnout and the installation of a legitimate government could 
increase stability, encouraging rich nations to pour more money into aid and 
development.

But with 33 candidates, from a former president to an ex-rebel commander, 
running for president and dozens of parties vying for 129 legislative seats, 
it's unlikely anyone will be able to claim a mandate to form a cohesive 
government.

Many fear Haiti is nearing a point of no return.

''If we do not stop the decay of institutions and we do not support a 
legitimate government, we could come to a situation in which a total collapse 
is possible,'' Juan Gabriel Valdes, the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti, 
told The Associated Press. ''The international community cannot allow that to 
happen.''

Life expectancy for Haitians is 52 years. For those lucky enough to have a job, 
the average wage is $1.07 a day. Half the people can't read or write.

In the capital's sprawling Cite Soleil slum, gangs are on a kidnapping spree, 
snatching up ordinary Haitians, foreign missionaries and international election 
workers.

Haitians blame a multitude of suspects. The poor accuse the rich of paying 
gangs to carry out kidnappings. Some say Aristide is orchestrating the 
kidnappings from exile in South Africa. The rich complain that the United 
Nations hasn't stepped in firmly.

In a rare interview, a gang leader implicated a local police commander.

Wearing designer sunglasses with his Che Guevara T-shirt and black jeans, 
''Toutou'' -- ''Dog'' in Haitian Creole -- said he knows many policemen because 
he used to be one. While denying personal involvement, Toutou alleged the 
police commissioner arms gangs to carry out kidnappings and then intercepts 
ransom payments.

National Police Chief Mario Andresol acknowledged problems in the police. 
''About a quarter of the force is involved in corruption, kidnappings or even 
arms trafficking,'' he said.

Georges Sassin, a wealthy owner of a textile factory, hopes the election will 
calm Haiti. If not, he plans to join others who have closed up shop and fled. 
Only 15 business owners still operate assembly plants in Haiti, down from more 
than 100 in the late 1990s. At least 6,000 jobs have disappeared in the last 
year alone, he said.

''If elections happen and a majority of voters go down and vote, then I'm 
optimistic,'' Sassin said. ''But if the contrary happens, I'm already planning 
on packing up and leaving.''

Sassin, whose wife recently lost a cousin to gunfire, says U.N. troops should 
do more to crack down on gangs. ''There is a lot of frustration because we see 
the presence of all that military might, and nothing is being done to prevent 
bad things happening to people,'' he said.

The peacekeepers, fearing widespread civilian casualties, have refrained from 
making a large-scale assault on the Cite Soleil gangs. Election organizers 
decided not to put voting booths in the slum, citing the lack of security.

Even the peacekeepers' limited presence in Cite Soleil is problematic. Nine 
peacekeepers have been killed since the force arrived in June 2004.

Slum residents are often caught in the crossfire.

On Wednesday, George Alain Colbert, an 18-year-old shoe shiner, was on a main 
Cite Soleil road when a U.N. armored personnel carrier appeared in the 
distance. A burst of gunfire erupted from its machine gun. Colbert fell, part 
of his heel blown away. Another bullet hit him in the testicles. A second man 
was wounded in the chest.

Neighbors and relatives carried them into a nearby alley and wept as the Red 
Cross medics rushed to the scene.

''He only had a shoeshine box,'' one sobbing woman yelled over and over.

There were no peacekeepers around to hear her anguished words. But later that 
day, hundreds of people marched past a U.N. fort in Cite Soleil. Some made 
obscene gestures at the Jordanian soldiers inside.

Brazilian Lt. Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho de Siqueira, the new U.N. commander, 
said the troops only fire when attacked.

''They have strict orders not to shoot without identifying the problem. But we 
need to return fire sometimes to control the situation,'' he said.

Speaking on the patio of his guarded suburban villa, Valdes, the U.N. envoy, 
said wealthy countries must come through with promised aid to rebuild Haiti's 
crumbled infrastructure and fund social projects. If not, he worries Latin 
American countries might withdraw peacekeepers.

''There would be no reason to stay here if the only role that is assigned to 
the Latin American troops is the role of a policeman of a situation that 
continues to deteriorate,'' he said.

------

Associated Press writer Stevenson Jacobs contributed to this report.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-on-the-Edge.html