1/26 Haiti Update

Michelle Karshan, Foreign Press Liaison
National Palace, Haiti
Email: mkarshan [at] aol.com

Haiti: Foreign Press Liaison Update - January 26, 2004

1. "It's not too late for peace, it's not too late to continue on the
democratic path," President Aristide said following meeting with Caricom delegation
in Haiti. Caricom rejects maneuvers that would be contrary to democratic
principles and Haiti's Constitution. Caricom leaders reaffirm their support for
Haiti in the Caricom community.

2. This is the real situation in Haiti today by Ira Kurzban, Haiti's General
Counsel


1. "It's not too late for peace, it's not too late to continue on the
democratic path, said President Aristide this past Sunday following a meeting with
Caricom leaders at Haiti's National Palace. On Sunday, January 25th President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide met with a delegation from Caricom headed by the Prime
Minister of the Bahamas, Perry Christie. Prime Minister Christie was joined by
his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell, and his Minister of Education,
Alfred Sears, as well as the Assistant Secretary General of CARICOM,
Ambassador Colin Granderson, who headed the OAS mission in Haiti in the past.
(Caricom is the community of Caribbean nations and member countries collaborate on
trade, commerce, immigration, security, tourism, environment, etc.)

The Caricom delegation meeting with President Aristide followed a meeting
held last week in the Bahamas between Caricom representatives and a 14 member
delegation from Haiti's opposition. Caricom has taken on the task of working
with all sides in the current impasse in Haiti, in collaboration with the US and
Canadian governments, and the Organization of American States (OAS), to help
Haiti find a resolution to its impasse. The opposition, refused to participate
in what was originally being called negotiations, instead insisting that the
meeting would only be discussions in which they would present their position
to CARICOM.

Caricom members, in turn, made it clear last week that they would not support
a violent or unconstitutional move against the democratically elected
President of Haiti. Caricom's Chair, Prime Minister PJ Patterson of Jamaica,
declared that, "We have heard the views of the opposition in terms of President
Aristide and we are concerned, but Caricom is not going to be a part of a process
which supports the removal of any president other than in accordance with the
constitution of the country."

The Caricom leaders had also been quoted last week as saying that they may
consider a peacekeeping force for Haiti, but that they clearly would not support
any military intervention. The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick
Manning explained that, "Caricom does not agree that there should be some
intervention militarily in Haiti with the view of some kind of constitutional
arrangement. That in itself would be extraconstitutional."

Also last week, one member of Caricom was noted in the press as stating
openly that he regretted that Haiti was admitted to the Caricom community as its
15th member country. Other Caricom leaders immediately responded denouncing
that position, giving their full support to Haiti as it's newest member nation,
having become a full member in 2002. The various Caricom leaders declared
their will to support Haiti on its democratic path, not, as they pointed out, to
abandon it. In Haiti's defense, Prime Minister Mitchell pointed out that
President Aristide has consistently called for dialogue with the opposition and
has been trying to organize elections and had reached out to Caricom to discuss
the impasse.

At the conclusion of Sunday's meeting between President Aristide and the
Caricom delegation a press conference was held in which both President Aristide
and Prime Minister Christie made comments and a question and answer period with
the Haitian and international press followed. President Aristide thanked
Prime Minister Christie for having attended the recent Bicentennial celebrations,
thanked the Caricom delegation for having received the opposition last week in
an effort to find a way to move beyond the current impasse, and described his
meeting with the delegation as having been positive.

Both Prime Minster Christie and President Aristide indicated that President
Aristide had accepted the various recommendations put forth by the Caricom
delegation, which President Aristide described as being very similar to those
proposed by the religious sector in Haiti recently. Many of the Caricom
recommended steps are already contained in the OAS Resolution 822 and its subsequent
terms of reference, and had originated as initiatives of the Haitian government
-- many of which are already underway. The points discussed included
disarmament of gangs and persons with illegal weapons, according to the law,
reinforcing the police, judicial reform, guaranteeing respect and security for
demonstrators, who must be in compliance with the necessary rules and regulations.

President Aristide stated that he had already spoken with Haiti's Prime
Minister and ministers to organize a meeting where they could address how better to
implement measures that would better assure respect for those demonstrating.
President Aristide explained that there are laws and regulations, that were
created prior to his terms, but for which his government is obligated to
respect and comply with.

With regards to elections, President Aristide said that he would work to
provide a climate of security for free and fair elections, continue to work
towards the formation of the provisional electoral council, in the framework of the
OAS Resolution 822, and reiterated his continued commitment "to advance and
organize elections, with security for all to participate without distinction"
explaining that, "the government wants to see security for all the parties,
paving the way for the elections." President Aristide committed "to include the
participation of the opposition" in the government and to work towards the
elections of a new Parliament.

On disarmament President Aristide stated that "democracy does not include
people with guns to do what they want with, it includes dialogue...we will enter
into what is good to exit the crisis through dialogue which is good for all
without distinction." Illuminating the dangers of illegal arms, President
Aristide pointed out that the recent assassination of a young police inspector, who
was scheduled to be installed as a departmental head in the North, had been
committed with such weapons. He also discussed the importance of advancing the
capabilities of the judicial system, while explaining that the Presidency has
the obligation to encourage the justice system to move forward, but the power
to direct the Justice system does not lie with the Presidency, but with the
government.

President Aristide talked about the importance of having a functioning
Parliament through elections, pointing out, for example, that the Inter-American
Development Bank loans ratified by Parliament are critical to numerous projects,
including infrastructure development, and that more funds would be available
to Haiti once elections are achieved. He explained that the resolution of the
crisis, leading to the release of funds, is "in the interests of all actors in
society."

"In a democracy, to continue to cultivate a climate of mutual respect, of
tolerance, we must continue to encourage all actors to find a solution for the
sake of the 8 million Haitians.,,in this sense, in the framework of
democracy..."

Stating that "dialogue is indispensable," President Aristide declared that
"It is not too late for peace. It is not too late for to continue along the
democratic path through dialogue."

During the past week and again during Sunday's press conference, Caricom made
statements clarifying that they do not intend to send an invasion force to
Haiti, instead they would be working in the spirit of the OAS Resolution 822 and
its terms of reference in which the government of Haiti requested that
international police assist in the training and reinforcement of security,
particularly with regard to elections. Following last week's meeting the opposition
said they will continue their tactics, which include violent demonstrations,
lynching of those they believe are sympathetic to the President, attacks on
police and government buildings, the closing of schools and hospitals, and
attacking those who do not comply -- in furtherance of their objective to overthrow
the democratically elected President.

Prime Minister Christie reiterated Caricom's "commitment to the people of
Haiti and for the full development of a democratic Haiti referring to Haiti as
one of the countries in the region that was "elected by the people and for the
people." He also pointed out that during the Special Summit of the Americas
conference in Monterey, Mexico, President Aristide "gave us his full commitment
to work for a full democracy in Haiti...and is committed to a process that
allows that all the parties in Haiti could work for democratization."

Prime Minister Christie explained that "Caricom's position is based on the
recognition that a strong and democratic Haiti would mean a strong and
democratic Caricom region." Later, in response to a question from a journalist, Prime
Minister Christie explained that the problem of the flow of illegal migrants
from Haiti was being addressed through a bilateral agreement with Haiti that he
expects will be signed within the next two weeks.

Prime Minister Christie went on to state, "I am satisfied that President
Aristide is fully aware of Caricom's position and that we in turn are aware of
President Aristide's position...and I must say clearly that his position is
generally supported by the position of Caricom." He informed the press conference
that Jamaica's Prime Minister, PJ Patterson, who serves as the Chair of
Caricom, "has invited President Aristide...and representatives of his party, Fanmi
Lavalas, ...to join us for discussion in the near future in Kingston, Jamaica."
The objective of the discussions, he stated, are "to advance our efforts to
bring about a full resolution to the quest for democracy by the Haitian
people," and he affirmed that he was "satisfied that today's meeting has
significantly progressed along this line."

In closing Prime Minister Christie stated that, "Caricom's concern is to
assure that opposing factions in Haiti are able to recognize that in Haiti's best
interest we must avoid civil strife and bring order to the democratic process.
That was our message to the civil society and we believe they understand
that this is the mission of Caricom on behalf of the Haitian people." Further,
he stated, "Those of you who are here in Haiti know what the opposition, civil
society, and the church are saying. You also must know that it is in Haiti's
best interests to move beyond the impasse that exists, therefore Caricom has
begun to discuss with President Aristide and the opposition and the
representatives of civil society, all of the perceived obstacles that may be in the
path
of the desired end that we want. I am confident that in the near future we
will see the major steps taken."

President Aristide concluded that he has already embraced these ways as a
solution and looking forward to the date of the meeting in Jamaica, stating that
"I have already said that I will attend the meeting in Kingston, Jamaica." He
reiterated his hopes that all of the opposition and civil society will
"continue to work for a resolution, constitutionally, democratically, and
peacefully." President Aristide declared that, "Democracy is a nonviolent process.
We
cannot tolerate otherwise."


2. This is the real situation in Haiti today Ira Kurzban, Haiti's General
Counsel

In the last month the international press (Associated Press (AP)/Reuters/Los
Angeles Times) and the Haitian media (owned and controlled by the elite) have
consistently falsely portrayed the situation in Haiti as: (1) overwhelming
opposition to Aristide; (2) pro-Aristide violence against a nonviolent opposition
who are victims; and (3) corruption and incompetence by the Aristide
government which is essentially non-democratic.

Here is the real story. On the first point, the opposition while larger than
before represents a very small part of Haitian society. There is more vocal
opposition among the elite and more general opposition among the small middle
class than there was before.

This is largely due to the deterioration in the economic conditions in Haiti
brought about by the US embargo against the Haitian government for the past
three years. However, if you take the elite and the middle class you still only
have 15% of the population. The vast majority of people are poor but are
highly intelligent about their situation. They know what is going on and they know
that the U.S. in engaged in a Nicaragua/Venezuela type scenario of driving
the country into the economic gutter. The press has falsely portrayed the
strength of the opposition by consistently over-reporting the numbers of people
demonstrating against the government and underreporting the support for the
government. I was present at the National Palace on January 1st when the President
spoke. Any fair, but conservative assessment of the numbers would have been
100,000 or more. The AP reported 10,000 and the NY Times (which later retracted
its statement) said there was a "small but enthusiastic crowd." The false
reporting also extends to the issue of democracy. For two years Aristide has called
for elections. He is the only sitting President who has said let us go to
elections and have the people decide. The opposition has adamantly refused to
participate in elections yet they are considered the democratic victims of the
government's oppression. The press, echoing the US line, has said the country is
not secure enough to have elections. At the same time the US, the EU and
others are funneling millions of dollars to the opposition to keep up their street
demonstrations and destabilize the government. In any event, the US pushed
elections in Salvador and Guatemala and Colombia in the middle of their civil
wars, so it is nonsense to say the situation is not secure enough for
elections. The US doesn't want the opposition to go to elections and the opposition
doesn't want to go to elections because they represent such a small part of the
electorate that they would have no chance of success.

The elite who want "their country back" have used the student issue and the
students as a moral cover. However, the students themselves represent a very
small and violent part of the opposition. The students are also not uniformly
against the government as pictured in the press and one student group called
this week for an end to the boycott against classes so that they can go back to
school.

This leads me to the second issue about violence. The opposition has engaged
in violent actions which include beating a young man to death during a recent
opposition demonstration, because they believed him to be an Aristide
supporter. This was caught on tape, and can be obtained at the national television
station. They have burned police cars, beaten up other government supporters,
executed Aristide supporters standing at the National Palace and intentionally
provoked the police by changing the routes of their demonstrations to create
maximum conflict. Last week they attacked young students who wanted to attend
school and they attacked street vendors for not following their boycott.

One of their primary spokespersons now is Dany Toussaint who was on the DEA
(US Drug Enforcement Agency) drug list. Mr. Toussaint was called before the
Haitian courts for questioning into allegations that he was behind the
assassination of journalist Jean Dominique. The U.S. pressed Aristide for years to
distance himself from Toussaint.

However, now that he has joined the opposition, the US Embassy is mum about
Toussaint and he has been taken off the DEA list. If journalists do any story
on this they should confront the Embassy and the DEA about Toussaint. They have
all-of-a-sudden become deaf and dumb about him.

The police are ill equipped to address these problems over a long period of
time because the US and the international community have engaged in a
financial embargo against the Haitian government for three years. Thus, Haiti has
3,500 police for 8 million people. The City of New York has 62,500 police and
uniform transit cops for the same population.

The other issue has to do with the effectiveness and corruption of the
government. While funneling millions to the opposition through the International
Republican Institute (IRI) and other groups to destabilize the government, the US
has placed an international embargo against the Haitian government for three
years.

The US, France, the European Union (EU) as well as the international
financial institutions -- World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) --
have given no money to the Haitian government in three years. [The IDB finally
ended its embargo this year but has only given Haiti the money that Haiti paid
them to pay off Haiti's arrears--about $45 million].

How does a country have a police force, or a health plan, or clean water or
infrastructure projects without any money? The US (with the same people in the
White House such as Otto Reich and Elliot Abrams) have engaged in the same
scenario as Nicaragua. They are seeking to drive the economy into the ground and
to destabilize the country to such an extent that even the poor will abandon
Lavalas and Aristide. The effects have been devastating to Haiti's poor. Haiti
is the poorest country in the Hemisphere and is now in desperate shape. The
hatred of Aristide is so intense by the Bush administration and France that
they have ensured that the Haitian government cannot survive.

This is the real situation in Haiti today. As we say in Haiti, if you really
want to know what's going on ask a poor person. They understand all of this
better than the journalists.

For a recent analysis by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA):
http://coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/04.03_Haiti_Aristide.htm