Another blow to democracy in homeland, local Haitians lament

"Aristide was kidnapped!" they screamed, draped in Haitian flags. "Election yes, coup no," said the placards they raised in defiance.

This angry group of about 200 protesters was not going to accept the official version of events - that Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as president and left his country in chaos yesterday.

As Montrealers elsewhere began to discuss Haiti's post-Aristide future, those outside the U.S. consulate on St. Alexandre St. vowed to keep up the fight to bring Aristide back.

"France and the U.S. kidnapped him with a knife to his throat," said Rébert Ismaël. "But the resistance is organized in Haiti to show we will not accept this coup d'état, the 34th coup d'état in our country."

They denounced everyone, from George Bush (Sr. and Jr.,) to the local media for biased reporting. Prime Minister Paul Martin, "an accomplice to Bush assassin," and French President Jacques Chirac, who called for Aristide's resignation.

"We want to know why they took away our president," cried one angry woman, carrying a picture of Aristide, a former priest, now on his way to exile in an undetermined nation.

"I hope people in Port-au-Prince will defend themselves. They have all been armed to the teeth by the United States. They can't just cross their arms."

But the protesters weren't the only ones thinking of Haiti's future, as U.S. marines headed to Port-au-Prince for the third time in the last 15 years.

At a packed church service in St. Michel, members of Montreal's 100,000-strong Haitian community prayed for calm to return to the beleaguered nation.

"Haitians do not respect democracy," parishioner Evans Semé said. "If they had, Aristide would have fulfilled his mandate (until 2006). But I am not pro-Aristide, I am pro-democracy."

Others, meanwhile, tuned into radio station CPAM, based above a supermarket in St. Michel, for a day-long call-in show.

"The first (Aristide) government only lasted seven months (before there was a coup), and it looked promising," one speaker said. "But after 15 years he has not been able to get social justice and peace."

"Right now, who can we trust?" another caller asked. "There are no honest leaders."

Journalist Jean-Numa Goudou, who was forced to flee Port-au-Prince when pro-Aristide thugs burned down his house, said he wished he could transplant Canada's law and order to Haiti.

"We are waiting for the rebels to drop their weapons as they promised," Goudou said, not wanting to take sides. "But the opposition has many heads. They will fight among themselves and create a crisis in itself. Either way, 'le mal est infini,' as they say in Haiti."

csolyom [at] thegazette.canwest.com

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/story.asp?id=2A36C579-FA31-436F-A7EA-9604E854F679