Originally: Haiti’s poverty incites armed men to gather, plan;


They gather behind locked gates, in a house guarded by young men with


pump-action shotguns, high in the hills above the capital.


An odd collection of business owners and labor leaders, professionals and


factory workers, many of the men here once tried to mediate between President


Jean-Bertrand Aristide and opposition politicians in their dispute over flawed


elections.


Now they meet on their own, plotting strategy, issuing communiques and


denouncing the government.


As the hemisphere’s poorest nation slides back toward chaos, they say


Aristide has not done enough to resolve the three-year deadlock that has led


international donors to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.


“We’re trying to tell the powers that be that they are failing in the way


they are running the country,” said labor leader Joseph Montes.


As the standoff grinds on, opposition to Aristide is growing. In scores of


demonstrations since November, tens of thousands have taken to the streets to


demand the resignation of a government they say is incompetent, corrupt and


intolerant of dissent.


In recent weeks, they have been joined by a broadening array of individuals


and institutions. Doctors, teachers and others have joined strikes for more pay


and better working conditions, and an unprecedented coalition of manufacturers’


associations and labor unions, professional guilds and student groups, human


rights advocates and journalists’ organizations is calling on Aristide to create


the conditions for free, open and credible elections.


Others are simply fleeing. The widely broadcast footage of 235 Haitians and


Dominicans scrambling for Virginia Key in Miami’s Biscayne Bay last fall


recalled the thousands who attempted the dangerous passage during the coup that


ousted Aristide from 1991 to 1994.


Police apprehended 19 Haitians who landed at Palm Beach County in February.


The Coast Guard intercepted a dozen more in a boat off Miami earlier in the


month. On one day in January, at least 64 tried to reach the U.S. Virgin


Islands; five drowned.


It is not known how many have slipped past authorities. Cesar Gaviria,


secretary-general of the Organization of American States, said Haitians are


using migration “as an escape valve from the country’s problems.”


Flawed elections


Aristide — once seen as the best hope for this Caribbean nation of 8 million


after three decades of brutal Duvalier family rule — blames the upper classes,


opposition politicians and the international community for blocking progress.


“Yes, we may have less [support] than we had in 1990,” the former slum priest


said in a recent interview with the Associated Press. “But I think the huge


majority of the Haitian people continue to support me. And if you compare what I


have and what the one who comes behind me can get — there you will see a huge


margin of difference.”


Indeed, supporters of the government have disrupted protest demonstrations


and staged mass rallies of their own. At least five Haitians have been killed


and more than 350 injured in the clashes.


“Life is impossible,” said Montes, the labor leader. “Every sector in the


country is threatened.”


The current unrest dates to the parliamentary elections of May 2000, widely


seen as flawed. Aristide’s Lavalas Family swept the polls, but observers say


some of the races should have gone to a second round.


The United States, the European Community and other foreign donors have


frozen grants and loans totaling $500 million — the size of Haiti’s national


budget — while the Organization of American States and others attempt to


mediate between the government and the main opposition parties.


The suspension of aid has further impoverished an already poor nation. The


average Haitian lives on $250 per year; unemployment is estimated at 70 percent.


“I can’t buy coffee. I can’t buy kerosene for my lamp,” 61-year-old Elgira


Mondesir said at a recent antigovernment rally in the northern city of Cap-


Haitien. “I’m here because I’m fed up.”


Aristide has called the freeze a form of economic “apartheid” intended to


keep blacks down.


“If some people don’t want Haiti to promote economic growth, it’s always to


point a finger at Haiti to say, “Hey, don’t do that, you see they were the first


black independent country in the world but they are so poor today — you better


stay where you are instead of fighting for freedom,’ ” he said. “That’s their


goal.”


Political murders


Aristide has pledged to hold new legislative elections this year, but


opposition politicians have refused to participate without security guarantees.


Negotiations remain deadlocked; Gaviria, the OAS general-secretary, has said


“the window for democratic elections has narrowed drastically.”


Aristide’s supporters have broken up opposition demonstrations, and the


government is accused of funding and arming political gangs to rally support and


intimidate dissent. The U.S. Committee for Refugees counted more than 150


“political murders, suspicious disappearances or deaths, and quasi-political


gangland slayings” in Haiti last year.


Aristide faces growing pressure from the international community to bring to


justice supporters who commit crimes in his name. But the government’s attempt


to prosecute one gang leader last summer showed the difficulty of the task.


The arrest of Amiot “Cubain” Metayer, suspected of ordering the killing of an


opposition aide, set off weeks of street protests in the northern city of


Gonaves. Finally members of a group called Cannibal Army commandeered a backhoe


and pulled down a prison wall, freeing Metayer and more than 150 other prisoners


as police fled the city.


The gang held Gonaves for days, burning government buildings and calling for


Aristide’s resignation. Metayer remains free; authorities have said it would be


too dangerous to attempt to arrest him again.


Without guarantees of law and order, the coalition of more than 180


civil-society institutions has said it will not support elections. The coalition


has demanded authorities prosecute criminals, protect civil liberties, free


political prisoners, allow peaceful demonstrations and guarantee freedom of the


press.


“We fought for democracy,” said school principal Jean Lavaud Frederick, head


of an educators’ union. “The government we put in place is the obstacle.


“We are saying no to arbitrary war, no to misery, no to poverty, no to


disappearances, no to summary executions.”


Student leader Herv Santilus said Aristide “wants to establish another


dictatorship.”


“With Lavalas in power, Haiti cannot move forward,” he said. “We are shaking


the tree so he will fall out. We need to get rid of this venomous demon.”


Duvalier seeks return


Ominously, conditions here have led some to grow nostalgic for the Duvaliers.


Tens of thousands were killed and hundreds of millions of dollars stolen during


the 29-year reign of President-for-Life Franois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son


Jean-Claude, known as “Baby Doc.”


Jean-Claude Duvalier, exiled in 1986, has said he wants to return.


“There is chaos in Haiti,” he said from his Paris home in December. “There


are no available means to govern the country.”


Ely Merisier said he was “full of hope” when Jean-Claude Duvalier fell, and


again when Aristide came to power.


“Now neither Aristide, nor the opposition, nor the international community


can save us,” the wedding photographer said. “Only God.”