BY SETH GALINSKY
MIAMI - Tensions have been mounting as the December 17 date for presidential elections approaches in Haiti. Washington hoped to use the elections to prove its intervention had contributed to democracy and stability. But instead, Haitians will go to the ballot box amid growing discontent with the role of the U.S.-led occupation force and the deteriorating economic situation in the country.
Haiti's current president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, indicated he might accede to growing demands that he remain in office past February, when his current term ends. Aristide was overthrown by a military coup in September 1991. He remained in exile for three years until U.S. and United Nations troops invaded the country and returned him to office in October 1994.
Many Aristide supporters argue that the time the Haitian president spent in exile in the United States should not be counted against his original term of office.
Washington's response was quick in coming. "We expect him to leave," Anthony Lake, the White House national security adviser, said November 26. Days later Aristide stated he would step down as scheduled.
The episode reflected the pressure on Aristide to take some distance from Washington. It took place in the midst of a deepening economic and political crisis on the island. Inflation, which dropped to 27 percent for the 1994-95 period, is now at an annual level of 35 percent.
Washington has stepped up a campaign to impose its policies on the Haitian government. Together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Washington has been pressing the Haitian government to undertake drastic austerity measures and privatize key industries currently in government hands.
In early August, then Prime Minister Smarck Michel called for bids for two of the state-owned companies, a flour mill and a cement plant. But facing growing opposition to the privatization, including a mass demonstration of thousands in Port-au-Prince, Aristide scuttled the plan. Michel, a businessman, resigned.
Meanwhile, Washington announced that a $4.6 million U.S. aid payment was being withheld. The money was needed to buy petroleum. A $100 million agreement with the IMF and the World Bank is also on hold because of the delay in the privatizations.
Dependent on foreign aid
Haiti is dependent on foreign aid, which it counts on to
cover an estimated 40 percent of the government budget, $133
million out of a total $326 million.
In spite of promises by the new prime minister, Claudette Werleigh, to come through on an austerity program and privatizing, little aid has been forthcoming.
In the last weeks of November more than 1,000 Haitian refugees were picked up at sea and forcibly repatriated by the U.S. government. Aristide had earlier terminated a treaty which gave Washington legal cover for the interceptions on the high seas. After the recent repatriations he complained that Haiti was not consulted.
Recent shootings and the assassination of an Aristide supporter have also heightened tensions.
Jean Hubert Feuille, a congressman and Aristide ally, was assassinated November 7. At Feuille's November 11 funeral, Aristide called on people to disarm supporters of the military regime that staged the coup.
He criticized the "international community" for failing to complete disarmament in the country. In a clear reference to U.S. officials and to the troops that still occupy Haiti, he addressed himself to "the police who are listening throughout the country," saying that "from now on, there are not two or three chiefs of state, just one. And that is who is talking."
In response, hundreds of youth set up barricades of burning tires. In Cap-Haitien and Gonaives, thousands of Aristide supporters searched vehicles and houses for arms. In a section of Cité Soleil in the capital, one former soldier was beaten to death when he refused to give up his weapon.
Prime Minister Werleigh later urged Haitians to cooperate with the police and not organize on their own to disarm former coup supporters
At a "National Dialogue" conference a week after the funeral, Aristide supporters approved resolutions supporting the formation of a new political party with Aristide as its head, demanded the arrest of those who financed the 1991 coup, and insisted that foreign troops, including the more than 2,000 U.S. troops still there, leave the country. The soldiers were scheduled to leave in February, but the United Nations extended the mandate for the international force to allow it to remain past the original deadline of March 1996.
On November 17, gunmen strafed city hall. "They did it to intimidate us, but I can't be cowed," said Mayor Emmanuel Charlemagne, a popular folk singer known for his outspoken opposition to the Duvalier dictatorship and its former supporters. Despite criticism of Aristide, Charlemagne endorsed Lavalas presidential candidate Rene Preval. After declaring he would not attempt to remain in office, Aristide said that as a member of Lavalas he supported its candidate.
While several opposition parties have announced a boycott of the upcoming presidential election, there are currently 14 announced candidates in the race.
In another incident, Washington has refused to turn over to the Haitian government thousands of documents U.S. troops seized from the offices of the Haitian military and right- wing paramilitary groups. This includes files of the hated Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH). Emmanuel Constant, a FRAPH leader, was reported to have ties to the CIA and U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The Pentagon claims the documents belonged to the former military dictatorship, not the Aristide government, and became U.S. government property when Washington's troops seized them last year. Stanley Schrager, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Haiti, acknowledged the documents are now in the hands of the DIA and "are being reviewed."