Visitors See Signs of Hope in Haiti
by Bill Slavick

As winter turned to spring, three Peace Action Maine members, representatives of the Social Justice and Peace Commission of Sacred Heart/St. Domic Church in Portland, spent a week in Haiti establishing a twinning relationship with Notre Dame du Mont Carmel parish in Saut D'Eau, 60 miles and three and a half hours by car north of Port au Prince.

My wife Ursula and I and Patricia Maurer discovered not only the needs of a far-flung parish of 15,000, with chapels and schools hours by foot or horseback from any road, but a democratic nation aborning, with far more hope --- and cause for hope --- than the press and Washington appear to recognize.

We arrived in Haiti a few days after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's inauguration as president. Aristide succeeded Rene Preval, his close associate, who became president after Aristide's much-abbreviated initial term, a result of a three-year coup.

While we were in Haiti, the U.S. press was trumpeting challenges to the certification of 10 senators of Aristide's party. The vote-counting method used was employed without protest in 1990, but is inconsistent with the Haitian constitution. The opposition had selected an alternative government despite the fact that Aristide received 90 percent of the presidential vote.

While we were in Haiti, the U.S. press was trumpeting challenges to the certification of 10 senators of Aristide's party. The vote-counting method used was employed without protest in 1990, but is inconsistent with the Haitian constitution. The opposition had selected an alternative government despite the fact that Aristide received 90 percent of the presidential vote. We discovered that almost unanimously the people in the countryside rejoiced at the return of the only Haitian who had ever held out any hope for them. This time Aristide returned free of the major compromises of his economic program that the United States required as a condition of his restoration to power in 1994. Utility poles and signposts everywhere bore wide bands of blue and red paint in celebration of the Lavalas victory.

Haitians glowed in the aftermath of Aristide's conciliatory and visionary inaugural address. They dismissed the opposition's pretensions as insignificant. Aristide was busy forming his government amid hopes of an end to privatization of profitable state industries and utilities and institution of economic reforms impossible earlier because of a non-functioning legislature.

In Port-au-Prince, with its few paved streets and teeming streetside informal economy there were concrete signs of a Haiti readying for the 21st century. The airport facility has been enlarged, a park across the street is near completion, and a well-paved access road has opened.

An important legacy of the 1994-2000 democratic era has been improved schooling using funds that formerly were used for the now-disbanded army.

Unfortunately, U.S. recognition of Aristide's victory has not been accompanies by aid, and the Organization of American States, under U.S. pressure, has withheld aid, citing vote-counting irregularities. Aristide has acknowledged that "without aid, we will fail."

A number of factions in Washington are opposed to U.S. assistance to Aristide's government. Sen. Jesse Helms continues to repeat unsupported charges that Aristide is violent. The CIA, which led the 1991 coup and slaughter of democrats that followed, led a disinformation campaign to discredit Aristide following his exile. The Republican Party is heavily invested in the ineffectual Haitian opposition.

Senators Snowe and Collins and the White House should be pressed to accord the democratic government of Haiti the respect due it and the assistance that would accompany such respect. The GOP is in league with the old wealthy oligarchy and continues to believe that one percent of the Haitan population should, by virtue of its economic power, rule.

---

Back to Peace Talk Index, Summer, 2001