Haiti, A U.N. Trusteeship?

The debate is on. Aristide must go, because he's causing so much harm to the country. But how must he leave? By another foreign intervention?

That's the dilemma for ultra nationalist Haitians who abhor foreign occupation, but who are exasperated with Aristide, who vows to hold unto power by all means.

Former President Leslie Manigat, in a detailed text that is on the Internet, makes a plea against a trusteeship that is being discussed currently at the urging of Canada. (See the editorial in French and English as well as the front page story in French about "tutelage" And we promise the full text of Mr. Manigai in our next issue.)

Most Haitian observers feel that the same international community that brought Aristide to Haiti in 1994 with the help of 23,000 U.S. and other foreign soldiers should also assume the responsibility to take back their "package." Then, they could provide support for true Haitian democratic leaders to work at setting up a State of Law in Haiti.

* Meanwhile, the Lavalas regime is under heavy pressure from various sectors of the society tired of the high cost of living.

In two months the price of petroleum products has risen a whopping 140%. Now a gallon of regular gasoline is officially at 135 gourdes, or $3. A penury of fuel has led to hoarding by black marketeers who charge as much as $3.50 a gallon in certain circumstances.

The fuel price rise has affected the cost of everything, including food, transportation and education. All of a sudden, Haitians, especially in a city like Port-au-Prince, have taken to walking everywhere. The "tap-taps," as the colorful public buses are called, are being deserted. The few that venture out are almost empty most of the time. Children can't make it to school and many teachers, who haven't been paid for months, are staying home.

* After the traditional carnaval, which ended in the wee hours of this morning (Wednesday), all bets are off as to what will happen next in Haiti. Demonstrations against the regime were held off to allow the people to drown their worries and concerns in booze and the revelries. But the students, the unions, the opposition political parties and the majority of the citizens were ready to take to the streets since last Friday.

* The demonstrations are occurring at a time that the Haitian National Police (French acronym PNH) is imploding. The No. 3 of the PNH, Jeannot Fran�ois, deserted his post. It has been learned from reliable sources that he and his family are already in the United States.

The arrival of Fran�ois here is bad news for the Haitian officials mired in drug scandals. Especially since Mario Andresol, who was No. 3 before Fran�ois also escaped from Haiti last year. In a series of interviews with the Ha�ti-Observateur, Andresol had revealed the involvement of high officals of the government in the drug traffic. Probably Fran�is will corroborate Andresol's declarations.

* Rebels operating in Haiti's central highlands (Plateau Central) are causing trouble for the regime. Last week, a helicopter dispatched with elite police units came under heavy fire. The helicopter, piloted by an American mercenary, managed to make it back to its base in Port-au-Prince. But sources said it spotted at least six holes of six (6) cms. Some of those on board are said to have been wounded.

* Chief of Police Jean Nesly Lucien admitted that the helicopter came under attack without providing more information about the damage inflicted. He also said some of the elite CIMO and Swat Team policemen dispatched after the "rebels" have apparently defected. He mentioned six, but another police source said "more than 20 have defected."

* Mildred Trouillot Aristide, the American-born wife of Haiti's president, arrived in Miami last night en route to Washington, where she is giving a press conference today at 1:30 p.m. at the Rayburn Office Building on Capitol Hill. She is the guest of the Black Caucus, one of the few remaining allies of the Aristide regime.

Sources close to the Haitian First Lady said she will make a "fervent last plea" to Congress and the American people to come to the aid of the "suffering Haitian people" who are being "punished" through an "economic embargo" of the international community.

As reported, the Haitian government has failed to meet the requirements for the unblocking of more than $500 million by the international community, which blames the regime for the fraudulent elections of May 2000. Adding salt to the wound, Aristide thumbed his nose at "the foreigners" and the internal political opposition and staged his own presidential election on November 26, 2000 with voter participation at about 10%. Several attempts to solve the Haitian crisis through the mediation of the Organization of American States (OAS) have been fruitless.

On Monday (March 3), a group of American lobbyists and lawyers working for Aristide arrived in the Haitian capital for a t�te-�-t�te with the "First couple." Making the trip were Ira Kurzban, the Miami lawyer who represents the Haitian government; Ron Dellums, the former Black Caucus Congressman from California who is a paid lobbyist for the Haitian government; Paul Reichler, a Harvard trained lawyer whose clients included the infamous Nicaraguan and Guatemalan governments and who is an ally of the Robert White Center in Washington; and two operatives who work with Dellums: Roger Ervin and Charles Stephenson.

Tongues wagged when the high-power lobbying delegation arrived in the middle of Carnival. If they had planned to participate in the wild revelries, they apparently got cold feet, because the group was back in Miami before nightfall. They spent less than six hours in Port-au-Prince.

Apparently, the lavishly paid lobbyists were consulting with their clients on how to mount a counter attack against the international community, especially the Bush administration, that they accuse of causing such hardship in Haiti. Considering that 24 hours after the return of the lobbyists, Aristide's wife arrived in Miami with her retinue, one can presume that her trip was discussed in depth. Considering also that Aristide usually enjoys traveling abroad, especially to be adulated by his fans, one wonders why he didn't come in person to make his case to the American people? But he would have needed a visa, because, unlike his wife and two daughters, he's not an American citizen. Interestingly, all the so-called Haitians traveling with Mildred Troullot Aristide hold other nationalities.

* Several articles about Haiti and the impediment that Aristide represents for the establishment of democracy and a State of Law have appeared in the past three weeks -- in Miami Herald (Feb. 26), The New York Review of Books (Feb. 13), L'Actualit� in Canada (March 15), La Vie in France (Feb. 6) and Africa (March issue.) We'll present excerpts in our next issue.