Reporting deadly in today's Haiti - Fear, violence is killing free expression

Chicago Tribune ^ | August 17, 2003 | Clarence the Cross-eyed Page

[Chi-townChief]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- As President Jean-Bertrand Aristide made it clear we would not get all that we wanted, and our meeting in Haiti's palatial presidential palace turned depressingly glum, he offered a "a little joke."

A man woke up in a hospital morgue to see that he was about to be cut open, Aristide said. " `Please, the man said, I am not dead yet,' " Aristide said. "And another man said, `Silence! If the doctor says you are dead, you are dead!' "

The message of the former priest's little parable was that he, too, was not dead yet and neither was democracy in Haiti, despite our group's concerns and the complaints of his critics.

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The Bush administration has withheld aid from Aristide's government, channeling it through non-governmental organizations instead, after his opposition complained bitterly about the country's last election round in 2000.

Yet, even some of Aristide's critics admitted, he most likely would sweep a totally honest election, too. As one human rights worker observed, Aristide's party "stole (what was already) their own victory."

"Haitian culture is not given to compromise," Guyler Delva, head of the Haitian Journalists Association, observed wearily.

Indeed, Haitian politics often tend to be an all-or-nothing game between those who have the numbers and those who have the money. Softness on one side has brought brutality from the other.

To end the cycle of violence, Aristide will have to do more than stand up to his enemies. He must also educate his friends on how democracy is supposed to work.

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E-mail: cptime@aol.com

[Chi-townChief]

Kind of an interesting comparison of a Clinton administration success story vs. our current Iraq quagmire. (Note that Slick wasn't mentioned once in the entire article.)

[dts32041]

Why, should they mention klintoon after all it was powell with little jimmy leading the charge.

[joesnuffy]

I could have sworn US troops liberated Haiti
did they leave already?
Must have returned to self rule and back to the same ole same ole