2A
NEWS/Xjie Cbailotte ^ont
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Impact Of HaiO upheaval felt in flie Uniied Stales
States gets involved, it’s a
double-edged sword. I’ve
always wondered if Aristide
is a man of the people since
he was put back in power.”
Eustache believes the U.S.
has an obligation to broker
Aristide’s removal so Haiti
can elect a new president.
“I don’t think they knew
what they were doing” when
Aristide was restored to
oiEce, he said. “They were
duped, and so was I.”
Noting that Haiti’s history
includes helping America in
its revolution for indepen
dence from Great Britain,
human rights activist Jesse
Jackson said the U.S. should
restore humanitarian relief
and loans approved for
health care, drinking water
and education there.
“If the U.S. can spend bil
lions for ‘nation budding’ and
democracy in
Iraq, so must
it invest in
democracy in
Haiti,” he
said. “U.S.
support for
democracy
must be con
sistent, yet
the contrast
in U.S. policy
toward Iraq and Haiti can
not be ignored.”
Disney isn’t sure American
political or mditary influence
will be brought to bear. With
opinion polls showing wan
ing support for President
Bush’s decision to invade
Jackson
PHOTOAVADE NASH
Harold Eustache, who moved to the U.S. from his native
Haiti in 1972, believes President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has
failed to deliver reforms to the Caribbean nation.
Continued from page 1A
Haiti is the poorest country
in the Americas, and also
has the hemisphere’s highest
AIDS rate.
“He fooled a lot of people,”
Eustache, 50, says. “A lot of
people were counting on
him. I want democracy to
survive, but I think he
should resign.”
Haiti’s history suggests
that may become Aristide’s
fate. The country has “a rich
tradition of rebellion,” said
Jennifer Leigh Disney PhD.,
a political science professor
at Winthrop University in
Rock Hill, S.C. That history,
which stretches back to
Haiti’s independence from
France and coupled with
recent economic and social
distress could topple the gov
ernment.
“Opposition is coming from
different places,” said
Disney, an expert in Third
World rebellions. “When
poverty is so deeply
entrenched, it takes people
taking to the street to effect
change. And it’s not just the
poor.”
Haitians have kicked out
their share of dictators. The
French were expelled when
African slaves fought for
their freedom. In the 1990s,
uprisings rfltimately forced
dictator Jean-Claude “Baby
Doc” Duvalier from power.
Independence is one thing,
Eustache said. Creating a
stable democracy is another.
“I’m veiy disappointed in
Aristide as a president,” said
Eustache, who owns a phar
maceutical sales training
company. “Haiti is the first
black republic and the first
to get its independence
through its own actions. We
should be a model, but we
haven’t gotten our act
together.”
The United States, which
restored Aristide to power in
1994 after a coup forced him
from power, may have start
ed his downfall. Aristide’s
Lavalas party, whose Creole
name means “cleansing
flood,” has been accused of
election fraud that has held
up international aid since
2000, Opponents also accuse
him of turning his back on
the poor.
“He kind of came in with
an approach to help the poor
and downtrodden,” Disney
said. “Whenever the United
Transmission
of AIDS now
a criminal act
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
Transmitting HIV could
become a crime in South
Africa under a proposal
which was heard last month
by a government justice com
mittee last month and was
unopposed.
AIDS is still incurable and
is therefore ‘’a death sen
tence,” said Johnny de
Lange, an MP for the ruling
African National Congress
party and the parliament’s
portfolio committee on jus
tice and constitutional devel
opment.
People who have
HIV/AIDS “’should accept
responsibility for their
actions,” he said.
He also referred to a case
in the UK in which a South
African man was convicted
of “iDiological grievous bodily
See PENALTIES/8A
Iraq, the U.S. isn’t likely to
finance another potential
hot spot.
“Because of the situation
the United States is in now
because of our position inter
nationally, the administra
tion may not be interested,”
she said. “It would be
because of some larger polit
ical or economic or national
security interest.”
Andy Polk, spokesman for
U.S: Rep. Sue Myrick (R-
N.C.) called Haiti’s situation
“very unfortunate"' but
offered few expectations in
terms of America’s options.
“She just hopes that the
situation will come to a
peaceful conclusion,” he said.
Duvalier
and his
father,
Francois
“Papa Doc”
Duvalier,
were ruth
less dicta
tors, but pro
vided Haiti
with stability Myrick
and order,
said Eustache, who grew up
as the son of an army colonel
in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s sec
ond-largest city. As discord
with Aristide grows, so has
his determination to quell
the uprising.
“Things were much better
under the Duvaliers than
with Aristide,” Eustache
said. “Aristide uses mobs to
incite them to attack his ene
mies. In terms of the econo
my and infrastructure. Baby
Doc built roads. I lived under
Papa Doc and Baby Doc. I’m
not saying they were good.
I’m saying (Aristide) is
worse.”
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