Aristide takes office amid election fraud
charges
By NCR STAFF
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, inaugurated president of Haiti for the
second time on Feb. 7, pledged to make peace with his opposition and improve
conditions for the republics vast underclass. My arms are open, my
heart is open with honor and respect for the Haitian people, he said in
his inaugural address.
But some in Haiti are less than open to Aristide. Haitis
15-party opposition alliance, the Convergence, believes Aristide won election
through fraud, and the alliance has refused to recognize his presidency,
according to press reports. After a reconciliation effort with Aristide failed
Feb. 5, the alliance named a provisional president of its own, Gerard Gourgue,
and is calling for new elections. Gourgue was justice minister after dictator
Jean Claude Duvalier fled the country in 1986.
Commenting on the conciliatory tone of the inaugural speech,
Gourgue said, Words are one thing, acts are another. We are waiting for
Aristide to do something positive and concrete. According to a New
York Times report, Gourgue said the country is worse off now than when
Duvalier was ousted.
Few foreign dignitaries attended the inauguration as a protest to
the disputed election and failed negotiation with Convergence. The European
Union has withheld nearly $50 million in aid in protest.
Aristide has promised to create a half-million jobs as president.
His plans call for a significant increase in public works jobs and a
strengthening of the police force to combat corruption.
The peaceful installation of Aristide as Haitis president
was a victory for the democratic process in Haiti, as was
Aristides election, said Melinda Miles, who directs the Haiti Reborn
project of the Hyattsville, Md.-based Quixote Center.
The United States should see it, said Miles, as
a good development that offers us an opportunity to work with a popularly
elected stable government. In reality, she said, the U.S.
government is not ready to work with Aristide, who has historically fought for
rights of poor.
According to Miles, the Convergence has the support of many
Republicans in the U.S. Congress through the partys overseas outreach,
the International Republican Institute.
Having Republicans in power in the White House and Congress
represents enormous challenges for Aristide in working with the U.S. and
international community, said Miles, as well as Aristide having to
live up to the expectations of the people who elected him. Haitis
economic situation is the poorest in the hemisphere.
Aristide, a laicized priest, rose to fame in the mid-1980s with
his fiery sermons criticizing the totalitarian Duvalier family regime. His
homilies won the support of Haitis impoverished minority. In 1990, he
became Haitis first democratically elected president.
National Catholic Reporter, February 16,
2001
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