[Peace-discuss] Haitian elections today

[Ricky Baldwin]

Elections in Haiti appear to be proceeding as planned
today (er- as planned after four postponements),
ballots having been delivered by mule, the UN standing
guard alongside Haitian police officers, some of whom
were involved in the "Play for Peace" soccer match
massacre in the fall.

Rene Preval, who was ousted President Jean Bertrand
Aristide's prime minister in 1991, is in the lead. 
His candidacy will presumably be hurt somewhat by the
UN occupation force's decision not to allow voting in
most of the slum areas where vast numbers of the
Haitian poor live, including Cite Soleil.  

Their reason for this is violence in those areas,
violence mostly sponsored by the current coup
government of Latortue or a result of UN attacks on
these neighborhoods.  There have always been gangs
there, including some allied to Aristide's Lavalas
Family Party, including some Robin Hood figures along
with run of the mill criminals.  More of the residents
have been arming themselves since the US-backed coup
in 2004, in self-defense as well as in rebellion, and
have unfortunately been involved in some kidnappings
as well.  

The UN force there has been merciless and has gunned
down a number of gang members and innocent bystanders
in its Israeli-style attacks on Cite Soleil in
particular.  After that the Haitian business elite
shut down the entire country for a day to insist that
the UN crack down even harder.

Interestingly enough, Preval is not the Lavalas Family
Party candidate and has never been a member.  The
party did not exist when he was prime minister,
although it was the Lavalas movement that swept
Aristide and Preval to office in 1990.  The party was
organized during splits within the Lavalas movement
leading up to Aristide's second election in 2000.  The
official Lavalas Family Party candidate is Marc Bazin,
who was installed as president when the US and its
henchmen overthrew Arsitide in 1991.  Bazin denounced
the "death train" of killings that followed the more
recent coup, but in the previous one his
administration presided over its own "death train" in
which at least 3000 Aristide supporters were
exterminated.  Bazin has been rejected by most of the
Lavalas Family Party membership, which has further
splintered.

Preval is the candidate for the Lespwa platform, which
 has apparently only put up 19 candidates for the 30
Senate seats. Lespwa has no Senate candidates standing
in some large "departments", which is what Haitians
call their districts.

One of the US-trained coup leaders in 2004 was Guy
Philippe, who is a leader in the FRN party.  One of
the FRN candidates for Senate is Winter Etienne, who
was a leader of the Cannibal Army, a gang that was
once strongly pro-Aristide but took up arms against
the Lavalas Family government in 2003. Etienne's
Cannibal Army murdered a number of police officers
during the fighting in Gonaives in early 2004. Under
the 
coup government, Etienne became director of the
Gonaives port.  The department where Etienne is
running for Senate is one of those in which Prevals'
Lespwa platform has no candidate.

Another candidate for the Senate with the LAAA party
is coup prime minister Gerard Latortue's 
nephew, Youri Latortue. Youri is a former army
officer, allegedly involved in the murder of Father
Jean-Marie Vincent in 1994, and then head of security
for his uncle under the current coup government.

Aristide, in exile in South Africa, has been silent on
the elections.  The South African government has been
under some heat for sheltering him and his wife, but
its official response is that they "have faith" that
he will be able to return one day.  We shall see.  One
of the coup leaders, Louis Jodel Chamblain (who was
also second in command in FRAPH, the CIA-organized
death squads that terrorized the country after the
1991 coup) has promised publicly to kill Aristide
himself if the former president ever returns.

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