A Haiti Chronicle the Undoing of a Latent Democracy, 1999-2001
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A Haiti Chronicle The Undoing of a Latent Democracy, 1999-2001 Daniel Whitman Cover photo by Daniel Kedar, Haiti: Reflections. www.kedar.net © Copyright 2005, Daniel Whitman. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author. Note for Librarians: a cataloguing record for this book that includes Dewey Decimal Classification and US Library of Congress numbers is available from the National Library of Canada. The complete cataloguing record can be obtained from the National Library’s online database at: www.nlc-bnc.ca/amicus/index-e.html ISBN 1-4120-3399-3 Printed in Victoria, BC, Canada Offices in Canada, USA, Ireland, UK and Spain This book was published on-demand in cooperation with Trafford Publishing. On-demand publishing is a unique process and service of making a book available for retail sale to the public taking advantage of on-demand manufacturing and Internet marketing. On-demand publishing includes promotions, retail sales, manufacturing, order fulfilment, and accounting. Books sales in Europe: Trafford Publishing (UK) Ltd., Enterprise House, Wistaston Road Business Centre, Wistaston Road, Crewe CW27RP UNITED KINGDOM phone 01270 251 396 (local rate 0845 230 9601) facsimile 01270 254 983; [email protected] Book sales for North America and international: Trafford Publishing, 6E–2333 Government St., Victoria, BC V8T 4P4 CANADA phone 250 383 6864 (toll-free 1 888 232 4444) fax 250 383 6804; email to [email protected] www.trafford.com/robots/04-1226.html 10 9 8 7 6 5 Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince in 1999-2001, Daniel Whitman was haunted by the country’s people and landscapes, its nuanced language, and complex and rewarding friendships. His friends included neighbors, art gallery owners, gas station attend- ants — but mostly Haiti’s intrepid journalists and broadcasters. Unlike others, Whitman believed that the three elections of 2000 could ad- vance Haiti’s democracy and its development from the bottom rung as poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. He was wrong; they did not. Local supremacists killed, torched and rushed to fraud while foreigners forgave and even blessed the electoral debacles without posing the re- sistance even of meaningful public comment. However, seeds also germinated to make Haiti one day fit for its in- ventive, humor-loving and too often betrayed people. The effort was kept alive largely by Haiti’s gritty journalists, going into hiding when necessary for their survival, but newly organized in October of 1999, into a tenacious and daring national federation. The nation-wide Hai- tian Press Federation advanced against all odds, and held eight regional meetings which changed political discourse forever in Haiti. The country now enters a post-Aristide interlude. The failure of one regime does not guarantee success for the next. A Haiti Chronicle offers recent context for understanding Haiti’s current crisis, and opportunity. Special thanks to Pearl, who stuck with this project—and with me—every bit of the way. Disclaimer — The opinions expressed in this book are my own, and do not necessarily reflect that of the U.S. Government. No classified material has been used, implicitly or explicitly, in the text or its preparation. In accordance with State Department regula- tions, the author will accept no profits from the sale of this book. Contents Introductory Materials Preface 11 Dedication 15 Introduction 17 How it Happened Getting Ready May-July, 1999 Jockeying: The Horse Falters 29 Getting There 32 Man Versus Pig 38 Listening July to October, 1999 My First Issue 45 “Mini-Civitas” 47 COPAC 51 The Golden Age October, 1999 to February, 2000 Tenterhooks 57 Harvest 62 On the Road 69 The Crocodile of the Route de Delmas 75 Things Fall Apart February to May, 2000 Back Tracking 89 Tin Ear 95 Nails in the Coffin 102 Rome Burning 107 O.P. 113 May 21 115 Mop-Up 120 Léon Manus June, 2000 “Manus, Not Minus” 127 Léon Manus, June 21, 2000 132 The Lavalas Fist April to November, 2000 “Hell Hath No Fury…” 141 The Hornet Dozes 150 Other Side of Obstinacy 155 Narcosis 158 “Dégringolade” December, 2000 to July, 2001 December, Bloody December 168 Breakfast and Tony Lake 170 The Eight Points 175 FRAPH Docs, Fusion International, and Two New Presidents 181 “Haïti Cherie” 184 Time of Troubles 190 “And So it Goes…” 197 Tableaux Vivants 203 What I Learned 206 Epilogue 213 Chronology 247 What, Whither, Why Haiti? On Haitian Intransigence 291 A Note on Vodou 297 A Short Comment on Haitian Art 303 The Rich Creole Language 305 A Personalized Bibliography 312 Preface The greatest honor I’ve received was the dedication of a library in my name on March 18, 2002, in Fort-Liberté, a city in Haiti’s Northeast Département which had never before had one. I learned of the event not from American officials who attended, but from a Haitian friend who called me in Washington shortly after the ceremony. Fort-Liberté has no workable phone lines, but Jean-Jean was able to reach me by cell phone from the satellite footprint of Cap-Haïtien, some 40 miles away. Even if I’d known in advance, I couldn’t have attended, because of death threats relayed to me in person July 7, 2000 by the Aristide regime, and underscored on the night of March 6, 2001, with fizzled incendiary devices tossed over the outer wall toward my house in Upper Turgeot in Port-au-Prince. Haitians more versed than I in the language of threats and bombs say that the regime’s brief against me had to do with my having emboldened independent Haitian journalists through training, study tours, and local and national meetings in 1999-01 during my stint there as Public Affairs Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Like other imponderables in Haiti, this will never be verified, nor will the extent of the regime’s intent really to harm me. The “Daniel Whitman Library” was destroyed by pro-Aristide mobs on February 9, 2004, the building torched, its books burnt. But its existence even for a brief time would seem to demonstrate Haitian rev- erence for learning, and the energies which have self-started them on so many occasions during a history which would have neutralized a less steadfast people. 11 12 • A HAITI CHRONICLE A Haiti Chronicle was completed December 31, 2002. Recent events call for a context-setting comment. Jean-Bertrand Aristide came; he liberated; he turned bad; he left on February 29, 2004. He received extraordinary amounts of aid – much of it personal – from foreign gov- ernments. When those governments asked that he behave better, he turned enfant terrible, offering them a vulnerable smile, waiting for their airplanes to leave his airport, then cracking down with ever greater se- verity on his own people. Often the victims of the killings, beatings, and destruction of property were taken totally at random. Confusion, dissembling, and anarchic repression have existed along- side some of humans’ finest qualities throughout Haiti’s eventful history and rich culture. J-B Aristide raised the former to a head-splitting level. He played his role sublimely, but was ultimately repudiated by a major- ity of his population. If his eighteen-year performance was a sort of stage presentation, he was a memorable protagonist, with rare powers of persuasion. The “logique” of events led to Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s ouster on Feb- ruary 29, 2004. The Congressional Black Caucus and others claim he was “abducted.” Indeed, questions remain to be answered: who were the “rebels” and how were they financed, equipped, and trained? Why were so few able to sweep away a seemingly unshakable regime so eas- ily? Did the Opposition ever “represent” anyone or have any plan for bringing Haiti back to its feet? (Now a question for Interim Prime Minister Gérard Latortue!) As the rebels closed in on Port-au-Prince in February of 2004, the U.S. government unilaterally proclaimed Aristide as the “free and fairly elected [sic] President of Haiti,” brushing aside prior statements to the contrary by the U.N., OAS, EU, and the previous White House, NSC and State Department. In response, Haitians dusted off their ingenious word plays for the world to note, saying “Colin pa we’l” [“Colin didn’t see it.”] PREFACE • 13 But the world noted nothing; it only erected higher barriers. “If you attempt to escape,” Washington said in effect, “We will capture you and send you to Guantánamo.” Haitians responded, “You always told us how Haitians must solve their own problems. Now we do so, only on our own terms, since yours have not worked.” They proceeded, then, to greet the 200 or so “rebels” enthusiastically on their sweep from Cap-Haïtien to Port-au-Prince in February of 2004, seeing them as liberators all the way. Among the rebels themselves, some had unsavory pasts. The U.S. Government stated many times that it did not like or accept the rebels or their activities. On March 20, human rights groups and foreign governments reacted strongly against the new provisional Haitian government for appearing in public at Gonaïves with rebel leader Guy Philippe and calling him a “freedom fighter.” But Haitians sensed no other option in a situation which was destroy- ing them on many levels. They were even joyful that an option existed for them, other than starvation, lethal chaos, and their country once again picked clean by yet another kleptocracy.