Some time before Mar. 31, a new mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) to "reinforce democracy in Haiti" is due to arrive in Haiti (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 19, No. 51, 3/6/2002). 

This mission, agreed to Mar. 1 by Foreign Minister Joseph Antonio (but never ratified by the Parliament as constitutionally required), is being sold to the public as an effort to investigate the events of Dec. 17, 2001, when a 30-man armed commando seized the National Palace for several hours in an ill-timed assassination attempt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, killing two policemen and sparking pro-government mobs to ransack and burn several opposition headquarters and homes (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 19 No. 40, 12/19/2001).

In reality, the accord governing this mission "sanctifies putting Haiti under the trusteeship of the OAS, which we know is the Ministry of Colonial Affairs of the United States," warned Ben Dupuy, secretary general of the National Popular Party (PPN) in a Mar. 25 press conference in Port-au-Prince. 

The accord gives the OAS mission the right to enter any premises, private or governmental, anywhere in the country, to scrutinize and copy any archive or database, to interrogate any individual, and to establish its own radio network to maintain "permanent contact" with its Washington, DC headquarters. Meanwhile, the mission's property and documents remain "inviolable" and its members "immune to any judicial proceeding." In short, the accord gives the OAS "supreme authority" in the country, Dupuy noted.

Willy Romélus, the archbishop of Jérémie, also warned that the mission "should stay within its limits, not overstep its limits." Unfortunately, the accord does not really set any limits on the mission, either in terms of functioning, size, or objective.

The mission is eagerly awaited by the Democratic Convergence (CD), the Washington-backed front of 15 tiny opposition parties. In preparation for its arrival, the CD held a show of force on Mar. 22 at its headquarters at Pont Morin in the capital. For the epithet-laden rally (one speaker called Aristide's new ministers "18 rolls of toilet paper"), the CD mustered less than 500 participants, despite media fanfare, the attendance of several foreign diplomats, and a huge police deployment to guard the event. Aristide even convinced the Sept. 30 Foundation to cancel its counter-demonstration outside the meeting, according to that group's spokesman, Pierre Lovinsky.

Signs are that the Haitian government is also trying to put its house in order to receive its OAS "guests." On Mar. 23, Haitian police arrested Ronald Camille, known ominously as Ronald Cadavre, the notorious leader of a popular organization based in the capital's La Saline slum. A warrant for Cadavre's arrest had been issued after he publicly shot to death another pro-Lavalas popular organization activist, Fritzner "Bobo" Jean, in front of the Parliament on Sep. 10, 2001. But the police had never acted on it, and Cadavre brazenly circulated around town. Police picked up Cadavre near the airport where he had gone to see Aristide depart to the UN Conference in Monterrey, Mexico. Several opposition leaders called his arrest "a good sign."

New Justice Minister Jean Baptiste Brown also said that he would lobby Aristide to reinstall Judge Claudy Gassant, the recently deposed magistrate who for 18 months was investigating the Apr. 3, 2000 murder of journalist Jean Dominique and his guardian Jean-Claude Louissaint. "The police force is sick, the justice system is sick," Brown said in an interview with Radio Haïti Inter, the station Dominique founded. "While respecting the law, we will do what has to be done for things to advance." The words are nice but have been heard from Brown's predecessors in recent years.

New Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, the number two of Aristide's Lavalas Family party (FL), is also continuing neoliberal measures set in place and in motion by his predecessor and Aristide. Last week he convened a meeting of the Council for the Modernization of the Public Enterprises (CMEP), the body charged with privatizing Haiti's state enterprises. The CMEP has already sold off Haiti's cement factory and flour mill and has its sights set on the electric utility and telephone company.

Meanwhile in the Northeast, peasant organizations report that the Haitian government has begun surveying 50 to 80 hectares of land for "free trade zones" near the Dominican border on the Maribaou plain, which comprises 80% of the irrigated land in that barren region, according to the Alterpresse press service. Agronomists and peasants protest the "free trade zone" plan and their lack of consultation, and argue that the region would be better used to grow food for hungry Haiti. "When the moment comes for the assembly factories to migrate to a more favorable climate, what will we be able to do with all that concrete, the peasants ask," reads the Alterpresse report.

"All this is being done without ever consulting the people, in violation of the supposedly Lavalas principles of transparency and of defending national resources," Ben Dupuy said. He noted that the CD leaders, like their FL counterparts, have no problem with Washington's neoliberal plan and have never denounced the "free trade zones" project which Aristide agreed to when visiting the Dominican Republic late last year. "Now we are suddenly hearing about free trade zones and a Hispaniola Project, which is just a scheme of the Dominican government to reduce the Dominican Republic's astronomical debt of almost $7 billion" by investing debt interest payments into building 14 free trade zones along the Haitian/Dominican border for U.S. businesses to use cheap Haitian labor. The arrangement has been strongly pushed by the U.S. State Department in recent years. Dupuy chastised Aristide for "running over to the Dominican Republic to sign the Hispaniola Project, which is the opposite of everything he used to mobilize the people."
 
 
 

Holy-Land Absurdity
 

Run, Yasser, run, they urge
The eyes of this cold world
Filled with hypocrisy
Are watching every step.
They deem the race is yours to win
With amputated legs
Since before you were too slow
On the slippery racetrack
Of sterile diplomacy
Holy-Land style.
You alone are required
To catch the peace mirage
And to make it reality.
 

Fly, Yasser, fly, they urge.
Fly as all good doves do.
Fly to carry your olive branch
To where no one awaits.
Fly faster as the hawks
Keep plucking feathers
Off your aging wings.
They deem that you should fly faster
With broken wings
And the wind blowing
Against your chest.
 

Dance, Yasser, dance
Tango Palestino.
It takes two to tango,
But you've been left alone
To dance like a champion
With your own shadow
Since your genuine partner
Was fatally swept off the floor
Never to return.
They deem you should tango alone
And win the highest prize
With both arms tied behind your back.
Dance in pain, dance in blood.
Dance barefoot on a carpet of nails.
Tango alone to win the prize
To be enjoyed by all
Except your own children.
 

Michel Sanon