HAITI: Aristide Returns Ahead of Controversial Run-Off Vote
Tensions are running high in Haiti as dueling campaigns for the presidency enter overdrive in their final days, and Jean- Bertrand Aristide, a popular former president, returns from a seven-year exile in South Africa.
Aristide will arrive in Port-au-Prince on Friday morning, Ira Kurzban, his Miami-based lawyer, told IPS in an email message. A private plane carrying his family left Johannesburg on Thursday.
'Aristide is a president who was elected, but had to suffer through coup d'etats,' said Hari, a professional in downtown Port-au-Prince who gave just his first name. 'His return will be good for the country. It will help Haitians put their heads together, to help us resolve the crisis we're in.' 'There were people who conspired to send him away, and if there is tension it will be because of them,' he said.
Aristide was flown out of Haiti in 2004 on a U.S. plane in what he called a modern-day coup d'etat. The George W. Bush administration and critics say his rule was marked by corruption and human rights abuses until he voluntarily fled into exile amidst a rebellion.
Diplomatic communications released by Wikileaks show that the administration pressured other countries to limit Aristide's political influence from abroad. But last month he was given a renewed passport by the Haitian government and this week South Africa rebuffed pressure from Washington to prevent his return.
Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide's party, was banned from participating in the electoral process by Haiti's electoral council. 'They are not planning to have free and fair democratic elections. They are planning to have a selection,' Aristide told an interviewer last fall, a talking point echoed regularly by his supporters at demonstrations.
Asked recently about prospects for stability post-election, U.N. Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti Paul Farmer told IPS, 'Of course I'm worried, because if you have scant participation or you exclude anyone from engagement... that's a formula for instability and political instability breeds health problems just like poverty does.'
The U.N. peacekeeping force said 'there is no doubt' Haitians will go to the polls to determine the future of the country in a Thursday press release, urging them to exercise their vote en masse. Privately, a U.N. security advisor sent out a 'hibernation checklist' to foreign aid workers to prepare for possible riots.
Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly, two right-wing candidates at the opposite end of the political spectrum from Aristide, are vying for the presidency in Sunday's runoff election. The victor will manage Haiti's reconstruction, including billions in funds promised by international donors.
'The elections are costly and the Haitian people need to make a choice without any major disruption. [Aristide's return] would certainly be a distraction, on the eve of the election,' Alice Blanchet, an advisor to Haiti's prime minister, told IPS. 'The rest is not in our control and it's up to him,' Blanchet said.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service