[R-G] Many Haitians want exiled Aristide back

[Anthony Fenton]

Many Haitians want exiled Aristide back
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer  Tue Apr 15, 4:53 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080415/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_aristide


Haiti's president has lowered rice prices and the Senate has sacked  
the prime
minister. But hungry Haitians who rioted over food prices still want  
more.

"Aristide or death! Aristide or death!" young men in sunglasses and  
low-slung
ballcaps chant outside parliament.

That's right, Jean-Bertrand Aristide — the slum priest-turned- 
president who
needed a U.S. intervention to restore him to power in 1994, and who  
accuses
Washington of kidnapping him into exile a decade later as the country  
descended
into political chaos.

The clamor for Aristide's return was deafening during last week's  
unrest over
skyrocketing food prices that left at least seven people dead,  
hundreds injured
and Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis out of a job. Some  
protesters vowed
to press on until they unseat President Rene Preval, a former Aristide  
ally.

Experts say it is unlikely that Aristide engineered the protests from  
exile in
South Africa. But people living in Port-au-Prince slums say workers  
for a
prominent Aristide loyalist went door-to-door drumming up support for  
the
peaceful protests, some of which spiraled into violence as criminal  
gangs
seized the opportunity to loot stores.

Either way, Aristide's return has become a key demand on the streets  
after
entire slums rallied for the former president and protesters carried  
tree
branches they said signified their support for his Famni Lavalas party.

"If there were an election in Haiti, Aristide would win," said Mario  
Jeanty, a
Haitian who lives in New York. "There's no one who can beat him."

Aristide's smiling, bespectacled face is everywhere in the poor areas of
Port-au-Prince, from paintings sold on roadsides to photographs pasted  
onto
cell phones. Blocks from the presidential palace, graffiti declares:  
"King
Aristide will return" and "Down with Preval, long live Aristide."

"Whether or not one likes Aristide, he remains a force in this country  
because
the masses remain very attached to him," said Patrick Elie, who has  
served as
an adviser to both Aristide and now Preval.

In speeches from South Africa, Aristide has hinted at returning, but  
said he
merely wants to be a teacher. He has said his possibilities depend on  
Preval,
who served as his prime minister.

Preval won the 2006 elections with the support of voters who believed  
he would
bring Aristide home. But he has not called publicly for Aristide's  
return, and
the men's current relationship is unclear.

Jean-Robert Lafortune, chairman of the Haitian American Grassroots  
Coalition in
Miami, said the fact that Aristide hasn't made a statement on the food  
crisis
could be a tacit indication of support for Preval.

"Once, Aristide called Preval his twin brother," Lafortune said. "We  
don't know
if that sentiment has changed."

Aristide generally keeps a low profile, living with his wife Mildred  
and their
two daughters in a government villa in Pretoria, a garden city of  
government
headquarters and embassy residences.

South African officials say he spends his time researching Caribbean  
history
and studying Zulu, a local language. He penned a comparative  
linguistic study
of Zulu and Haitian Creole, as well as a paper on the theology of love.

A miraculous Aristide comeback would not be unprecedented. Aristide  
became
popular as a priest in the slum of La Saline, and was elected  
president in
1990. Ousted in a military coup the following year, U.S. troops  
restored him to
the presidential palace in 1994.

After stepping down, he was re-elected in 2000 but was ousted again in  
a bloody
2004 rebellion amid charges that he broke promises to help the poor,  
allowed
drug-fueled corruption and masterminded assaults on opponents.

Some of Aristide's current support can be attributed to nostalgia for  
a past in
which life, while difficult in the Western Hemisphere's poorest  
country, was
easier than today.

"When Aristide was around we found food, we had jobs," said Manouchak  
Louis,
who is 21 and unemployed. "If he comes back the country will change."

___

Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik in New York, Jennifer Kay in  
Miami and
Michelle Faul in Johannesburg, South Africa, contributed to this report.