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The patience of many thousands of Haitians finally snapped following the November 7th assassination of the Lavalas MP, Jean Hubert Feuille. In Port-au-Prince and many other cities crowds took to the streets, building roadblocks, searching vehicles for weapons and raiding the houses of the former military regime’s supporters. Over half a dozen people were killed during confrontations across the country.

This violent outburst was triggered by the killing of Feuille, the newly elected deputy from President Aristide’s home town of Port Salut. Ever since the US/UN invasion over a year ago, human rights groups, progressive church organisations and other democracy activists have pleaded for the foreign troops to carry out an effective disarmament of the supporters of the deposed military regime. This has not happened.

Given this fact, and the continuing impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of human rights abuses committed during the coup years, it is really no great surprise that many Haitians decided to take matters into their own hands. One demonstrator told the Inter Press Service, “We agreed to follow President Aristide’s national reconciliation policy, but if this reconciliation is going to cost us our lives at any moment, then we say ‘no’ to Aristide.”

The US/UN intervention has failed to resolve the crucial conflicts in Haiti. Cracks that have been papered are now beginning to show. Justice has been the foremost demand of the Haitian people, yet there have been but a handful of prosecutions for the crimes committed during the coup period. The majority of the population, already desperately poor, have seen their standard of living drop still further, while the tiny elite that supported the coup has grown richer still.

Meanwhile, the US has continued to make a mockery of democracy and justice in Haiti. In October, the US magazine The Nation published claims that US officials had helped secure the release of a notorious gunman charged with the 1993 murder of the Haitian Justice Minister, Guy Malary. According to the article, Marcel Morissaint had been on the payroll of the US Embassy at the time of the assassination. He was sprung from jail with US help just days before he was to give evidence to investigators probing a number of high-profile assassinations.

Throughout the year the US has threatened and cajoled the Haitian government to proceed with the privatisation of state-run industries. Prime Minister Smarck Michel was a willing accomplice until popular protest and the election of a Lavalas-dominated Parliament forced him to resign in early October. His successor, Claudette Werleigh, had been Aristide’s original choice for the job in 1994 but had been vetoed by the US.

With a Parliament and Prime Minister that more accurately reflected the political balance in Haiti, there was a chance that the pros and cons of privatisation could be openly discussed. However this process had barely begun when the US suspended US$4.5 million in aid on the grounds that privatisation was falling behind schedule. Such heavy-handed pressure shows a blatant disregard for Haiti’s democratic representatives and institutions.

Now Haiti is preparing for presidential elections due to take place on December 17th. It is widely assumed that the Lavalas candidate, Rene Preval, will win an overwhelming victory, but the real issue is the end of the Aristide presidency. When he was elected in 1990 his supporters expected radical changes in favour of the country’s poor. First the coup and then the strait-jacket applied by the US/UN and their agencies dashed these expectations. Aristide has been able to quell mounting anger and frustration. Once he is gone, things just won’t be the same.

Interview with Chavannes Jean-Baptiste

(HEAD) – “We have our own ideas” – the MPP.

In October, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, founder of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) and spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Papaye Congress (MPNKP), visited the UK as a guest of the Haiti Support Group. At meetings in London, Liverpool, Oxford and Norwich he outlined his hopes, and stressed the threat posed by the structural adjustment programme.

Speaking about the struggle to rebuild the MPP, Chavannes said, “Before the coup all the structures and organisations of the MPP were in place, but now we are in a position where we are just beginning to build everything up again.” Nevertheless, he remarked that since the return of President Aristide many peasants had joined the MPP. “As a result of a recent survey of the Central Plateau region we have found that the MPP now has 4,000 groups with a total of 50,000 members.”

On the structural adjustment programme (SAP) forced on Haiti by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the US Agency for Development (USAID), Chavannes condemned the removal of import tariffs and promotion of agro-exports, “The Americans returned Aristide with what we call a poisoned packet. The neo-liberal plan envisages the elimination of the small peasantry in order to develop large farms for agro-industry. US policy aims to destroy Haitian food production.”

According to Chavannes, the SAP will open the Haitian market to cheap foreign, especially US, food imports, thus destroying the livelihood of the small Haitian peasant. Many would be obliged to move to the cities to find work in the US-owned assembly industries, while others would have to work as agricultural labourers producing specialist crops such as tropical fruit for export to the US market. As Chavannes put it, “We will have to eat the leftovers from their main course so we can produce their dessert.”

He continued, “That is their plan, but we have our own ideas. The basis of the MPP’s struggle is that Haiti should be able to determine its own policies in the area of food production, and indeed, in everything else.” For Chavannes, the peasants’ struggle is necessarily a struggle to save Haiti’s ailing environment. “If land, soil and water are not conserved we know the peasants cannot survive. The MPP is working on soil conservation, reforestation and improved productivity with natural fertilisers.”

As for the future, he acknowledged that some form of agriculture for export was necessary, but, in contrast to the SAP, he outlined a economic approach that would integrate the existing peasant-based system. “The peasants are already trying different approaches. For example, in the north east, the state has just donated 6,000 carros to a peasant group (1 carro equals 1.29 hectares). They are using the land in the following way: 1 carro has been allocated to each peasant for their individual use; 1,000 carro have been set aside for reforestation; and 2,000 carro will be used collectively for animal husbandry and for a sugar cane refinery, a school, a clinic and a sports field.”

Rejecting the arguments of those who say Haiti has no choice but to submit to the dictates of the international donor agencies, Chavannes insisted that a national economic plan in support of domestic production was a viable option. “Haiti was previously nearly self- sufficient but now we import 70-80% of the food we consume. Two hundred thousand tonnes of rice a year are needed to feed the nation. In the Artibonite region we could produce up to 140,000 tonnes if only irrigation systems were set up. Then there is grain. We need 350- 400,000 tonnes each year – Haiti could be producing this quantity within five years, and the country could be self-sufficient.”

Pressure to conform to the SAP has so far impeded government efforts in this direction. Projects funded by foreign aid are not helping rural economic development “There has been a focus, conditioned by international aid agencies, on highly labour intensive projects such as the repair of roads, which is not a top priority for the peasants.The greatest effort should be spent in funding projects of reforestation, soil conservation and repairing irrigation systems.”

THE HAITI SUPPORT GROUP, c/o Trinity Church, Hodford Road, London NW11 8NG. Tel/Fax: 0181 201 9878, E-mail: haitisupport@gn.apc.org