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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Apr. 5 (IPS) – President Jean Bertrand Aristide is expected to announce changes to his Cabinet by the weekend, and political observers here believe one of the casualties will be Prime Minister Smarck Michel. "Things have been going very badly between President Aristide and the head of the government, Smarck Michel," a source close to the government told IPS. According to this source, the relationship has so deteriorated that Aristide has not presided over a Cabinet meeting in a month.

Aristide, returned to power last October through the efforts of the international community, has been speaking out in recent weeks against the inability of key ministries to deliver on the demands of Haitians who had expected life to have become a little easier with the overthrow of the three year old military regime.

Haitians are demanding a lower cost of living, a secure living environment, and justice for victims of the previous military regime. But crime has soared in the northern Caribbean country since Aristide's return as the U.S. led multinational force has largely failed to protect Haitians from armed groups bent on terrorizing the population. In addition, although the Haitian government is currently trainging a new, official police force, that force is not working yet, and many members of the interim police force are former soldiers.

In the face of a seemingly do-nothing government, Aristide has urged Haitians to "unite to fight the rampant personal insecurity prevailing and the high cost of living." Ministers expected to follow Michel include those heading the health, education, trade, economy and interior departments. "Certain ministers are said to be considered by the president as stumbling blocks, even of being part of a plot against him.

Aristide no longer has any confidence in these people," declared one highly placed government official. This source explained that the principal bandit chiefs, known here as "Zenglendos", were able to leave the country before being captured and that the president believed they were tipped off to get out while they had a chance by certain members of the government. "What is discussed in secret meetings in the Presidential Palace becomes common knowledge on the streets shortly afterwards," continued the official, as he explained the reason for some of the animosity between the president and some of his cabinet colleagues.

Additionally, rumors in top political circles here say anti-government demonstrations calling for Michel's resignation and those of the Ministers of Health, Finance and Trade over the past three weeks have the tacit support of Aristide himself.

A decision to dismiss the Cabinet could prove problematic for Aristide because in the absence of a functioning parliament, the Haitian Constitution does not provide for nominating a new prime minister directly by the Chief of State. One analyst declared, "The President's exasperation and frustrations are so great that he might go beyond the limited powers the Constitution gives him."

According to sources close to the government, the push Aristide needed to reorder his Cabinet could have come from the Mar. 28 assassination of 35-year-old lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin, a prominent Aristede opponent. Opposition sources have hinted that the U.S. government is pressuring Aristide to dismiss Interior Minister Mondesir Beaubrun, who is suspected of being the instigator of the plot to kill Bertin. Origin: //

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[c] 1994, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)

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