President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pledged to help impoverished Haitians reach the fruits of their independence on Thursday as police blocked thousands of anti-government demonstrators during celebrations marking Haiti’s 200th anniversary of independence from France.
Underscoring deepening political divisions, more than 15 000 government supporters rallied outside the National Palace before more than 5 000 Aristide opponents marched toward downtown, shouting ”Down with Aristide!”
Haitians ushered in the New Year with fireworks crackling over the capital, and the government was spending $15-million on the celebrations, including state galas and the dedication of a monument to Haiti’s forefathers.
South Africa offered Haiti R10-million ”as material support” for the celebrations.
President Thabo Mbeki, who was at the celebrations, told throngs at the National Palace that a ”historic struggle” remains for Africans to overcome poverty and conflict on both sides of the Atlantic.
”We celebrate the Haitian revolution because it dealt a deadly blow to the slave traders who had scoured the coasts of West and East Africa for slaves and ruined the lives of millions of Africans,” said Mbeki.
On Monday, Mbeki told journalists in the Bahamas it was proper that South Africa had donated the money. Those who criticised the action ”don’t know anything about the bicentennial,” Associated Press quoted him as saying.
On Wednesday, a Haitian group slammed Mbeki’s visit as an ”insult to most of us and to the memory of our forefathers who fought for our independence and our liberty during 12 long years”.
But Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo rejected the call that Mbeki should not participate in the celebrations of two centuries of Haitian independence from France on New Year’s Day.
In December last year, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and presidential legal adviser Mojanku Gumbi had met opposition party representatives in Haiti who had supported his participation in the celebrations, said Khumalo.
At the celebrations, riot police fired tear gas and warning shots to scatter the anti-government protesters, and some lay down before the officers, shouting: ”Freedom!”
Police pushed back a separate group of student protesters who tried to join the march, and demonstrators said student leader Herve Saintilus was wounded when club-wielding police beat him on the head.
”We will not allow Aristide to be a dictator,” said protester Jean Gary Denis (33). ”He is using the bicentennial for his own purposes.”
Aristide’s supporters were equally fervent, knocking down a metal fence and scrambling onto the palace lawn as they crowded toward the podium, chanting ”Aristide is king!”
”1804 was the stinging bee. 2004 is sure to be the honey,” Aristide told supporters. ”It is possible to build a new Haiti because of what is on our flag, and that is ‘united we are strong’.”
Aristide listed 21 goals he hopes will be accomplished by 2015, from stabilising the rate of HIV infection to reducing poverty.
Aristide’s term expires in 2006, and he didn’t say whether he expects to be in office in 2015.
Aristide said he is working with the opposition to bring new legislative elections, but opponents have refused to participate and called for a boycott of Thursday’s state-organised events, including another speech by Aristide planned in western Gonaives, where Haitians declared independence on January 1, 1804.
Outside the National Palace, revelers waved Haitian flags and shouted out the name of their embattled leader.
”This is a sacred day for us. It’s the most sacred day of all,” said Louis Larieux (40). ”We may be the poorest nation in the Americas, but we’re the bravest.”
Dozens of bare-chested men painted with gold and wearing cutoff pants to symbolise slavery held conch shells, used in ceremonies to call for help from the spirits. A steady drumbeat filled the air.
Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie called the bicentennial ”a matter of great pride and symbolism everywhere”.
More than a dozen foreign delegations, civil rights activists and actors including Danny Glover were attending. But many world leaders stayed away and some entertainers boycotted the events of a bicentennial made bittersweet by deepening turmoil and the threat of violence.
A group of prisoners broke through a wall of the National Penitentiary and escaped Thursday, Radio Vision 2000 reported. It was unclear how many or whether any were recaptured.
Haiti was born after the world’s only successful slave rebellion. Toussaint Louverture’s army of former slaves crushed Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops, making Haiti the first black republic and the first country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery.
However, a string of leaders then drove the Caribbean country into disarray. In two centuries, Haiti has seen more than 30 coups.
There was a flicker of hope in 1990 after 29 years of the Duvalier family dictatorship. Aristide, then a slum priest making fiery promises to the poor, was elected by a landslide but then overthrown the next year.
He was restored in 1994 during a US invasion but forced to step down in 1996 due to a term limit. Aristide, now 50, has been dogged by political troubles since his 2000 re-election, largely because of legislative elections that observers said were flawed.
Since then tensions have risen, and since mid-September violent anti-government protests have killed at least 41 people.
Haiti, meanwhile, remains the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. Some blame wealthy countries for keeping it that way.
With Haiti’s independence, France demanded repayment on a debt of 120 million gold francs — about $22-billion today ‒- draining the country’s coffers. Among his aims, Aristide said France must pay reparations.
Recently, international lenders and donors suspended more than $500-million in loans and grants after the contested legislative elections.
US Republican Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, said the anniversary was cause for celebration but criticised Washington for not doing more to help Haiti, saying the country ”has never received the support that it deserves from the United States”. – Sapa-AP