Instability continues to wrack Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Many Haitians thought they had hit rock bottom in February, when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced from power amid an armed revolt fueled by political conflict and economic collapse.

But a new interim government has been unable to keep conditions from deteriorating further in the hemisphere’s poorest nation, despite the presence of a peacekeeping mission from the United Nations.

Violence has wracked the capital, Port-au-Prince, since Sept. 30, when several thousand Aristide supporters staged a demonstration that was broken up when police fired into the crowd.

Since then, gunfire has crackled through the downtown most days and the streets are unusually silent at night, as frightened residents hurry indoors at dusk. Haitian police and U.N. troops raid pro-Aristide slums, clashing with gangs of young men in gunfights that have left dozens — and possibly hundreds — dead, many of them innocents caught in the crossfire.

The violence has buffeted an already moribund economy. Rising prices and a devalued gourde, the Haitian currency, have especially hammered the poor.

To make matters worse, Haiti has suffered two natural disasters this year, with thousands dying in mudslides and floods.

The country, where 56 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day, according to a recent U.N. report, is getting poorer.

“The government has done nothing in the areas of job creation, production, public works,” said Jean-Claude Paulvin, president of the Haitian Association of Economists.

“To their credit, they’ve only been there for eight months, and they’ve put most of their energy into getting help from the international community. … My concern is that if the political situation stays the same, if there is no security, the economy will not take off even with international aid.”

Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has criticized the international community for not supplying enough troops and money to quell unrest and to revive the economy.

About 4,500 soldiers and 1,200 police officers have joined the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, short of the promised 6,700 soldiers and 1,622 police. U.N. officials say these goals will be reached by the end of the year.

But promises of international aid have proved largely empty. Although U.N. vehicles and blue-helmeted soldiers are ubiquitous on Port-au-Prince’s main thoroughfares, few Haitians have seen the development and job creation forecast in a more than $1 billion aid plan announced by the international community in July.

“We all think it could go faster than it has gone so far,” said Adama Guindo, the U.N. official overseeing development and humanitarian assistance in Haiti.

Mr. Latortue has accused Aristide supporters of trying to destabilize the government. Leaders from Mr. Aristide’s Lavalas party say they are being persecuted to ensure they will not participate in elections slated for next year.

Some hard-liners are calling for an even tougher stance.

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