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BY SUSAN BROWN
Times Staff Writer | Monday, March 01, 2004 | (No comments posted.)
The current crisis in Haiti hardly comes as a surprise to area church leaders who have seen the downslide for themselves.
Little more than a year after their visit to Haiti through the church-sponsored "Global Solidarity Partnership," Bishop Dale Melczek of the Diocese of Gary and the Rev. Thomas Gannon of Hammond's Heartland Center agree they saw early signs of the rebellion currently overtaking the former French colony.
"I'm not at all surprised," Melczek said. "The current violence was beginning to be perceived during our visit."
"When (President Jean-Bertrand) Aristide was elected in November 2000, there was a sense of hope, a sense that the instability and discord would be ameliorated," he said. "However, by the time of our visit in January 2003, the discord was actually escalating."
Melczek said the Catholic bishops of Haiti had been sufficiently concerned even by the prior Christmas to issue for the first time a joint pastoral letter urging the people to give up violence and try to work together toward peace.
Melczek said the current rebellion has its origin in the halting of aid by donor countries prior to Aristide's election. Because of the political instability, the countries had worried the aid would not reach the poorest of the people for whom it was intended.
The aid was expected to resume once the elected government could control the corruption, but the government was not able to do that, Melczek said.
"The currency of Haiti was greatly devalued and between the devaluing of their currency and the cessation of aid, the most vulnerable of the people experienced a great increase in their poverty," Melczek said.
Melczek said Aristide, a former priest, was not up to the challenge.
"My sense is he was not able to stem the corruption within the government, nor was he a strong enough leader to bring to a negotiating table the vying political parties," Melczek said.
"I thought it a time bomb ready to explode," Gannon said of his impression of Haiti last year. "(Haiti's) been exploited from corrupt leadership from within."
Gannon described Aristide as a very popular priest before his election.
"That doesn't mean he had the capacity to lead that country to effect a government," he said.
Then there are the rumors, Gannon said, of Aristide's subsequent collusion with the drug trade and the perceptions of those close to him that he suffers from emotional instability.
Neither Gannon nor the Rev. Michael Yadron, pastor of Munster's St. Thomas More Catholic Church, believe Americans can afford to ignore the Haitians' plight.
"Look how long we knew about the problems in Rwanda," Yadron said. "Governments try to find the easy way out, but in the meantime, people suffer."
Susan Brown can be reached at sbrown@nwitimes.com or (219) 836-3780.
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