Peter Hallward: Entrevue avec JBA (juillet 2006)

An Interview with Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Peter Hallward

In the mid-1980s, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a parish priest working in an impoverished and embattled district of Port-au-Prince. He became the spokesman of a growing popular movement against the series of military regimes that ruled Haiti after the collapse in 1986 of the Duvalier dictatorship. In 1990 he won the country’s first democratic presidential election, with 67 per cent of the vote. He was overthrown by a military coup in September 1991 and returned to power in 1994, after the US intervened to restore democratic government. In 1996 he was succeeded by his ally René Préval. Aristide won another landslide election victory in 2000, but the resistance of Haiti’s small ruling elite eventually culminated in a second coup against him, on the night of 28 February 2004. Since then, he has been living in exile in South Africa.

According to the best available estimates, around five thousand of Aristide’s supporters have died at the hands of the regime that replaced the constitutional government. Although the situation remains tense and UN troops still occupy the country, the worst of the violence came to an end in February 2006, when after an extraordinary electoral campaign, René Préval was himself re-elected in a landslide victory. Calls for Aristide’s immediate and unconditional return continue to polarise Haitian politics. Many commentators, including several prominent members of the current government, believe that if Aristide was free to stand for re-election he would win easily.

Suite de l'article: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n04/hall02_.html

Je ne connaissais pas ce personnage (Peter Hallward), mais il semble s'interesser a Haiti depuis un certain temps.

Voici quelques uns de ces articles sur Haiti:

Who got rid of Aristide?
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n09/letters.html

Haitian inspiration: On the bicentenary of Haiti’s independence
http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=2187&editorial_id=14344

Voting for hope Elections in Haiti
http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=2187&editorial_id=22053

Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution

Why they had to crush Aristide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1159809,00.html

OPTION ZERO IN HAITI
http://newleftreview.org/A2507

Si vous avez plus d'informations sur lui, priere de les partager avec nous

It is encouraging and delightful to read this article.With all due respect to President Aristide ,my question is this ;Knowing that the rebels could not took over the capital why instead of talking to the American Ambassador during the night that preceded his departure he did not leave tabarrre and go to the national palace where he could have mobilized his counter attacks?When one assumes certain functions one has the obligation to fight to the end.Other President had fought the rebels who were armed by the forces of evil in the world.

I am glad also he clarified this point : he has no intention to reenter politics ;Indeed a man of Aristide caliber could do better for the country outside the contradictions of politics.I used the word "contradictions" for I could not understand that people who are admirers of Jefferson , Georges Washington ,Abraham Lincoln can be so hateful of other people who are seeking the same inalienable rights given to them by their creator.

It is this dichotomy of the American government 's foreign policy that is so troubling for some people in the World.On one hand they are preaching the benefits of democracy:one man one vote.Yet on the other when the people elect their representatives who want to transform the society where the haves maintain the haves not in abject poverty ,certain representatives of the American people choose to maintain the exploitation of the masses by a group of wicked individiduals.

Se yon entèvyou enpòtan.Aristide di anpil bagay e HALLWARD poze misye de bon kesyon .Se pou nou ta ka tradwi entèvyou sa a an kreyòl ,pou moun ann Ayiti ka konprann sa k ap di.

Lè m gen yon titan,m ap tradwi 3 ou 4 premye kesyon,yon lòt moun ka tradwi kèk lòt.

Epi Gwotoro,se LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS ki pibliye atik sa a,kididonk HALLWARD pa yon nèg sou pwèl.

mwen te toujou pale de 5 eme kolonn ki enfiltre kan pep la se pa Aristide bay youn nan moun ki se youn 5 eme kolonn.Se pou Aristide ekri youn liv an kreyol pou pep la konprann ki moun ki ak li ki moun ki ap bafwe li.Fok pep la konnen ke lè marengwen ap vole ou pa konn sa ki mal sa ki femel se wou ki pou pran prekotyon pou yo pa pike w.

Neg ki di elektyon munisipal konfirme lan mo Aristide ak tout lavalas la je di gade pa twop nap tann yo an 2011.Aristide pa ka Presidan anko men kom Joel di ya yo kreye youn Matyr tankou Juan Peron an ayiti ke se plisyè jeneratyon ki ap pase anvan enfliyans ti Pè ya diminye nan politik.Si m mouri inkredil yo a di se mwen ki te genyen rezon.Se pa ke se li ki pi maton non men li genyen youn boul pik nan men l se depi o pa li teke e nan pren lot jwè ki ka retire youn mab nan ronn lan.Wouyyyyyyyyy Rico pral estomake kont mwen maten .(lol)

Une excellente entrevue de JBA en effet.

Bien sur, certaines reponses sont "romancees", mais je crois qu'il s'agit de sa meilleure entrevue depuis 2004.

Entretien accordé par Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Peter Hallward

Au milieu des années 1980, Jean-Bertrand Aristide était un jeune curé travaillant dans un quartier pauvre et conflictuel de Port-au-Prince. Il devint bientôt le porte-parole d’un mouvement populaire grandissant contre la série de régimes militaires qui ont dirigé Haïti après l’effondrement de la dictature des Duvalier en 1986. En 1990, il gagna les premières élections présidentielles démocratiques du pays avec 67% des voix.

Perçu comme une menace par l’élite minoritaire dirigeante d’Haïti, il a été renversé par un coup militaire en Septembre 1991. Les conflits avec cette même élite, appuyée par ses puissants alliés aux Etats-Unis et en France, ont façonné toute la trajectoire politique d’Aristide: après une autre victoire écrasante aux élections de 2000, la résistance de l’élite a finalement culminé dans un deuxième coup contre lui dans la nuitdu 28 février 2004. Aristide vit en exil en Afrique du Sud depuis deux ans.

En français: http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/headline2-15-07b.pdf

En anglais: http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/headline2-15-07.pdf