World

Haiti's Aristide Sworn In

September 25, 2000 / 6:11 PM EDT / AP

Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in Wednesday, returning to power as Haiti's president on a promise to bring change to a country devastated by poverty and torn by political divisions.

Holding his hand on a Bible, the former Roman Catholic priest took the oath of office before Parliament. He stood stone-faced through the swearing-in then smiled as his predecessor, Rene Preval, slipped the red-and-blue presidential sash over his left shoulder.

Hundreds of supporters filled the streets outside the Legislative Palace, even though they had no view of the proceedings inside.

"We planted the seed, and now it's time to reap what's sown. We want to make sure all the work we've done for Aristide pays off," said Michel Frizner, a 28-year-old construction worker who had been waiting outside the palace since sunrise.

While Aristide's return is celebrated by many poor Haitians, it has been shunned by the international community, which was critical of legislative and local elections held in May. Of the few diplomats attending, most are ambassadors, not world leaders.

Aristide, 47, is also challenged by Haiti's opposition parties, which protested fraud in the May vote and have announced their own provisional president to head an alternative government while demanding new elections.

About Haiti

Area: slightly smaller than Maryland
Population: 6,867,995
Independence: 1804, from France
Literacy: 45 percent (U.S.: 97 percent)
GDP Per Capita: $1,340 (U.S.: $33, 900)
Life expectancy: 49.21 years (U.S.: 77.12 years)
Infant mortality: 97.1 deaths/1,000 live births (U.S.: 6.82)

(Source: CIA)

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Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected president in a landslide victory in 1990. The army ousted him in September 1991, and a U.S. military invasion restored him to power three years later.

Constitutionally barred from running for a consecutive term, Aristide spent only a few months in office before stepping down in 1996 and handing power to his protege, Preval.

In the Village of Peace, a shantytown built on a state-owned landfill outside Port-au-Prince, support for Aristide is strong among residents, grateful that they are allowed to stay rent-free.

"I will wait for him to make things better," said Viergemene Federick, a 38-year-old mother of five who sleeps with her children and husband in one bed in a small cement shack.

"Everybody here is for Aristide," said Jean-Jaques Nardy, who also lives in the shantytown. "He didn't have enough time in office before to do anything. This time will be different."

In last year's elections, Aristide's Lavalas Family party won more than 80 percent of local and parliamentary seats. The Organization of American States said 10 Senate seats won by Aristide candidates should have gone to a second round vote, and some countries threatened to withhold aid.

In a letter to then-President Clinton in December, Aristide offered to rectify the election results, include opposition figures in his government and appoint a new provisional electoral council. But the opposition rejected his offers, calling for new elections.

France and the European Union didn't send representatives to Aristide's inauguration because they "mean to show their disapproval of the conditions in which the controversial electoral process took place," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The United States also did not send a delegation and was represented only by its ambassador. Top officials were attending from Taiwan, Guatemala, Panama, Belize and other countries.

Now Aristide faces three challenges: deliver on promises so he can keep the support of Haiti's poor majority; patch up relations with the international community to secure aid for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; and fix an impasse with the opposition.

Talks to find common ground with the opposition began Saturday and went on into early Tuesday. But they failed.

On Tuesday, the 15-party opposition alliance Convergence named former presidential candidate Gerard Gourgue, 75, as the country's provisional president in an alternative government. It also offered Aristide a seat on a three-member presidential council. An opposition premier would rule by decree, and general elections would be held by 2003, it said.

Aristide's party chose to hold the inauguration on Feb. 7, a national holiday and the day that dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was forced from power in 1986.

Children didn't attend school Wednesday, and many telephone poles had been painted in blue and red, the national colors, near the National Palace, where Aristide was to give his inaugural address.

Aristide's swearing-in was shown on television throughout the country, and Reynold Pierre, a 29-year-old hotel employee, said he was hopeful as he watched.

"I'm confident that now the country has a chance to develop," he said.