Priest Elected in Haiti Remains in Seclusion

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the leftist Catholic priest who won Haiti’s first fully free democratic election Sunday, remained in seclusion Tuesday, still a mystery to diplomats, political observers and others who wonder where he plans to take the strife-torn, impoverished country.

The mild-mannered, 37-year-old pastor to the poor campaigned on a vague platform extolling Haitian self-sufficiency and promising justice, food and jobs to his followers. But he never specified how he would manage the country to achieve his goals.

The fiery sermons that gave Aristide a messiah-like aura to millions of Haitians during the years that he preached against electoral politics were often anti-American, anti-capitalist and sometimes fell barely short of calls for violence against the country’s conservative establishment.

“It was always the workers against the boss with no shades of gray in between,” said a senior Western diplomat. “Now if he wants the country to run, he’s going to have to work with the bosses.”

The problem, according to Haitian political veterans, is that the often mystical Aristide, a specialist in liberation theology, has been so far removed from the political and economic life of the country that he has little to work with in shaping an administration that can re-organize and run the Haitian bureaucracy and control the largely undisciplined army.

“Neither Aristide nor the mixed team of advisers around him have any background in government,” said a diplomat. “They range from the extreme left, including a Communist Party founder, to liberal civic activists--teachers, neighborhood civic leaders, people with no background in management.”

But to Aristide’s followers and a few outsiders who have talked to him since his landslide victory Sunday, the ascetic priest has appeared open to hearing a range of opinions as he begins organizing a transition team to take power after the presidential inauguration Feb. 7.

U.S. Ambassador Alvin Adams appeared confident that Aristide will succeed in forming a stable government and has recommended that Washington offer as much assistance as it can.

“We will try to be helpful, but the decision rests in Washington and Congress,” Adams said in an interview Tuesday. “We are going to make an effort to significantly increase what we can do for Haiti. I have recommended that.”

Meanwhile, Aristide’s headquarters accepted the army’s denial that its soldiers or police had shot and killed a pregnant woman during a massive victory celebration for the popular priest Monday. While many people claimed to have witnessed the incident, independent foreigners who examined the body said their were no gunshot wounds and it appeared more likely that she had been run over by a vehicle.