Delahunt, stymied in Haiti, has a plan to bring rivals here

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- With a Boston delegation prevented from traveling to Haiti because of the security risk, Representative William D. Delahunt presented an idea to Haitian leaders this weekend: Bring Haiti to Massachusetts.

Wrapping up a two-day visit to this impoverished nation, Delahunt said he hoped to persuade a contingent of Haiti's feuding political and civic leaders to come to Cape Cod or another regional location. His goal is to encourage them to work together to tackle the country's social and political troubles, including high poverty and a festering distrust among political factions.

''You have to begin to create personal experiences that lead to a level of trust," Delahunt said between meetings here with Haitian and international officials. ''It creates a different mood" that removes the temptation of ''political posturing" on the island, he said.

More than two dozen Massachusetts lawmakers and Haitian-Americans had planned to visit Haiti this weekend, but they postponed the trip because of the danger. Delahunt, an observer in Haiti's 2000 elections, decided to travel to Haiti anyway, despite vehement urging from House leadership to stay away.

State Representative Marie St. Fleur, a Dorchester Democrat and the country's first Haitian- American state legislator, said she had hoped that the trip would build closer relations between Massachusetts and Haiti, particularly on humanitarian efforts. Haiti watchers have complained that US lawmakers have forgotten about Haiti, which remains deeply troubled after President Jean- Bertrand Aristide fled more than a year ago.

Elections have been scheduled for this fall to replace the provisional government, but political rivals are still battling, with rhetoric and with guns. Efforts by the US government have provided some basic needs, such as electricity. But gangs still menace the poorest neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, and several UN troops have been killed in clashes with locals.

A UN Security Council contingent finished a three-day fact- finding trip yesterday, ahead of a June vote to decide whether the UN peacekeeping mission should continue for six more months. During the team's visit, peacekeepers battled with local gunmen, killing at least five. One UN peacekeeper was killed Thursday.

''Unfortunately, that situation sort of clashed with our efforts to come down," St. Fleur said from Boston. ''It seems to me that on a national level, on an international level, if we have a plan, it's a secret. And if it's not a secret, it's not being implemented."

Delahunt said that he has no faith in the current Haitian political class, and that he thinks that the small nation has one final opportunity to create a credible government before descending into a decline that could last several decades. Most critical, Delahunt told US and Haitian leaders, is for the United States and the UN to stay to help in Haiti after the elections.

In a recent report, Human Rights Watch castigated the Haitian government for failing to stop the violence that has led to hundreds of deaths since the beginning of the year.

The violence has exacerbated the hostility among political factions. Aristide -- a onetime slum priest who fell from favor amid increasing gang violence and frustration over Haiti's poorly-functioning institutions -- continues to be popular among the poorest citizens. Aristide's defenders insist that the former leader was kidnapped and complain that they now feel endangered because of their political sympathies.

''There is fear," said the Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, a prominent local priest active in Aristide's Lavalas Party. ''We are still being persecuted. We have no place to meet."

Many in the party say they will not vote this fall because they refuse to accept Aristide's exile. This could lead to a turnout so low that it would imperil the credibility of the election results, observers say.

Aristide signed a letter of resignation in February 2004. He was speedily transported out by the United States, less than a day after the White House said Aristide's behavior ''called into question his fitness to remain in office."

Delahunt, in a series of meetings with leaders in Port-au-Prince, offered to host meetings to get the parties talking. The idea is modeled after the Grupo de Boston, a collection of Venezuelan officials who have been meeting in Boston to resolve differences in their country.

Jean-Juste and other Haitian leaders said they were open to the prospect.

''It's a good idea; I am enthusiastic about it," said a Haitian senator, Gérard Gilles, a member of the Lavalas Party's moderate wing.

''There is no lost hope," Jean-Juste said. ''Even over our dead bodies, there is hope."