NEWS

Aristide, former president of Haiti, to address persistence of poverty

CHAPEL HILL -- Jean-Bertrand Aristide, democratic revolutionary and former president of Haiti, will lecture on “The Persistence of Poverty in the Age of Globalization” on Oct. 20 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Aristide will deliver the university's second Frank Porter Graham Lecture, free and open to the public, at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall on Cameron Avenue. Chancellor Michael Hooker will introduce the speaker. A reception after the lecture will be open to everyone.

This is Aristide's first visit to North Carolina, whose U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms opposed U.S. intervention in Haiti on Aristide's behalf.

Also during his campus visit, Aristide will meet in small groups with UNC-CH students and faculty interested in human rights issues and economic development.

“We are honored and delighted to welcome President Aristide to the Carolina campus,” said Dr. Leon Fink, history professor and executive secretary of the Frank Porter Graham Lecture Committee. “Aristide's commitment to human rights and the fight for democracy in one of the world's poorest and most troubled states brings the biggest challenge facing the globe right to our doorstep.”

Born in 1953 in the coastal town of Port-Salut, Haiti, Aristide became a parish priest in Port-au-Prince. In the early 1980s, Father Aristide became a strong and outspoken critic of the Duvalier dictatorship and a social system which condemned 85 percent of the population to abject poverty.

As a leader of the progressive wing of the Catholic church in Haiti, Aristide regularly attracted thousands to mass. His message of hope, his ability to communicate with the Haitian people in Creole and his affirmation of the human dignity of each person could be summed up in the Haitian proverb he often cited: “tout moun se moun,” every human being is a human being.

After Duvalier's fall in 1986, Aristide led a difficult fight for democratic change in Haiti. He survived at least nine attempts on his life; the burning of his church and a home for street children he had founded; and the massacre of many of his parishioners.

In fall 1990, after a campaign he dubbed “Lavalas,” or cleansing flood, Aristide was elected president in Haiti's first free and fair election. He received an overwhelming 67 percent of the vote in a field of 13 candidates.

But seven months later, the Haitian military violently overthrew the democratic government. Aristide was forced into exile, and the military unleashed an unprecedented campaign of terror and violence on the population during the next three years. Repression was so intense that Haitians could not even say Aristide's name in public without risk of reprisal.

President Aristide first went to Venezuela and then spent two and a half years of exile in Washington D.C. Throughout his exile, he was recognized internationally as the legitimate president of Haiti and continued to direct its affairs.

With U.S. military support dispatched by President Clinton, Aristide triumphantly returned to Haiti on Oct. 15, 1994, where he completed the last 16 months of his five-year presidential term. His most significant act as president was to dismantle the Haitian military and create a new national police under civilian control.

Following his presidency, Aristide founded the Aristide Foundation for Democracy, which seeks to deepen the roots of Haiti's democracy by opening areas of participation to all Haitians. The foundation has three major program areas: sponsoring forums and public dialogues on such issues as justice, land reform, and the economic future of the nation; supporting literacy programs in Haiti; and fostering community-based economic initiatives.

Aristide has been honored and recognized worldwide for his commitment to nonviolence, peace, and justice. A partial list of awards includes the Oscar Romero Award, the Martin Luther King International Statesman and Ecumenical Award and the Aix-la-Chappelle Peace Prize.

In January 1996, Aristide married Mildred Trouillot, a Haitian-American lawyer who served as a legal adviser to the government of Haiti while Aristide was in exile and after his return. Their daughter Christine was born Nov. 8, 1996.

Aristide has written books including “In the Parish of the Poor” (1990), “Theology and Politics” (1993), and “Dignity” (1995). He is fluent in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, English, and his native Creole and French. An accomplished musician and composer, Aristide plays guitar, saxophone, organ, drums, clarinet and piano.

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Frank Porter Graham Lecture Committee contact: Dr. Leon Fink, 962-8080
Expert, Caribbean affairs: Dr. Louis Perez, history professor, 962-2115
Students, Frank Porter Graham Lecture Committee:
International Student Association President Cathy Grigorou, 914-6019
Co-chair, Campus Y, Luv Javia, 962-2332
News Service contact, broadcast media: Karen Moon
News Services contact, print media: Laura J. Toler