POLITICS : Haiti’s New Leader Fails to Impress U.S. : He used to be called ‘Mr. Clean.’ Now critics say he’ll institutionalize corruption.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The naming of an international economist once favored by the United States as the new prime minister here is part of a plan to institutionalize corruption and strengthen military control of the beleaguered country, diplomats and other sources say.

“It won’t help,” one U.S. official said of the prime ministerial appointment of Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official with strong American contacts. “In fact, it makes it even more likely that we will increase our pressure.”

He was referring to the economic embargo imposed by the Organization of American States, including the United States, after the military overthrew the elected presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sept. 30.

Army leaders and other anti-Aristide groups have rejected proposals aimed at ultimately returning the ousted president, while the OAS has turned down all government plans that would keep him in exile.

Bazin, 60, was named Tuesday as part of a plan worked out by Army leader Gen. Raoul Cedras, human rights activist Jean-Jacques Honorat, Senate President Dejean Belizaire and Bazin himself, the sources said. Diplomatic and Haitian sources said the men met last Oct. 6 and agreed on the outlines of the plan finally put into place this week.

Bazin didn’t want to be associated directly with the coup at an early stage, the sources said, and backed the naming of an interim government headed by former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Nerette as temporary president and Honorat as acting prime minister.

“The idea was that the Americans would finally realize that Aristide’s return would be impossible and that they would then turn to Bazin as a friend who could be dealt with,” said one Haitian with contacts in the army.

A Haitian politician close to Bazin said, “They were hoping that Bazin’s influence will convince the Americans that the new government is serious in ending corruption and will be open to new investment.

“At the same time,” the source added, “they are hoping that the worst of the embargo is over and that pressure will build for lifting the boycott when the (international) public sees that only the poor are being punished, with no result.”

Some of these same sources, as well as diplomats, say Bazin’s involvement is the end result of what one calls “a pathological ambition” to be prime minister. “This drive is so strong,” said a Haitian economist who once admired Bazin, “that he is willing to give up all semblance of being a democrat and his reputation of being incorruptible.”

Bazin was nicknamed “Mr. Clean” during a brief term as economy minister under the otherwise venal government of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Bazin ran for president against Aristide in 1990.

He privately backed the coup and came up with his plan, a European diplomat said, to get the military’s support. “In exchange, Bazin has agreed to permit the army and its supporters to maintain all their deals. It is the institutionalization of corruption.”

This account was confirmed by other diplomats and informed Haitians. At least in terms of Bazin regaining international respectability and ending the embargo, OAS diplomats say this just won’t work. “Bazin has been the single most important obstacle to negotiating an end to this crisis,” a Western diplomat said.

An OAS statement released here after Bazin’s appointment was announced said the action “is just a continuation of the coup. . . . What we are confronted with now is a continuation of the coup whose goal, from the very beginning, was to suppress the people’s will.”

The State Department in Washington issued a similar statement. “We believe the solution to Haiti’s crisis requires the return to democratic government.” That means, it said, “the naming of a prime minister by consensus and the return of President Aristide.”

According to the arrangement announced on Tuesday, Haiti’s National Assembly was to debate the proposal and vote on it sometime next week. However, the Senate gave its approval to Bazin on Thursday. Opponents denounced the plan and said they have the votes to defeat it, particularly in the House of Deputies, where a loose coalition of pro-Aristide and anti-military parties hold a majority.

But Bazin has said his Cabinet will be a “consensus government,” and some foes fear he has promised senior positions to enough parties to weaken his opponents.