Despite Accord, Backing Haiti’s President Is Risky : Terror: Public displays of support for Aristide have been met with arrests, beatings and even executions.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  Jean-Bertrand Aristide is president of Haiti. The United Nations says so. The Haitian Parliament says so. Even the military that overthrew him in a bloody revolt now says so. But you won’t find his picture displayed anywhere in public.

In fact, to try to show the likeness of the radically populist Roman Catholic priest, or utter his name out loud or attend a rally on his behalf is to guarantee arrest, most likely a beating and quite possibly death.

In the past nine days, police and soldiers have shot at least one person to death, wounded 10 others and arrested and brutalized several others, including an aging Catholic priest, for trying to post pictures of Aristide in public.

This is in spite of an accord reached last month by Aristide, his army tormentors, national legislators and the entire political spectrum that recognizes him as Haiti’s sole and legitimate president, and guarantees his return from exile by Oct. 30.

But accord or not, president or not, Aristide, who was driven out of office 23 months ago, is constantly vilified on government-controlled television and radio. Government money is used to organize anti-Aristide groups and demonstrations, and the police and military terrorize anyone who publicly backs him.

Random shooting is reported nightly in the slums to intimidate Aristide’s supporters.

Such terror extends well beyond beatings, arrest and harassment, according to the international human rights observers sent here by the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

By their count, 36 summary political executions were committed in July and the rate exceeds a killing a day so far in August. Privately, the human rights observers blame the military and police for most of the killings.

Military leaders deny any responsibility and claim the crimes are the work of common criminals, adding that they break up Aristide demonstrations to preserve order.

Their latest act of preserving order came three days ago when 20 Aristide supporters organized a rally in the suburb of Petionville and attempted to hang banners and pictures of the president.

Within minutes, truckloads of uniformed police and civilian thugs carrying assault rifles arrived, arrested three people and drove off the rest. One of those detained was a 60-year-old priest who was held in prison and badly beaten.

Police officials said he was guilty of public disorder and of assaulting and robbing a policeman.

The human rights situation has deteriorated so badly during the six weeks since the accord was signed that Aristide reportedly is considering asking the U.N. to continue a punishing economic and fuel embargo of Haiti even after his own prime minister and Cabinet take over later this month.

The Miami Herald on Thursday quoted Michael Barnes, a former Maryland congressman who is Aristide’s lead attorney, as saying that even if sanctions were lifted, “they would be reimposed if human rights violations are continuing.”

The continuation of sanctions is considered unlikely by most diplomats and officials here. But the issue signifies the difficulty facing Aristide in gaining true control of a government structure and army that consider him a virtual devil who threatens their wealth, power and even existence.

“The military may have signed the agreement,” said one Haitian political expert, “but there are still some who think they can keep him from coming back, that the international community is not serious in demanding his return.”

One clear tactic of such people is their use of television and radio. The agreement to bring Aristide back, if mentioned at all, is either described erroneously in many broadcasts or cast in a negative light with claims that it calls for armed intervention by foreign forces--a particular bugaboo in a country once occupied by U.S. Marines.

Programming consists mostly of virulent Aristide foes denouncing him as a traitor and human rights violator who plans to kill his opponents. One frequently repeated program shows a dozen people grouped around an anti-Aristide banner and giving the Nazi salute.

Another prominent program consists of a speech by leaders of a newly formed group called the Armed Front of the Haitian People, which is a paramilitary party with the announced aim of “protecting the people” from Aristide.

“It is illegal under the constitution to have non-military armed groups, but this was formed with the army’s blessing,” said one political leader who opposes Aristide politically but supports his return.

Another show presents a female caressing the Haitian flag suggestively while singing lyrics that claim Aristide wants to turn the country over to foreigners.

A subtext of this approach is a growing campaign against the U.N. human rights mission in Haiti, which consists of 216 observers in 15 sites around the country.

The anti-Aristide forces are constantly emphasizing that the observers, mostly young men and women, are paid $6,500 a month, a virtual fortune to most Haitians. And they accuse observers of every sort of misfeasance from embezzlement to sexual misbehavior.

The latest charge, made in the government-controlled press, was that the mission director, Trinidadian diplomat Colin Ganderson, has stolen thousands of dollars from his organization and slandered Haiti.

“This Ganderson is a vulgar person,” one broadcast said, “a petty businessman who uses his position to cut deals.”

Ganderson, who is one of the Caribbean area’s most highly respected diplomats, denied the charges and dismissed the media campaign as “basically silly.”

What is serious, he said, are the constant threats made against the observers, many of whom work and live in small groups outside the capital and are at the mercy of the military and its local supporters. “When soldiers point rifles at an observer, as they often do, and say ‘we’re going to get you,’ yes, we take that seriously.”