Boys from Brazil stage peaceful Haitian coup

Six months after a bloody uprising, nation hopes that football can help bring an end to violence Phil Davison reports

The slogan Pele used in the hope of ending civil strife in Africa in the 1960s was "Make goals, not war". Now that is the message Brazil's football stars of today are taking to Haiti to encourage armed factions to hand in their guns. The world's number one side will play a goodwill "Game of Peace" next Wednesday against Haiti's national team, 95th in the world.

Can Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos and their teammates do what US forces could not do earlier this year, encourage the impoverished Caribbean nation's armed groups to lay down their weapons? Brazil's President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, who is travelling with the team, hopes they can make a start. "The match is a symbol, a gesture to show we want the world to live in peace, not war," he said.

And in a message perhaps aimed as much at George Bush as to the Haitian gunmen, the populist President added: "We want to show the world that not everything demands cannons, machine guns and weapons of mass destruction. Sometimes, affectionate gestures are worth more than certain wars."

It might be harsh to say "Lula" has ulterior motives. But his Brazilian troops head the present UN Stabilisation Mission to Haiti, so they may have the ultimate responsibility for disarming the groups after a mid-September deadline set by the interim government.

The Brazilian President did Mr Bush a major favour by taking on the greatest responsibility from US troops in July. If Brazilian troops can help keep Haiti stable, it would be a major boost for "Lula" in his quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Extreme left-wingers in the President's ruling Workers' Party accuse him of being an American puppet, "doing Bush's dirty work, acting as one of America's regional gendarmes".

But perhaps the talk of ulterior motives is cynical. Certainly, do not tell the Haitians. Many of them, though starving, are treating the Brazilian team's visit as the highlight of their lives. Haitians are probably the most fanatical Brazil fans outside the South American country. If Ronaldo ran for Haitian president, he would surely win with a Gaddafi-esque percentage. Not born in Haiti? "Pa problem", as they say in their French-Creole. The masses would surely find a way to change the constitution.

"I reckon this game could draw a million people," said Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, the Brazilian general commanding the UN force soon to consist of 6,000 troops. "But the stadium can fit only 13,000 at best." The Sylvio Cator stadium in Port-au-Prince, named after Haiti's most famous athlete, who held the world long-jump record in the 1920s, has been ruled off-limits by Fifa for a year, because of Haiti's violence.

The national team played its last "home" game, in June, in the Orange Bowl in Miami, where there is a large population of immigrants. They drew with Jamaica in that World Cup qualifier but lost the return leg in Kingston. But despite the Fifa ban, the momentum of next week's "Game of Peace" became unstoppable as Brazilian flags joined Haiti's own red and blue banner on roofs and in shanty towns around the country. Ronaldo's name and face are now as popular as those of Jesus and Rambo on the tap-tap buses which squeeze through the masses of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Haitian children are named Ronaldinho or Juninho, though often misspelt in tune with the sound of French-Creole patois. Many schools and offices close when Brazil play.

When Ronaldo and his teammates won the World Cup in 2002, Haiti's then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted in February this year, declared a two-day holiday to allow the nation to let off steam.

"Ronaldo is coming," Black Joe, a gang member in the desperate slum known as Cité Soleil, told a Reuters reporter. Getting down on his knees, with a Ronaldo poster in one hand and a Brazilian flag in the other, he beamed: "It will be the greatest day of my life." Jacques Milien, another fan, said: "When I watch Brazil play, it's like a drug. My hunger, my problems, my hardships are all gone, forgotten, at least for a while."

Haiti's embattled interim Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, inspired the original idea of a goodwill game after Brazilian UN troops arrived in July, when he said: "I think a few Brazilian football stars could do more to disarm warring militias than thousands of peace-keeping troops." When Ronaldo was told of the pro-Brazil fanaticism of Haitian fans, he was among the first to endorse the idea, saying: "I understand what misery is. I was born into poverty. That's why I feel I have to be an example to such people."

The Real Madrid striker said he would bring as many gifts for poor Haitian children as he could carry. His teammate Ronaldinho, who plays for Real's arch-rivals Barcelona, promised $150,000 (£82,000). Between them, the Brazilian President and the team pledged to send thousands of Brazilian football jerseys. The Brazilian troops had already distributed 5,000 footballs, to the delight of children, some of whom had never seen a real one.

And to make sure the gods of the football field do not let their adoring Haitian fans down, the Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira is sending his best players, which has left Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger showing less than goodwill over the Haiti game. His midfielders Edu and Gilberto Silva will be missing at a crucial time for the club. "It's unbelievable," a fuming Wenger said last week. "It's complete nonsense."

Mr Latortue's original idea, backed by the Brazilian President, was a guns-for-tickets deal: militiamen could trade in a weapon for a seat at the game. Almost immediately, the thought of 13,000 men from assorted political or criminal persuasions, toting automatic rifles while queuing for tickets, presented an obvious recipe for disaster, and the plan was dropped, but not before a brisk arms trade had sprung up as those without a gun sought one desperately. (No one knows yet how the tickets will be apportioned.)

Apart from weapons in the hands of civilian gangs in the slums (they would say they are for self-defence) most firepower is held by those who still support ousted President Aristide, now living in "temporary" asylum in South Africa. The rest are in the hands of militiamen, mostly former Haitian soldiers from the days of the Duvalier dynasty or later military governments, who rose against Aristide late last year with the implicit backing of the Bush administration.

Their rebellion, in which more than 200 people died, led to the departure of the president, a former Catholic priest, on a US plane in February. The Americans said he left of his own will. He insisted he was taken to Port-au-Prince airport and flown out by force. Whatever the case, he retains widespread support among the poor masses.

In the six months since his departure, Haiti has gone from bad to worse. There has been no major fighting but there are regular killings and tension remains high. The bodies of many Aristide supporters have been found in rubbish dumps around Port-au-Prince airport, fodder for the local pigs. Pro-Aristide, anti-American street protesters blame the Americans for "occupying" the country this year then leaving after only four months "because we have no oil".

Despite calls by the interim government to disarm, the rebels, most of them former soldiers, still control large areas. They have threatened to take up arms in anger again if Haiti's army, disbanded by Aristide, is not reconstituted. They also claim they are owed up to 10 years' back pay.

"Disarm us? Just let them try," said one rebel leader, former army colonel Remissainthe Ravix, who claims to lead 2,000 men. "They are ingrates. If our weapons are illegal, the [interim] government is illegal, because it is thanks to our weapons that they are now where they are." Another former army colonel, Himmler Rébu added: "The Aristide government was 100 times better than these technocrats [the interim government]."

The Caribbean Community (the regional grouping known as Caricom) ­ not entirely convinced that the legally elected Aristide left of his own accord ­ has not yet recognised the interim government, leaving Haiti frozen out of regional trade and affairs.

For most Haitians, life just gets worse, if that is possible in a country where the average income is 60p a day. The price of rice, the staple diet, has more than doubled since Aristide's departure. The country used to produce 80 per cent of its rice. Now it imports nearly 80 per cent from the US. Half of the urban population has no clean drinking water.

Stinking rubbish is piled 20ft high along Port-au-Prince streets. To make matters even worse, one in 20 of the country's eight million population is believed to be HIV-positive.

Last month, at an aid donors' conference at the World Bank in Washington, and after a call from the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, the international community rallied behind Haiti, at least verbally, by pledging more than $1bn in aid over the next two years, including more than $300m from the European Community. But Haitians have heard it all before.

And even if aid is forthcoming, jobs made available, roads built, food put on their tables and true democracy restored, one key question is whether Haitians will have anything more than a desert to live in. Half a century ago, the country's mountains were as lush as anywhere in the Caribbean. Now it is 90 per cent deforested. To provide charcoal for cooking and heating, Haitians have been chopping millions of trees a year, reducing both topsoil and rainfall and, therefore, agricultural produce.

Small farmers now rely on dew to grow potatoes or beans. Haiti appears to be a country without hope. Except next week when the "gods" from Brazil come in what one Haitian football official described as "a gesture that will forever touch the lives of many Haitians". Perhaps the only Haitian unhappy to see them will be their goalkeeper, Fenelon Gabart. A final score of cricketing proportions seems inevitable.

Emphasising that his sympathy for the plight of Haitians was not a flash-in-the-pan, Ronaldo said last night that, as a goodwill ambassador to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), he would organise a second "Match Against Poverty" within months to raise funds for Haiti and other poverty-stricken countries. He did not say where it might take place.

A first "Match Against Poverty" took place in Basel, Switzerland, in December last year, pitting a team of Ronaldo's friends against one brought together by Zinedine Zidane.

In the spirit of goodwill, President "Lula" suggested to Ronaldo and company that they do not rattle in too many goals "so as not to ruin the festivities".

But Pierre Rigaud, of the Haitian Football Federation, had a robust reply. "Nonsense," he said, beaming. "This will be a carnival like Haiti has never seen. The more goals, the bigger the party."