19784: sajousp: NYTimes.com Article: Hard Realities in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: sajousp@aol.com

Hard Realities in Haiti

March 4, 2004

Rescuing Haiti from a crisis Washington too long ignored
and then badly mishandled is going to take a lot more than
whisking its democratically elected president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, off to Africa and gingerly
deploying a few hundred United States marines. Yesterday,
those marines rightly moved beyond their original mission
of safeguarding only American lives and property, and began
patrolling the tense streets of Port-au-Prince. Earlier in
the day, fierce gun battles raged in the capital's strongly
pro-Aristide slums, where rampaging rebel bands battled
Aristide supporters.

The Bush administration's belated and ham-handed
intervention last weekend practically delivered Haiti into
the hands of an unsavory gang of convicted murderers and
former death squad officers under the overall command of
Guy Philippe, whom American and Haitian officials believe
to be a drug trafficker. Mr. Aristide's opponents also
include plenty of nonviolent democrats, but they are weak
and divided and have so far been easily pushed aside. Their
most significant act to date was torpedoing an
American-proposed compromise last month that might have
strengthened Haiti's anemic democratic institutions.

Now those institutions have all but collapsed. The Supreme
Court justice hastily sworn in on Sunday as interim
president has kept out of public view, limiting himself to
a single radio address. Mr. Philippe has threatened to
arrest the prime minister, now under the Marines'
protection. Other ministers have gone into hiding. It looks
as if Washington will have to pry power away forcefully
from Mr. Philippe, who proclaimed himself leader of a
reborn Haitian Army on Tuesday, reviving a military force
that long dominated and terrorized Haiti. Yesterday, he
promised to disarm his followers. Washington needs to make
sure that he keeps his word.

The United States has compelling reasons for involving
itself again in Haiti, the hemisphere's poorest nation,
which American troops occupied twice in the 20th century.
After intervening to restore Mr. Aristide, the first
democratically elected president in Haitian history, to
office in 1994, Washington failed to do enough to help
develop strong institutions, like an independent police
force and judiciary, to sustain democratic rule. These
high-minded arguments for continued involvement are
supplemented by less-refined political considerations.
Continued disorder in Haiti would propel thousands of
desperate refugees toward nearby Florida, something Mr.
Bush surely does not want in a presidential election year.

Yet after costly nation-building stumbles in Afghanistan
and Iraq, it's astonishing to see the administration assume
responsibility for yet another failed state with so little
forethought or serious planning. In a sadly familiar
pattern, the White House again seems to have convinced
itself that with the departure of a leader it detested and
the arrival of American troops, political bitterness built
up over generations would evaporate, hardened fighters
would simply lay down their arms, and effective, popular
pro-American politicians would emerge to run a newly
functional government.

Administration officials may already be starting to
recognize that a far more active, lengthy and expensive
American role will be required.