8580: U.S. OWES ARISTIDE A FAIR CHANCE TO GOVERN (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

This article from last week's Boston Globe obviously provoked an angry 
response as seen in yesterday's Wall Street Journal!

The Boston Globe

June 30, 2001, Saturday

HEADLINE: PAUL FARMER, JOSEPH P. KENNEDY II, AND JEFFREY SACHS Paul Farmer 
teaches at Harvard Medical School and runs a small hospital in rural Haiti; 
Joseph P. Kennedy II is chairman of Citizens Energy Corp. in Boston; 
Jeffrey Sachs directs Harvard University's Center for International 
Development.;

US OWES ARISTIDE A FAIR CHANCE TO GOVERN

BYLINE: By Paul Farmer, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Jeffrey Sachs

BODY:
THE IMAGES OF HAITI FAMILIAR TO MOST AMERICANS SUGGEST A COUNTRY LOCKED IN 
A HOPELESS STRUGGLE AGAINST POLITICAL OPPRESSION AND ECONOMIC DESPAIR.

But there is another Haiti. It has a deeply religious and hard-working 
population, hungry for education and opportunity, struggling to feed their 
families and make a better way of life for their children. There is the 
political promise of successive democratically elected governments that aim 
to replace poverty and chaos with stability and growth.

Haiti is at a critical juncture in its struggle to emerge from poverty and 
oppression. Massive investments in health care, education, roads and 
bridges, ports and telecommunications are needed to bring economic hope to 
the country and ensure that democracy takes hold.

Significant amounts of international aid have been appropriated to 
address these needs but are being withheld until President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide, reelected last December, demonstrates the country's commitment to 
democracy. There is no problem with forcing any aid recipient to prove its 
democratic bona fides. However, there is a Catch-22 built into the approval 
process:  The donor countries, including the United States, have insisted 
that Aristide reach agreement with a bitter and unrepresentative political 
opposition before any funds are released.

As a result, a vocal minority of obstructionists possess veto power over 
the future of Haiti, turning political and economic failure into 
self-fulfilling prophecy.

The issue of dispute involves seven Senate seats won by members of 
Aristide's party in the May 2000 parliamentary elections. Though the 
balloting was deemed fair, tabulators counted only the top four finishers 
in each race and awarded victory outright to Aristide's supporters.

International observers criticized the counting method, pointing out that 
had all the votes been counted, none of the declared winners would have 
garnered more than the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff.

The senators from the disputed districts recently resigned their seats, 
clearing the way for a new round of balloting. But the opposition has 
rejected the scheduling of runoff elections. Moreover, it has rejected a 
plan accepted by the Organization of American States to hold a new round of 
balloting for all the parliamentarians elected in May 2000 and ignored a 
June 25 OAS deadline to participate in a new electoral council to oversee 
the voting.

Meanwhile, Aristide's foes demand international recognition of the 
coalition leader they farcically declared their "president" in February 
while insisting that Aristide step down, shorten his five-year term, or 
agree to a power-sharing arrangement.

The impasse is an attempt to push Aristide into a sort of internal 
political exile, with dire consequences for the people of Haiti.

As for the United States, no direct aid can be made to the central 
government until the administration signs off on the parliamentary 
elections and certifies the Haitian government's cooperation in fighting 
international drug-trafficking.

Aristide's commitment to address both issues was signaled in a covenant 
signed last December with the Clinton administration and subsequently 
endorsed by President Bush.

Bush's endorsement of the pact and his choice of Colin Powell, who 
negotiated the return of democracy to Haiti in 1994, as his secretary of 
state augur a more positive US role in Haiti.

Recently, Bush granted Haiti a national security waiver in its process of 
certifying nations as cooperating with the United States in the 
international war on drugs. The administration concluded that 
decertification, with its denial of assistance, would only make the problem 
worse, driving Haitians into the drug economy. The same logic should surely 
apply to the unblocking of the international aid pipeline in order to build 
a new Haiti.

If the opposition fails to bargain in good faith, Bush and Powell should 
endorse the new electoral council, accept the results of new elections, 
move ahead with cooperative drug-fighting measures, and, most important, 
lift the US hold on aid and urge other nations and multilateral aid 
agencies to follow their lead.

Economic progress with equity is possible in Haiti only if the free world 
takes the side of justice in the dispute. Aristide, driven from Haiti by 
the 1991 coup, was denied his right to govern. It is equally unacceptable 
in 2001 that the reelected president, living in his own country among the 
people who elected him, is denied his right to govern by an 
unrepresentative opposition.