a1448L Sen. Mike Dewine on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Posted on Sun, Mar. 17, 2002
opinion page of the Miami Herald

Haiti: Devastation, destitution, desperation
By SEN. MIKE DEWINE

Cushioned amid the white-sand, palm-fringed beaches and
warm, sapphire-hued waters of the Caribbean lies the island
nation of Haiti -- once a lush, tropical sanctuary, now a
paradise lost. Wracked by near constant struggle and
strife, Haiti is a nation wrought with government
mismanagement and corruption, violence, poverty and
disease. It is a nation on the brink of collapse.
This is a critical time for Haiti. It is also a critical
time for the United States. Unless the Haitian government
initiates significant political and economic changes, we
once again will see boats swollen with Haitians risking
their lives to get to Miami and the chance for a better
life.

Internally, Haiti is a tinderbox of violence waiting to
ignite. The Organization of American States continues to
struggle to devise a strategy to halt Haiti's downward
spiral, despite the recent establishment of a new permanent
OAS mission in Haiti to help resolve the continuing
electoral stalemate.

I returned from my ninth trip to Haiti in January, where I
again witnessed devastation, destitution and desperation.
Today, less than one-half of Haiti's 8.2 million people can
read or write. The country's infant mortality rate is the
highest in our hemisphere. At least 23 percent of children
ages zero to 5 are malnourished, and only 39 percent of
Haitians have access to clean water. Diseases like measles,
malaria and tuberculosis are epidemic.

Roughly one out of every 12 Haitians has HIV/AIDS.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
projections, Haiti will experience up to 44,000 new
HIV/AIDS cases this year -- that's at least 4,000 more than
the number expected here in the United States, a nation
with a population nearly 35 times larger. Already, AIDS has
orphaned 163,000 children, a number expected to skyrocket
to between 323,000 and 393,000 over the next 10 years.

Haiti's economy is in shambles. It grows worse by the day.
Haiti remains the poorest nation in our hemisphere, with 70
percent of the people either under-employed or unemployed.
With such woeful economic conditions, coupled with hollow,
ineffective and often corrupt law-enforcement institutions,
drug traffickers operate with impunity. As a result, 15
percent of all cocaine entering the United States passes
through Haiti, the Dominican Republic or both.

Democracy and political stability continue to elude Haiti
even now, over seven years after we sent more than 20,000
U.S. troops to oversee the end of military rule and the
restoration of a constitutional government, with
Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president. Though no one expected
miracles or immediate recovery when Aristide first returned
to power in 1994, we did expect his government to establish
a foundation for change and progress that would help move
the country away from its failed past toward a hopeful and
productive future.

Regrettably, President Aristide and his predecessor, René
Préval, have and are shirking the hard work of
democracy-building -- the labor and sweat necessary to
build and stabilize a nation.

Today, violence remains rampant. Journalists and opposition
members fear for their lives and the safety of their
families. Guyler Delva, head of Haiti's leading journalist
group, believes that he has been targeted with death
threats that are part of a wider government-tolerated
campaign to intimidate reporters. The Dec. 17 coup attempt
and the pro-Aristide mob violence that followed further
typify the lawlessness and tumult that continue to plague
Haiti absent a solid democratic framework and system of
justice.

In a recent meeting with President Aristide, I raised these
concerns. I argued that now, more than ever, it is
essential that he call for peace and push for domestic
order. Continued violence and retribution only will
perpetuate instability and upheaval. Aristide has an
obligation to use his immense popularity to make it
unequivocally clear to his supporters that taking revenge
on people who were involved in the attempted coup or taking
revenge on parties that oppose him is not in the best
interests of the nation.

He needs to say: Stop the violence.

Furthermore, Aristide should lay a bold plan upon the table
to end the political impasse -- a proposal that the
opposition parties cannot refuse.

In the spirit of the Inter-American Democratic Charter -- a
new tool created on the heels of the Sept. 11 attacks --
Aristide needs to work with the OAS to allow an independent
investigation into allegations of violence and corruption,
mediate a truce between the government and the opposition
and strengthen government institutions to allow democracy
to flourish.

To borrow the words of Haiti's ambassador to the OAS,
Aristide's government needs to build bridges rather than
walls.

But that is just the start. Ending the current political
stalemate and resolving questions surrounding the recent
attempted coup alone will not create a viable democracy in
Haiti. In the long-term, Haiti can succeed if -- and only
if -- the government takes responsibility for the situation
and resolves to end violence, eliminate corruption, create
free markets, allow for the privatization of industries,
improve the judicial system, respect human rights and
develop a sustainable system of agriculture.

In the meantime, the United States also must take
responsibility by continuing and sizeably increasing our
humanitarian efforts in Haiti. We have a moral obligation
to stay committed to the people -- irrespective of what the
Haitian government does or does not do.

Already, we have cut too much of the aid that goes to the
non-governmental organizations dedicated to feeding
starving Haitian children; teaching the men and women
better, more-effective methods of farming; and instituting
much-needed health care programs. Last year, we provided
$77 million in humanitarian aid. This year, that figure has
dropped to $55 million. This is simply not acceptable.

We are at a crossroads. Aristide and the political rulers
have a simple choice -- break with history and create a
stable political system and a free, democratic market
economy; or perpetuate the needless, bloody tragedy that
confines future generations of Haitians to lives of
disillusionment and despair.

The choice is theirs -- the consequences belong to us all.

Mike DeWine, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Ohio.



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