18411: Blanchet: Fw: Press Memorandum: Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>


> Council On Hemispheric Affairs
>
> Monitoring  Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues
> Affecting the Western Hemisphere
>
> Memorandum to the Press 04.06
>
> Tuesday, February 10, 2004
>
> The following 794-word COHA finding on the rapidly
> deterioratingsituation in Haiti is available as an
> op-ed submission (market restrictionswill be
> respected) or can be freely quoted, with attribution.
>
> COHA has been closely monitoring events in Haiti for
> many years. It has issued scores of memoranda on
> thesubject, which can be found on our website. A COHA
> research fellow has recentlyreturned from a one-week
> trip to Haiti and is available to be interviewed.
> Please be in touchwith our office (202-216-9261) for
> additional material or commentary on Haiti.
>
> Memorandumto the Press
>
> HAITI
>
> What had been an increasingly disloyal and
> violentopposition is now leading an openly
> anti-democratic insurrection, asanti-Aristide forces
> turn Haiti into a hellish war zone, using sequestered
> weapons tosack a number of cities. An
> existingexplosive political stalemate has been
> worsening since December, when therebels adopted a
> violent street strategy along with an inflexible
> policy ofnon-negotiation to oust President
> Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Yet for the State Department,
> Haiti's desperate struggle to preserve its hard-won
> democracywas given low priority. Strangely, giventhe
> likely crushing impact on U.S. domestic politics
> registered by tens of thousands ofdesperate Haitians
> who predictably will soon undertake the perilous
> voyage to Florida, Secretary of State Colin Powell
> remains almostlanguorous in the face of daily fierce
> melées in Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, theHaitian
> opposition organizes a blatant power grab through
> belligerentdemonstrations aimed at unseating
> Aristide. Now Haiti has entered into an endgame with
> portentousconsequences, as armed opposition mobs loot
> a number of cities and scores ofresidents are killed.
>
> In recent months, the opposition's strategy has
> becomeincreasingly clear. Lacking thenumerical
> strength to win an election, its elitist leaders
> threatened toviolently oust Aristide if he refused to
> resign. Haiti's conservative factions have despised
> Aristide for hisstridency and radical message ever
> since he was first elected in 1990 by atwo-thirds
> majority. His hordes ofadoring followers alienated
> the island's tiny mulatto-dominated elite and
> thecountry's paramilitary. But Aristide wasunable to
> effectively establish security either by reining in
> his own Lavalas militants or the opposition's street
> fighters, norcould he entirely professionalize his
> outnumbered police force. The opposition's
> increasingly bellicoseanti-Aristide street marches
> became a coup in the making that threatened to
> replicatethe appalling repression suffered by Haiti
> under military rule, 1991-94.
>
> Secretary Powell and his controversial Latin
> Americanaide, Roger Noriega, have at best used
> delphicprose in responding to Haitian issues. Rather
> than demanding that the opposition immediately choose
> its representativesto the Provisional Electoral
> Council and end its cat-and-mouse game aimed
> atsabotaging any prospect of parliamentary elections
> (which the opposition almostcertainly would lose),
> Washington is unable to hide its pro-opposition
> bias,even though it cannot be seen as backing the
> overthrow of ademocratically-elected president.
>
> Given the rebels' ideological and financial ties to
> the U.S. - they are generously funded by U.S.
> taxpayers through the International Republican
> Institute-Washington's open denouncement of their
> obstructionism could havean electrifying positive
> effect. Yet,this has not been forthcoming, partly
> because U.S. hemispheric policy is guided by a small
> group ofextremists with strong ideological ties to
> former Senator Jesse Helms, whosimplistically see
> Aristide as the Caribbean's next Castro.
>
> Aside from pro-forma language, Washington has shown
> little interest in ensuring that Aristideserves out
> his constitutionally-mandated term through 2006. On
> the contrary, it repeatedly questions hisbona fides
> and unfairly holds him accountable for Haiti's
> economic woes - which, in fact, the U.S. almost
> single-mindedly has helped to achieve. The White
> House carped at Aristide's admittedshortcomings, while
> it led efforts to freeze $500 million in
> internationalpledges to the island. The U.S. has
> placed demands that Aristide could not possiblyfulfill
> without the resources it will not grant him, thereby
> giving theopposition a veritable veto over Haiti's
> future. Meanwhile, the political stalemate
> thatproduced a crippled economy has now alienated
> large numbers of Haitians, whohave lost faith in
> democracy. In thelast few days the situation has
> markedly worsened, as street demonstrationshave become
> bloody riots and armed rebels emerge intent on
> overthrowing a legalgovernment which, with all of its
> flaws, was neither cruel nor authoritarian.
>
> Aside from its impermissible diktat
> mandatingAristide's departure, what do the rebels
> demand? Starting last December, its thugs took to
> thestreets and insisted that all schools and hospitals
> be closed until Aristideleaves, and then underscored
> their demands by torching their buildings androughing
> up students. In the last fewdays, the coup unfolded,
> as rebel forces seized 9 cities and hunted
> downgovernment officials. The preemptorydemand for
> Aristide's resignation without further dialogue or
> negotiation allalong has been an audacious bluff meant
> to mask the fact that the rebels lackedsufficient
> votes to legitimately win an election, although they
> held Washington's proxy.
>
> With a Haiti policy long bankrupt and now unraveling,
> U.S. policymakers have grossly misused the island's
> mostvaluable political asset, a now tarnished
> Aristide. The longer that Washington equivocates, the
> country's disintegrating economy willfurther sap
> Aristide's authority, while the rebels with their
> gangster tacticscertainly will help propel tens of
> thousands of Haitian refugees to head for U.S. shores
> with a legitimate asylum claim. As Haiti enters its
> final destructive phase, the U.S. will rue the day
> that it birthed such a spavinedpolicy.
>
>
>
> Larry Birns andJessica Leight
>
> Larry Birnsis the director of the Washington-based
> Council on Hemispheric Affairs, where Jessica Leightis
> a research fellow.
>
> Issued 10 February, 2004
> The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975,
> is anindependent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt
> research and informationorganization. It has been
> described on the Senate floor as being "one of
> thenation's most respected bodies of scholars and
> policy makers." For moreinformation, please see our
> web page at www.coha.org; or contact our Washington
> offices by phone (202) 216-9261, fax(202) 223-6035, or
> email coha@coha.org.
>