18437: Severe: Washington Post Editorial: Crisis in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Constantin Severe <csevere@hotmail.com>

Crisis in Haiti

Wednesday, February 11, 2004; Page A30


HAITI STOOD on the verge of revolution or anarchy last night. Armed gangs
opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide controlled a number of towns,
and fighting was reported in the second-largest city, Cap Haitien. Scores
have been killed since rebellion began last week, and the United Nations is
warning of an imminent food crisis. Yet neither the United States nor
Haiti's other neighbors appear prepared to come to its rescue. They are
standing by as a violent movement, made up at least in part of criminals and
thugs with connections to Haiti's last dictatorship, overthrows a
democratically elected president -- or is itself brutally put down.

The lack of American activity is a strange sequel to the 1994 U.S. invasion
that restored Mr. Aristide to power, and irresponsible considering the
potential for another mass movement of Haitian refugees to the United
States. But senior Republican and Bush administration officials are loath to
help Mr. Aristide, whose restoration they opposed. Though the State
Department has issued calls for an end to the violence, little has been done
to discourage Mr. Aristide's opposition from thinking it can and should oust
the president by force -- an act that ought not to be condoned against an
elected leader. Some officials may believe that such an outcome might make
possible an end to years of political crisis and conflict in Haiti, much of
it caused by Mr. Aristide. If so, they are probably wrong.

Mr. Aristide, once a populist priest, has cruelly disappointed Haitians who
believed he would consolidate democracy and begin to develop the Western
Hemisphere's poorest country. Though his own election was fair, he has
tolerated fraudulent manipulation of parliamentary elections and violence by
his supporters against journalists, human rights activists and others who
oppose him. He has repeatedly promised compromise and reform, and failed to
deliver. This month, however, Mr. Aristide agreed to a list of demands from
a group of Caribbean countries known as Caricom, including the establishment
of a joint advisory council with opposition groups.

The leading opposition political organizations call themselves democratic,
but they have refused any solution short of Mr. Aristide's removal from
office. For weeks they have been conducting demonstrations and strikes,
sometimes with violent results. Now they seem to hope they can capitalize on
the armed rebellion, which was initiated in the city of Gonaives by a gang
of toughs that once was allied with Mr. Aristide but broke with him last
year. It's foolish to expect that a victory of the street fighters over the
president's police force will open the way to more liberal government or an
end to violence. Haiti's only hope is a forceful diplomatic intervention and
a brokered political solution. That will require the United States to play a
leading role, not hand off responsibility to Caribbean diplomats. If the
Bush administration gives in to the temptation to sit on its hands in the
hope of seeing Mr. Aristide's downfall, it will only invite more misery --
in Haiti, and very likely, in the seas between the island and Florida.

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