18553: Arthur: Has the International Republican Institute been a success? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Charles Arthur asks:

In view of the current situation in Haiti, has the International Republican
Institute (IRI) been a success?

>From the IRI web site:
Over the past 15 years, IRI has been working with the Haitian people in their
quest for democracy. In 1987, IRI observed the ratification of the
constitution. Between 1990 and 1997, IRI monitored local, municipal, legislative and
presidential elections. In 1998, IRI initiated a program that included party
building, civil society work and polling.

Haiti
Title of Project: Party Building
Dates of project: September 2002 - 2004
Funding source: USAID


>From the Washington Post, 2nd February 2001:

The (Democratic) Convergence was formed as a broad group with help from the
International Republican Institute, an organization that promotes democracy
that is closely identified with the U.S. Republican Party. It includes former
Aristide allies -- people who helped him fight Haiti's dictators, then soured as
they watched him at work. But it also includes former backers of the hated
Duvalier family dictatorship and of the military officers who overthrew Aristide
in 1991 and terrorized the country for three years.

The most determined of these men, with a promise of anonymity, freely express
their desire to see the U.S. military intervene once again, this time to get
rid of Aristide and rebuild the disbanded Haitian army. "That would be the
cleanest solution," said one opposition party leader. Failing that, they say, the
CIA should train and equip Haitian officers exiled in the neighboring
Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback themselves.