18813: Esser: Opposition on the wrong side of law, logic and morality (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com

Editorial
Get a coalition of the willing for Haiti

Thursday, February 19, 2004

We welcome the Jamaican Government's good sense to begin the planning
to cope with the potential deluge of Haitian refugees, which is
likely to flow from the humanitarian crisis that is emerging in that
country.

 From this distance, it appears that the situation in Haiti will only
grow worse, given the intransigence of the Opposition and the
failure, so far, of the United States to send a full and unambiguous
signal that there will be no reward for violence and the undermining
of democracy.

There is little doubt that the Haitian Opposition is on the wrong
side of law, logic and morality. Their several months of
demonstrations and agitation, that have left scores of people dead
and the country on the verge of a civil war, have aimed at fomenting
a coup d'etat against Haiti's elected president, thus by-passing the
democratic process of elections.

The fig leaf of a more honourable intention has been stripped away
with the public surfacing of some of their unsavoury friends in
Gonaives and other towns where armed gangs have mounted rebellions
and are holding people to ransom - the likes of notorious death squad
leader Lous-Jodel Chamblain, and Guy Phillippe, the former police
chief who led a failed coup against Mr Aristide in 2002.

But while characters such as Chamblain and Phillippe give the game
away, it has long been known that in the shadows lurked those who
have, in the past, flourished in and supported the rightist
dictatorships in Haiti.

Imperfect though Mr Aristide's tenure has been, Jamaica and its
partners in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) must remain firm that
they will not tolerate in the community, any member where the
government seizes power via extra-constitutional means, especially in
circumstances where the democratic process has not been foreclosed.

It was not foreclosed in Haiti. And in any event, Caricom had
extracted from Mr Aristide, undertakings for a series of
confidence-building measures which would set the basis of new, and
credible, national elections. The Opposition chose to snub its nose
at Caricom and to maintain its process of destabilisation.

Mr Aristide's Government has issued an international appeal for help,
without saying specifically what kind of assistance is required.

We believe that Caricom has a responsibility to respond to the appeal
of the legitimate government of a member-state. History demands it,
and Caricom's increasing emergence into a seamless economic bloc
widens the interest of contracting parties in each other's domestic
political affairs.
We understand, though, that Caricom may be unable, on its own, to
respond in the requisite fashion.

It that regard, we suggest that the community engages the United
Nations to put together a peace-keeping and humanitarian mission for
Haiti, whose immediate mandate must be to help the legitimate
government restore order and to disarm the private militias that have
taken over Gonaives and other towns.
We hope that the United States would support the mounting of such a
mission, including contributing peacekeepers, for a job on its third
border to help out friends.
But even if the United States is not particularly inclined towards
such a mission, it cannot be too difficult a process for Caricom to
get Security Council blessing to establish a coalition of the willing
to ensure peace, stability and democracy in the community's front
yard.
.