18931: (Chamberlain) '90s peacekeepers see efforts fade in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, 21 Feb 04)



'90s peacekeepers see efforts fade in Haiti

By Justin Willett



Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division adjust their equipment before
leaving in September 1994 from Pope Air Force Base on a mission to bring
order to Haiti. The mission was aborted.

The man who led U.S. and U.N forces in Haiti is not surprised rebels are
again threatening President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Almost 10 years ago, thousands of Fort Bragg paratroopers were en route to
invade the tiny Caribbean nation and reinstall Aristide when they were
called back. U.S. troops remained in Haiti on peacekeeping missions until
1999.

Aristide is in trouble again, but this time it appears the United States
will not intervene - a move that many veterans of the Haiti missions say is
wise.

Retired Lt. Gen. Joe Kinzer commanded U.N. and U.S. forces in Haiti from
March 1995 to March 1996. He returned to the country in 1999 after he
retired to assess its progress for a private Canadian peacekeeping
institute.

Kinzer was the first American military officer to command U.N. forces since
the Korean War. A veteran of more than 30 years, Kinzer served at Fort
Bragg as the 82nd Airborne Division's assistant commander for operations
during the Panama invasion.

Kinzer, who lives in Southport, said the Haitian government never
capitalized on progress made during the peacekeeping missions.

"It's kind of pro forma for Haiti," he said. "The challenge is getting a
grip on the political process. In my judgment, they don't understand it's
about compromise.

"In Haiti, they have an old proverb that says, 'If I can't share the meal,
I'll destroy the table.'"

Americans fled Haiti on Friday as rebels torched police stations. A former
police chief turned rebel leader said he was set to attack Cap-Haitien, the
government's last remaining stronghold in the north.

President Aristide, wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely
elected leader in 1990, has lost support since flawed legislative elections
in 2000 led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.

The recent uprising has killed dozens, including about 40 police officers,
according to the Haitian government.

Aristide's first term as president ended in 1991, just eight months after
it began, when Haitian Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras led a military coup d'etat.

Tens of thousands of Haitians fled the country for Florida between 1991 and
1994, causing the United States to take notice.

High-level negotiations with Cedras failed, and President Clinton in 1994
ordered 30,000 troops to invade the country.

Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, under the command of then-Lt.
Gen. Hugh Shelton, were in the air Sept. 18, 1994, when Cedras capitulated.

The paratroopers' plane turned around, but Fort Bragg's role in Haiti
continued as more than 8,000 soldiers from 10 commands deployed as part of
a U.S.-led multinational peacekeeping force to oversee Aristide's return.

Peacekeepers included soldiers from the 1st Corps Support Command, 20th
Engineer Brigade, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, 16th Military
Police Brigade and the 44th Medical Brigade.

When he went to Haiti in 1994, Col. Dan Grey, then a major, was a battalion
operations officer with the 30th Engineer Battalion's 20th Engineer
Brigade.

"It was the first time I had seen anything so destitute," he said. "Ditches
were filled with trash. Sewage would go into it and people would get their
drinking water from it."

Grey and his unit built roads and cleaned up trash-filled ditches during
his four-month stint. He revisited the country for about a week in 1997 to
see the impact made by water well drillers sent by the 20th Brigade.

"That was really touching," Grey said. "The gratitude that they showed,
everyone was out in their Sunday best. It was probably one of the best
things that ever happened to that village."

Master Sgt. Stephen Jarman was deployed to Haiti in 1994 as a staff
sergeant with the 21st Military Police Company, which is part of the 16th
MP Brigade.

Jarman said the Haitians were mostly happy to see the Army patrolling the
country.

"We weren't the same as their military police," he said. "We were there to
help."

Not all Haitians were happy to see the peacekeepers.

Sgt. 1st Class Gregory D. Cardott was killed by a Haitian gunman Jan. 12,
1995. He was the operations sergeant for an ATeam from the 3rd Special
Forces Group.

The U.S. multinational peacekeeping gave way to Kinzer's U.N. force in
1995. His force included 2,400 American soldiers.

Kinzer's primary objective was to keep order in anticipation of elections -
the first of six was held in June 1995. Rene Preval, a close associate of
Aristide's, was elected president in December and inaugurated in January
1996.

"It was the first time Haiti had had elections of that order of magnitude
without significant bloodletting," Kinzer said. "By and large, the
elections went off as planned from our perspective.

"What we really did was provide them with an 18-month window of opportunity
to come to grips with security, stability and other pieces of democracy. We
had helped them get through this election and establish a government that
was at least viable.

"The challenge for the Haitians at that point in time was to build on that
foundation. My judgment is they didn't have the political will to do it,
and history bears that out."

Kinzer returned to Haiti in 1999 to assess the Halifax-based Pearson
Peacekeeping Centre.

"They had not made a hell of a lot of progress," he said. "The only bright
spot was the Haitian national police."

Retired Col. Mike Sullivan was the commander of the 16th MP Brigade who
spent three months in Haiti in 1994.

His troops patrolled the streets of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and
Cap-Haitien. Besides patrolling, Sullivan was also charged with training
Haiti's police force.

"We had to teach them about community policing and how to work with
offenders," Sullivan said. "Their method of handling offenders was to beat
them or shoot them."

Sullivan said they had some success after the Department of Justice sent
officers from its International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance
Program.

"The incidence of violence in Haiti diminished rapidly," he said. "People
were safe to walk on the streets. We brought a level of safety and
security."

Retired Col. Dave Patton, former provost marshal for the 82nd Airborne
Division from 1989 to 1992, was asked by Kinzer in 1995 to oversee the
redevelopment of Haiti's justice system.

Patton said it's disappointing to see Haitian police fleeing rebels and
abandoning their posts.

"The cadets that we turned out of the academies that we set up had a great
chance to succeed," he said. "But everything down there gets politicized."

Patton said it was hard to convince the cadets that their allegiance was to
the people and not to whomever happened to be in power.

On the reconstruction front, Army and Navy engineers built roads, schools,
churches and other infrastructure, but the Haitian government didn't keep
them up.

"As long as Aristide's in power, I don't think the country will get
better," Patton said. "He's addicted to power. He's certainly a long way
from the poor priest he was when he came into political power."

Kinzer said he's content to know that his troops improved the lives of
average Haitians.

"I just felt like there was potential if they could get the political
process together," he said. "Not that all of our work was in vain, but I
thought we set the stage. Maybe I was naive."