18978: sajousp: Iraq's lessons can help in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: sajousp@aol.com

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Iraq's lessons can help in Haiti
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Clarence Page

February 22, 2004

WASHINGTON -- While the United States tries to help build a new democracy in Iraq, another may be falling apart in Haiti.

In that sense, both countries illustrate an important international lesson: After you help people to form a democracy, you might have to come back and help them to keep it.

When the U.S. Marines removed Haiti's brutal military dictatorship 10 years ago and restored the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power as president, President Bill Clinton's administration had high hopes for Haiti's democratic future.

But under Aristide, Haiti has slipped back into its old patterns of political violence and corruption.

As a result, the Bush administration cut off all direct aid and cozied up to Aristide's political opposition groups, perhaps finding the opposition's pro-business orientation more to the administration's liking than Aristide's liberation theology.

But if you want to know why Aristide, for all of his flaws, remains popular with most Haitians, take a look at some of the characters who are trying to replace him in the uprising that began on Feb. 5 in Gonaives, 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, the capital:

Jean "Tatoune" Pierre Baptiste, who reportedly marched into a Gonaives town square earlier this month with an American flag draped around his neck, helped lead the coup that overthrew Aristide. More recently, Baptiste escaped from prison where he was serving time for his part in a 1994 massacre.

Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former soldier, is back from the Dominican Republic, where he fled after helping to lead paramilitary and death squads that killed, tortured and maimed hundreds of people during the 2002 coup that toppled Aristide.

His pal, Guy Philippe, a former Cap-Haitien police chief, also has returned from the Dominican Republic where he fled after the Haitian government accused him of leading an attempt to seize Haiti's National Palace in Port-au-Prince in 2001, leaving 10 dead.

As of Friday, more than 55 people have died since the latest rebellion exploded.

In fairness, one should not confuse this thug wing of Aristide's opposition with its more peaceful and responsible mainstream, most of whom are clergy, students, businesspeople and media owners. They are also, by all indications, a minority of the country's electorate. Nevertheless, these are leaders who dominate the island-nation's money class, so Haiti's future depends on them too.

Unfortunately, neither side has shown the leadership that can bridge deeply seated differences in Haiti's political culture, which, as one Haitian journalist told me during a trip there last year, "is not given to compromise."

So as the Bush administration re-engages in Haiti's troubles, if only to avert another flood of Florida-bound refugees in rickety boats, there are a couple of lessons to be borrowed from Iraq.

Lesson 1: Money spent on police is well spent. Clinton was understandably reluctant to put 20,000 American troops in Haiti in 1994 and then he couldn't pull them out fast enough. We left the island with perilously few police and no army because Aristide was afraid a new army would turn on him. Now well-armed, former army people appear to be turning on him anyway, including some of the street thugs who, up until now, supported him.

Haiti's population of 8.2 million in 2000 is slightly larger than New York City's population in the 2000 census; but it has only 5,000 police compared to New York's 40,000 officers. In an audience with Aristide in the National Palace last August, I was astonished to hear him say that his government could not afford uniforms for more than half of its new police cadet class. Against those odds, it is a wonder that the island has not had coup attempts more often than it has.

Lesson 2: Work with regional leaders for broad-range solutions. The Caribbean economic union known as CariCom and the Organization of American States have become more active in helping Haiti in recent years, but it takes the diplomatic muscle of the U.S. to get both sides talking.

Secretary of State Colin Powell appears to be on the right track with his declaration that the U.S. is "disappointed" in Aristide but not eager to remove him from office before the end of his term.

Good. Patience is a virtue with fragile democracies.

The U.S. offers the best way for Haiti's feuding leaders to come together, find common ground, clean out corruption and build a healthy future. Otherwise, as flawed as Aristide may be, I shudder to think of who might replace him.

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E-mail: cptime@aol.com


Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune

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