19512: (Craig) NYT Editorial: Shattered Democracy in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


Shattered Democracy in Haiti
March 1, 2004

The forced resignation of Haiti's democratically elected
president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, yesterday morning
followed three weeks of armed rebellion and increasingly
open pressure from a Bush administration too willing to
ignore democratic legitimacy in order to allow the removal
of a leader it disliked and distrusted. President Bush
moved quickly yesterday to dispatch a contingent of marines
to serve as the core of an international peacekeeping
force. The United Nations Security Council authorized such
a force last night. Sending the Marines was the right thing
to do, but Mr. Bush should have done it days ago, when
there was still a chance for an American-proposed
compromise that would have reinforced the framework of
constitutional democracy. Mr. Bush's hesitation leaves
Washington looking as if it withheld the Marines until Mr.
Aristide yielded power, leaving Haitians at the mercy of
some of the country's most vicious criminal gangs.

Mr. Aristide, whose 1994 return to power after an earlier
coup was backed by 20,000 American troops, contributed
significantly to his own downfall. His increasingly
autocratic and lawless rule turned many of his supporters
into unyielding enemies and fueled the uprising in which
some 100 Haitians were killed. Washington made matters
worse by prematurely winding down its post-1994 efforts to
create a professional and politically independent police
force and by blocking international loans for the
hemisphere's poorest nation for three years to punish Mr.
Aristide's manipulation of the 2000 legislative elections.

Mr. Aristide did not deliver the democracy he promised.
But the former death squad leaders and army thugs whose
undisciplined forces seized power in a succession of cities
and then surrounded the capital, Port-au-Prince, are men
who have never accepted democracy and now menace Haiti's
democratic future. Taking those cities back from the rebels
is one of the most urgent challenges facing international
peacekeepers, along with disarming the pro-Aristide gangs
that have been rampaging through Port-au-Prince. The rebel
leaders include two convicted murderers who helped run an
organization that killed thousands of Haitians during the
last military government and a former police chief whom
American officials suspect of cocaine trafficking. It is
deplorable that Mr. Bush stood by while these men took over
much of Haiti and undermined Secretary of State Colin
Powell's pleas for a political compromise.

Hours after Mr. Aristide yielded, the head of Haiti's
Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, was sworn in as his
constitutional successor. Mr. Alexandre has a reputation as
a competent and honest jurist, but he takes over a country
even more devoid of legitimate institutions than it was a
month ago. The Bush administration's mishandling of this
crisis guarantees that Haiti will require substantial
American help for many more years to come.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/opinion/01MON1.html?ex=1079137872&ei=1&en=975b97b2f5c5d3e1
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company