19965: (Craig) NYT: If You're Thinking of Living in Exile (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


If You’re Thinking of Living in Exile
March 7, 2004
By MICHAEL WINES

JOHANNESBURG - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's latest
strongman-in-exile, wants to lick his wounds in South
Africa, a land of world-beating beauty, Mediterranean
weather, American-quality freeways and Paris-luxe shops fit
for any deep-pocketed ex-ruler of an impoverished land.

Instead, he whiles his days away in the Central African
Republic, a Texas-size nation of flat plains, Amazonian
humidity, just 400 miles of Afghan-quality paved roads and
cheap butterfly-wing art at the capital's K-Cinq market.

Contrast him with his most illustrious predecessor,
Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc. Forced out of
power in 1986 after 29 years, he now lives on the Cote
d'Azur. If there is an art to landing a cushy
post-dictatorial sinecure, Mr. Aristide seems to have
mastered only part of it in his dozen years as Haiti's
president - which began with his election but ended with
his using increasingly forceful methods of rule. Perhaps he
simply lacked the right stuff.

Jean-Bedel Bokassa had the right stuff. Dictator of the
selfsame Central African Republic, renamed the Central
African Empire during his reign, he was dubbed the Cannibal
Emperor for his reputed penchant for murdering and eating
his enemies. His victims included 100 schoolchildren, wiped
out in 1979 after they whined about school uniforms
supplied by his factory.

Mr. Bokassa fled in 1980 and found splendiferous refuge in
Ivory Coast and, later, in France. He did time in the
Central African Republic after foolishly returning there in
1987, but won early release; in 1996, he had a state
funeral.

Idi Amin Dada had the right stuff. Known for such
eccentricities as renaming Lake Victoria the Idi Amin Dada
Sea, he is said to have sanctioned the murder of at least
250,000 of his countrymen. Britain, which initially
indulged him, was nowhere to be seen when armies from
Tanzania ejected him in 1979. Still, he found opulent if
very private refuge in Libya and Saudi Arabia.

The list of genuinely despicable despots is long: Charles
Taylor of Liberia, Col. Haile Mengistu Mariam of Ethiopia,
and even Mr. Amin's predecessor and successor, Milton
Obote, who was said to have murdered even more Ugandans
than his rival (Mr. Obote lived well in Tanzania while out
of power).

History suggests that the more brutal the dictator, the
more others are willing to cut him diplomatic slack in a
headlong rush to end the brutality.

One could argue that it also does not hurt for the
strongman to have a French connection. Two of the most
notorious dictators, Mr. Bokassa and Mr. Duvalier, lived in
unapologetically Gallic luxury on French soil. No
comparable despots are soaking their toes in the Channel at
Dover, but the United States once gave Ferdinand Marcos
refuge in Hawaii, at a magnificent seaside villa.

The French, who played a role in relocating Mr. Aristide to
the Central African Republic, a former French colony, seem
to have had little success so far in getting him an
upgrade. But South Africa is in an election season, and its
current unwillingness to take in Mr. Aristide could change
after the balloting in April.

Despotism probably knows no nationality, and to some,
accommodating tyrants in exile is arguably as much a
humanitarian gesture as an amoral one. "Some of these
people should be killed, obviously," said Michael Ledeen, a
resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington and an iconoclastic conservative on this and
other subjects. "I am all for putting them on trial and
recovering ill-gotten gains."

But that is what happens in an ideal world, a world in
which we seldom reside. "I'm also all in favor of letting
dictators leave," Mr. Ledeen said. "If we really want to
get rid of them, then give them Social Security."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/07/weekinreview/07wine.html?ex=1079644880&ei=1&en=ac8f1ebbad5eb395
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company