21303: Lemieux: Baltimore Sun: Focus on Haiti's future (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Focus on Haiti's future
April 12, 2004

THE BUSH administration can spend time and money
investigating former Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide for alleged drug
trafficking.
Or it can concentrate its political capital on
stabilizing the Caribbean country the ousted
leader left in a shambles. The latter must be the
White House's priority unless it wants to keep
American soldiers in the country past their
planned departure in June.

For months now, and with some reported success,
the U.S. attorney's office in Miami has been
looking into allegations that Mr. Aristide
allowed drug traffickers to use the impoverished
island nation as a transit stop and got paid
handsomely for it.

But Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's
confirmation of the investigation during his
one-day visit to Haiti last week sounded
suspiciously like political payback for Mr.
Aristide's repeated claims that he was the victim
of a U.S.-led kidnapping Feb. 29.

The Haitian leader fled the country as rebel
forces advanced on the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Charging that he was forced to resign, Mr.
Aristide has said he will sue the United States
and France, which facilitated his safe exit.

Mr. Powell's trip to Haiti was meant to signal
the administration's support of the interim
government as it seeks to restore law and order,
political stability and services to 8 million
Haitians -- and Washington must stay that course.


The $55 million in U.S. aid pledged to Haiti will
help interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue
undertake the difficult tasks ahead -- preparing
for new elections in 2005, rebuilding the police
force and civic institutions and address ongoing
human rights violations.

The sooner the island recovers from the winter
months of fighting, looting and killing, the
sooner Mr. Aristide's attempts to reassert his
influence will fall by the wayside and he will
become simply another deposed Haitian leader.

The future of Mr. Aristide, a popular former
priest and the country's first democratically
elected president, is uncertain. While on an
extended visit to Jamaica, he would do well to
concentrate on finding himself a place of refuge.
South Africa initially refused his request for
political asylum. After his ouster and a brief
stay in the Central African Republic, he and his
American-born wife journeyed to Jamaica to
reunite with their daughters.

Although Caribbean leaders have raised questions
about the circumstances of Mr. Aristide's exile,
they must realize that he represents Haiti's past
-- not its present and not its future.

The 15-nation Caribbean community must now focus
its attention on fostering an atmosphere in Haiti
where democracy flourishes and Haitians reunite
under the flag of a free, just and democratic
society.



Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun





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