21541: Dailey: 21530- The unconstitutional abolition of the Haitian Army (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Peter Dailey <phdailey@msn.com>

Paul Farmer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Norman "Otis" Richmond and others similarly
misinformed have "criticized" La Tortue - if that is not too mild a word-
for stating that Aristide's abolition of the Army in 1994, a move endorsed
by the vast majority of the Haitian population, was unconstitutional.

Whether or not Aristide's action was constitutional is a legal question and
not a  moral or practical one. Virtually everyone who has examined it has
concluded that it was illegal or extralegal. This at anyrate was the opinion
of Aristide and his government. When the ill-fated Minouche Amendment was
placed before the parliament last August, it was accompanied by a
constitutional amendment that would have formally abolished the army, as
well as one that would have done away with the tripartite system of
magistrates.

When Aristide took over in 1994 the Army accounted for at least 40% of the
national budget. Since the Haitian Government would be unable to
reconstitute the Cap Haitien Sanitation Department or put the Taiwanese
garbage trucks back in service without some foreign donor or agency picking
up the tab, there does not seem to be any immediate prospect of the Army's
revival, at least not in anything resembling its previous incarnation.
Unfortunately, as we have learned over the past five years, the abolition of
the army did not mean an end to state-sponsored violence. For someone with a
pistol at the back of their head, I doubt it makes a whole lot of difference
whether the boot on their neck was issued by an army or police department,
or belongs to some vigilante. The Lavalas way was certainly the most cost
effective.

What Haiti desperately needs today is a police dept. or international force
sufficient to disarm various segments of the population, prevent further
fragmentation of  authority into warlordism in the countryside and
gangsterism in the cities, and to reassert the rule of law. So far there is
not a lot of cause for optimism.


Peter Dailey

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