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[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Club Haiti
http://www.telepark.de/clubhaiti/start.html

May 1, 2004

The Economist: watch the world looking away 

A semblance of order has returned to Haiti, but many of the rebel
leaders who launched the uprising continue to roam the country with
their weapons. They had pledged to disarm once Mr Aristide was gone,
but many have not. Meanwhile, supporters of Mr Aristide complain of a
witch-hunt by the new interim government. Amnesty International says
at least four of the ex-president's associates have been kidnapped,
and other citizens have been attacked and harassed. And allegations
have emerged about the role of the Dominican Republic, Haiti's
neighbour, in the uprising. “They didn't give us any guns, but they
gave their backing,” says one rebel source. The theory is that
Dominican generals wanted a military rival next door to justify their
own budget (the Dominican armed forces are one of the largest in the
hemisphere on a per capita basis). There are also questions about how
much the Americans knew about this collusion. A Pentagon official
conceded that a rebel military camp on the Haitian-Dominican border
was identified a year before the revolt began. Critics say the
Americans could easily have snuffed out the plot by leaning on the
Dominican government, but that—although there were some pretty
disreputable characters in the rebel ranks—they chose not to. The
rebels have their own agenda. They and their allies have already been
allowed to fill municipal positions left vacant by fleeing supporters
of Mr Aristide's Lavalas Family party. Their next goal could be the
reconstitution of the Haitian armed forces, as the Dominicans
allegedly intended. Herard Abraham, a retired general and Haiti's new
interior minister, is sympathetic. Human-rights activists fear a new
Haitian army would guarantee the impunity of criminals. The Americans
argue that Haiti doesn't need an army. But if they and the rest of
the world look away, as they have done in the past, the rebels may
get their way again. [Source: The Economist]
.