21793: (Arthur) Re: 21758: Hess - The Economist on DR, US and 'rebels' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

After the fall - April 22nd 2004
>From The Economist print edition

Is Haiti getting better?

THE American-led stabilisation force is more than half way through its 90-day
mandate in Haiti, following the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in
February. The UN is due to take over in June. So is Haiti recovering from the
pandemonium?

Up to a point. A semblance of order has returned, 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.
American commanders insist that disarmament is not part of their remit, and limit
their operations to securing key installations and helping to sweep the streets
of rubbish. Despite early talk of a weapons “buy-back” programme, barely 150
guns have been turned in so far.

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.

What about the future? Though American troops will soon be pulling out,
Haiti's fortunes will still partly rest on the extent of Washington's largesse. So
far, the United States has pledged only $55 million for Haiti, far less than
was once anticipated.

The country will need manpower as well as money. Kofi Annan, the UN
secretary-general, this week called for a new stabilisation mission, involving some
6,700 troops and over 1,600 international police and experts (the current force
contains only 3,600 soldiers, more than half of them Americans; the rest are
French, Chileans and Canadians). Reginald Dumas, Mr Annan's envoy to Haiti, says
the international community needs to make a 20-year commitment to prevent the
country sliding back into violence yet again.

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. Mr
Aristide disbanded the army in 1994, after it had ousted him in 1991; several former
army officers were among the rebel leaders. Some of them are now demanding a
decade's worth of back pay.

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.

Web sites:
Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/pages/hti-index-eng, the US
State Department http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/c2872.htm and the Haiti Support
Group http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/fea_news_index.html, which campaigns for
human rights and democracy in the country, report on events.