24587: Hermantin ( News) Why Drag Feet On Elections?

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


HAITI
Why Drag Feet On Elections?
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
March 29, 2005

Despite fears of violence, the United States and its allies stuck to their 
commitment to elections in Iraq this past January. So why is Washington 
signaling that chaos in Haiti may be reason enough to back off elections in 
that country this coming November?

More than a year after U.S. troops escorted deposed President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide into exile, political violence in the Caribbean nation continues. 
Last week, two United Nations peacekeepers and two former soldiers were 
killed in gun battles, further evidence that Haiti remains a volatile place.

The violence is escalating as U.N. troops patrolling Haiti, mostly Brazilian 
soldiers, step up efforts to confront gang and militia members. The U.N. 
force has been criticized for taking a passive role in the face of the 
chronic street violence that tends to accompany pro- and anti-government 
protests. A more forceful approach to remove weapons from hands that 
shouldn't have them ought to be encouraged and supported.

This is especially true because an effective campaign to disarm Haitians 
could ease the process of preparing for necessary elections. Ultimately, 
life in Haiti will not settle down until the country's electorate chooses a 
representative government. For all his failures, Aristide was an elected 
leader and it's unrealistic to expect the country's 8 million people will 
support a U.S.-handpicked interim government for an extended period.

The elections in Haiti are important also in terms of U.S. prestige and 
credibility in the hemisphere. People across the Americas, especially in the 
Caribbean, are watching to see whether the United States will deliver on its 
promises to help restore democracy there.

Yet Bush administration officials are now calling into question the 
probability of fall elections. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised such 
doubts on Tuesday. "It takes a lot of efforts and planning from a security 
standpoint," Rumsfeld said. "You simply have to be ahead of it, or it can 
get bad fast."

That's true, but if the administration pulled off the vote in Iraq, can 
Haiti really be that much more difficult?

There's a lot of work to be done in Haiti, of course. And some of those 
tasks would be easier to accomplish if the $1.2 billion in reconstruction 
money earmarked for Haiti could actually be sent to the country.

No one should minimize the difficulty of restoring representative government 
to this side of Hispaniola. But right now, it doesn't look like the 
international community is trying very hard to overcome those obstacles 
either.

Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel