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24874: Craig (news) Boston Globe Editorial
GLOBE EDITORIAL
Backsliding in Haiti
April 25, 2005
FOURTEEN MONTHS ago, armed rebels overthrew the elected Haitian
government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former slum priest who had a
checkered record of governance but the support of much of the country's
desperately poor population. Since then, neither an interim appointed
government nor a force of 7,500 United Nations peacekeeping soldiers and
police officers has been able to create the stability needed for
economic growth and the development of strong public and private
institutions. Elections this fall could produce a government with more
credibility, but Haiti will need the peacekeepers and other
international assistance long after the elections.
The issue will come to the fore in June at the United Nations, which
will decide whether to renew the mandate of the UN force that replaced
the American troops who were first on the scene after Aristide departed.
The United Nations should not hesitate to extend that commitment. The
sporadic revenge killings and random shootings that afflict the country
now could deteriorate into far worse violence without the peacekeeping
contingent.
The putsch by the rebels was an act of regime change that the United
States could have stopped but chose not to. Now Haiti urgently needs the
most basic steps of nation-building. Congressman William Delahunt of
Quincy, an observer of Haiti's contested 2000 election and a member of
the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the House International
Relations Committee, recently returned from a two-day visit to the
island nation. He is critical of the interim government's failure, in
his view, to reach out to members of Aristide's Lavalas party and
develop the trust that would lead disenchanted Lavalas members to
participate in the elections. Without the party's involvement, the
elections will do little to knit the deeply divided country together.
Delahunt is trying to interest Haitian political and civil leaders of
all political persuasions in coming to Massachusetts for private
conversations on neutral territory. He envisions the meetings lasting
several weeks, not just a day or two. In such a situation, he said,
participants could form informal relationships with individuals from
across political lines in an atmosphere free of posturing and concern
for personal safety. A model for this is the Grupo de Boston, in which
opposing Venezuelan politicians have met informally on Cape Cod and
Nantucket at Delahunt's instigation.
The Bush administration should encourage this initiative as one way to
begin the reconciliation of Haiti's well-armed factions. An election
that is not based on some level of trust is not going to provide Haiti
the leadership it urgently needs.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/04/25/backsliding_in_haiti/