25278: Holmstead: FWD (Editorial) Contra Costa Times (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: John Holmstead      <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>

Posted on Fri, Jun. 03, 2005

Contra Costa Times

EDITORIAL

U.S. mistakes in Haiti

LONG BEFORE "Operation Iraqi Freedom" there was
"Operation Restore Democracy." That U.S. invasion
nearly 11 years ago was supposed to restore Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted
in a military coup, liberate the Haitians from their
barbaric military, and, most importantly, stop the
exodus of Haitian boat people to Florida.

President Clinton sent 23,000 American troops.
Although Republicans worked furiously against it,
Aristide was returned to power. Clinton proclaimed
that democracy had been restored. The problem,
however, is that it's impossible to restore something
where it never existed. More than a decade after the
U.S. withdrew its troops and moved on, Haiti has
lapsed into total anarchy.

Violence -- both random and politically motivated --
has always been a serious problem. Now, it is out of
control. Armed gangs roam the streets with Uzis,
carjacking and kidnapping people at will. Rival groups
rampage through the slums terrorizing the residents.
The ill-equipped police and U.N. peacekeepers have
been unable to quell the violence.

Human rights groups say that 620 people have been
killed since September. Aristide, once again in exile,
claims 10,000 have died since a coup in February 2004
forced his departure during his second term.

The U.S. State Department has told all American
citizens to leave Haiti and sent its non-emergency
personnel in Port-au-Prince packing. The
U.S.-installed puppet Prime Minister Gerard Latortue
objected bitterly: "It's a hard blow that the
Americans have dealt to us."

The whole thing does remind one of rats leaving a
sinking ship. The United States, along with Canada and
France, bear a large share of the responsibility for
the current mess in the former French colony. It was
the United States that encouraged a band of killers
from the Dominican Republic -- former soldiers in the
Haitian military implicated in several massacres of
Aristide supporters -- to invade Haiti. There is
strong evidence that the U.S. supplied their weapons.
Instead of protecting Aristide, who despite his many
flaws, is still Haiti's democratically elected
president, the U.S. forced him onto a plane bound for
the Central African Republic.

Today, most of the fighting appears to be between the
supporters of the Lavalas party who want Aristide to
return and supporters of the former military.
According to human rights groups, the Latortue
government has killed hundreds of Lavalas supporters
and forced many others into hiding. Lavalas gangs also
have done their share of killing.

The United States insists Haiti will hold elections in
October. Lavalas, the largest political party, has
said it will not participate.

Rushing to hold elections in the midst of anarchy is a
formula for disaster. The United States must use its
leverage to force the Latortue government to negotiate
with Aristide and Lavalas. Aristide remains the
country's most influential political figure and there
will be no solution to the current crisis without his participation.

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