25800: (news) Chamberlain: Supercop .....

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(Wall St Journal, 22 July 05)


A 'Supercop' Braves Death to Return to Haiti

By Mary Anastasia O'Grady



'When you leave your house in the morning, write your name on the soles of
your feet, because your head does
not belong to you."

That caution, a Haitian official alleges, was penned by loyalists of former
Haitian President Jean Bertrand
Aristide and circulated in a crude flyer for delivery to police officers in
Port-au-Prince last fall.

The warning was all too credible. Three Haitian police officers had already
been beheaded in what militants
calling for the return of Mr. Aristide termed "Operation Baghdad." One
pro-Aristide protestor told the
Associated Press in November: "We'll be in the streets until death or
Aristide comes back. We won't stop. If
they [the police] come in here, we're going to cut off their heads."

Most people wouldn't voluntarily sign up for a job with such occupational
hazards. But Mario Andresol is no
ordinary person. He is Haiti's most revered lawman, who was forced to flee
the country in mid-2002 because his
own government was trying to kill him. On Tuesday he returned to Haiti to
become the country's top law
enforcement officer. A Haitian diplomat told me that it's the biggest thing
to happen in Haiti since Aristide
went into exile in Africa last year.

With municipal, congressional and presidential elections slated for later
this year, Mr. Andresol has returned
at a propitious time. Given the ferocity of the criminal network that
flourished under Aristide, his decision
is a profile in courage. But he cannot restore law and order alone.

This is a critical moment in Haitian history and one that demands intensive
U.S. and international support for
efforts to build security. Rather than wait for the next wave of desperate
refugees to wash up on Florida
shores and create a crisis, the world would be well advised to pay close
attention now. The future of Haiti
rests on securing the rule of law.

The Haitian Diaspora is famously prosperous, in sharp contrast to the
majority of Haitians who never left
their country and live in abject poverty. That dichotomy proves that there
is no lack of human capital. A
dysfunctional political system is the problem, one lasting through a
succession of thugocracies.

A decade of Aristide abuses and corruption -- both during his presidency
and from behind the scenes during the
Rene Preval presidency -- has left the country destitute. From
environmental degradation, to arms and drug
trafficking, to street crime, hunger and disease, there is little to
recommend the place to either tourists or
investors. Misery is so omnipresent that it's hard to set priorities;
everything begs for urgency.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has been promising an economic
revival, but the culture of bureaucratic
corruption, an institutionally weak police structure and, up until
recently, an ineffective United Nations
peacekeeping presence have stacked the odds against him.

The first order of business now is electing a legitimate government and,
for that, law enforcement matters.
This is why Mr. Andresol's return is critical. He will not only command
enormous respect but having run the
Haitian judiciary police at one time, he knows the country's best lawmen
and will be able to pull them
together for his team. He also has the respect of his peers in Washington
and around Latin America. In 2001 a
Los Angeles Times news story called him "the closest thing the Haitian
National Police ever had to a super
cop."

Mr. Andresol is, of course, in a better position than he was in 2002
because his own government will not be
out to kill him. Yet his chances of survival and success would be greatly
improved if pro- Aristide forces in
Washington, Boston and South Africa (where Mr. Aristide is living) would
denounce the criminality of the
former president's regime and embrace the election process.

There is ample evidence that Mr. Aristide's government was more like an
organized crime ring than a democratic
government. In 2002, Mr. Andresol charged that, "People involved in drug
trafficking are working with
Aristide. If you arrest one of them, the whole country is shaken because
you've arrested the president's man."
He also alleged that "people I have arrested for drug trafficking and crime
were promoted in the police
department."

Back then, Aristide backers like former Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II
and the Congressional Black Caucus
could ignore Mr. Andresol's allegations. But now that former top officials
of the Aristide government have
been busted and sent to jail in Florida for their roles in narcotics
trafficking, it's more difficult to
sustain the Aristide myth. Indeed, it would seem well past time for
America's Aristide backers to throw in the
towel, admit they backed a crooked politician and defend the coming
electoral process.

Instead long-time supporters like California Democrat Maxine Waters want to
delay elections, echoing the
sentiments of the criminal network in Haiti that still supports Mr.
Aristide and threatens violence against
anyone who cooperates in the process. Rep. Waters pegs her objections to
the lack of security, which is
precisely the reaction the anti-democratic forces hope their killing sprees
will elicit. In recent months
there has been a new rash of kidnappings and murders, alongside the
extortion and robberies carried out by
rival gangs interested in controlling turf and maintaining power. Aristide
supporters may not be behind it all
but the worse it appears, the more it casts doubt on the viability of the
elections that the former president
dreads.

One positive development in recent weeks is the more aggressive stance of
U.N. peacekeepers led by their
Brazilian command. By moving into areas where gangs stockpile weapons and
plan their assaults, the U.N.
mission has put the thugs on notice. The fact that pro-Aristide militants
are now griping to U.S. human-rights
and trade-union activists that they are being persecuted is a sign that
they are feeling some heat.

If the beheadings in Port-au-Prince have parallels to Iraq, so does the
question of whether the elections
ought to go forward. Security should be beefed up. Instead of throwing
crumbs during refugee crises, the U.S.
should give the brave Haitian democrats the same moral backing that
produced all those ink-stained Iraqi
fingers in January.