27910: Durban (news): WashPost Editorial - Haiti's Chance (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com> posts this Washington Post editorial:


Haiti's Chance
Sunday, February 19, 2006; B06

HAITI'S LONG-AWAITED election got off to an inspiring start this month,
as hundreds of thousands of people rose early and walked, sometimes for
hours, to get to the polls. About 2.2 million voted, an astonishing
turnout in a country of 8 million that has been devastated by political
conflict, environmental catastrophe, drug trafficking and the
hemisphere's worst poverty. But then, as so often in Haiti's recent
history, the post-election turmoil began. As an electoral commission
dallied over the vote count, the commanding lead of former president
Rene Preval, an opponent of the interim government, began to shrink.
When tens of thousands of blank ballots threatened to force a runoff
election, his supporters took to the streets. Fortunately, a crisis was
averted by that rarest of Haitian events, political compromise: On
Thursday morning Mr. Preval was declared the election's winner after
some crude but fair adjustments. The result is a small but precious
opportunity to put a failed state back on its feet.

It would be nice to say that Haiti's perennial combatants -- the
business and middle-class elite, and populists rooted in the vast urban
slums -- managed to forge this peaceful solution. In fact most of the
credit goes to international actors, led by the Brazilian and Chilean
leaders of the United Nations mission in Haiti, who pressured Haitian
officials to concede Mr. Preval the victory he seemed to have won.
Haiti's deep divide remains: Mr. Preval's two leading opponents, who
won 11 and 8 percent of the recorded vote to his 51, refused to admit
defeat.

Mr. Preval could make a start at overcoming the country's polarization
by reaching out to the opposition in forming his cabinet, and perhaps
in his choice of a prime minister. He must also keep his distance from
exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, his former mentor,
whose return to the country would probably trigger another rebellion of
the sort that forced his departure two years ago. Like Mr. Aristide,
Mr. Preval seems to have some influence with the gangs that control
large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince; his first priority should
be to work with U.N. peacekeepers to pacify them, and attack those who
live by kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Haiti's chance at success will depend on much more than the prudence of
the new president, however. Foreign donors have pledged $1 billion to
Haiti, but so far only half of that is committed on the ground. The
mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force has been extended for six
months, but it still needs to be strengthened and to be committed more
aggressively by its commanders to restoring order. Last but not least,
the United States needs to overcome its own polarization over Haiti --
which pits diehard supporters of Mr. Aristide against equally
single-minded opponents. While aggressively promoting democracy and
dispatching troops around the world, President Bush has minimized
American commitments to a country just 600 miles from Florida. He has a
chance now, too, to do more.