28768: Hermantin(Editorial)This time, let there be more than promises (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Jul. 28, 2006



This time, let there be more than promises
OUR OPINION: HAITI, DONORS NEED TO AVOID MISTAKES OF THE PAST



It sure sounds good: Foreign donors pledge $750 million in aid to Haiti, well 
beyond the $500 million the country had requested to jump start its economy. 
Hold the applause. In Haiti, the road to misery is paved with good intentions 
and extravagant promises. Sometimes, the promises aren't kept. Too often, aid 
is mismanaged. For the average Haitian, it seems nothing ever changes. To 
ensure a different outcome this time, a different approach is required.

• Lesson One: involves security: The U.N. ''stabilization'' mission of 7,600 
peacekeepers has to stay in Haiti if the government of President Rene Préval is 
to have any chance of success. Nothing can be accomplished in the absence of 
safety and security. A premature withdrawal of U.N. forces would invite street 
gangs and organized criminals to take over. Just as there has been a U.N. 
military force in Cyprus since 1964, so there may have to be an armed U.N. 
presence in Haiti for years to come.

• Lesson Two: There is no quick fix. Mr. Preval's government smartly set out a 
five-year agenda to take in pledges of $7.1 billion in foreign aid. That's the 
minimum amount of time it will take to get Haiti back on its feet. What 
mismanagement, rampant crime and civil strife have not destroyed has been blown 
away by devastating storms. Want to help Haiti? Be prepared to stay for the 
long haul.

• Lesson Three: Watch every penny. Previous efforts to aid Haiti have been 
riddled with gross incompetence. Take the effort to reform Haiti's judicial 
system. We tried that once before, after the restoration of President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

It didn't work, perhaps because one of the supervisors of the U.S.-funded 
effort was a convicted felon and disbarred U.S. lawyer who resigned from his 
$271-a-day consultant's job in 1996 after his record became known. This time 
around, the Préval government is asking for $1.5 billion to fix its broken 
public-safety and judicial systems over the next five years. Let's hope they 
get better consultants.

• Lesson Four: Haitians must be united. The first Préval administration, 
1996-2000, was one big lost opportunity. Then, too, there were U.N. troops on 
the ground keeping the peace and much aid had been promised. But political 
infighting made progress impossible. Fed-up donors gave up and walked away.

This is the last chance for Haiti's political class to show that it is capable 
of governing. To do that, it must be able to make compromises and put the 
national interest above personal political ambitions.

The people of Haiti are desperate for a chance to improve their country, but 
they don't celebrate progress until they see it. The donor conference was a 
good start, but talk is cheap.