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Archives of Editorials #7

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Simultaneous Reliance on and Independence from the Americans

Plan now for Haiti's long-term stability

Power Shift In Haiti Puts Rights at Risk

Joint Statement on Haiti CARICOM, OAS, United States and Canada, 2004-02-14

STATEMENT FROM RICHARD BOUCHER, SPOKESMAN for State Department

An open letter to Haiti's totalitarian dictator Aristide; By Evelyne Dominique

Simultaneous Reliance on and Independence from the Americans

Originally: Haiti after Aristide

Robert Novak, Washington Times, 2004-03-25

Haiti Democracy Project web page item #2050 (http://www.haitipolicy.org)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- U.S. Ambassador James Foley on Monday passed the word to Provisional Prime Minister Gerard Latortue that his superiors in the Bush administration were not happy about language used by the head of Haiti's new government. Latortue refers to his country's rebels as "freedom fighters." That designation, the prime minister responded, was deserved by patriots who had ousted as president the oppressive tyrant, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The exchange reflected the delicate relationship between Port-au-Prince and Washington at this new stage of Haiti's tortured history. Both the office and person of Latortue, a 69-year-old retired United Nations development official, are guarded by armed U.S. State Department security personnel. He needs massive American help for this desperately poor country. But Latortue, no politician and an outspoken technocrat, does not welcome U.S. tutelage about his language or his policies.

The Americans are back in Haiti a decade after threats of massive U.S. force restored Aristide. This time, however, Aristide would have been overthrown even if U.S. Marines never arrived. The prime minister is correct in calling the rebels freedom fighters.

This was my first visit here since 1993, prior to Aristide's restoration, and Haiti is even more a third world backwater. The radical president's reign left a country without electricity, passable roads or public schools, with a devastated economy and, according to Latortue, a looted treasury. Interviewed in his office, the prime minister told me: "The public finance is in crisis. They (the Aristide regime) took everything they could from the reserve of the country." His estimate: "over $1 billion" stolen in four weeks.

During Aristide's last days, well-armed gangs supporting him went on a rampage of destruction and looting across the country. It continued after his departure and before foreign troops arrived, with pro-Aristide demonstrators sweeping downtown Port-au-Prince to trash parked autos on March 10.

When Caribbean neighbor Jamaica gave asylum to Aristide two weeks ago, an infuriated Latortue immediately recalled Haiti's ambassador to Kingston. A second return of Aristide as a free man is ruled out. Boniface Alexandre, the Supreme Court chief justice who became provisional president upon Aristide's resignation under Haiti's constitution, is a careful jurist who measures his words -- except when it comes to Aristide. "He cannot come back to Haiti," Alexandre told me. Aristide will return only if it is decided to indict and extradite him, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse informed me.

Latortue's simultaneous reliance on and independence from the Americans were demonstrated last weekend when U.S. military helicopters transported him to Gonaives, where the anti-Aristide rebellion began. He met "freedom fighters," in coats and ties for the occasion but disdained by the State Department. "They are not thugs," Latortue told me. "They are people who have suffered from the dictatorial practices of Aristide."

Latortue was impressed by Guy Phillipe, the 36-year-old former police commissioner who led the armed rebellion against Aristide. Phillipe's irregulars still control half the country but give way when foreign forces arrive -- to U.S. Marines and Canadian troops in Port-au-Prince and the French Foreign Legion in Gonaives. But Phillipe is estranged from U.S. authorities here. "Please tell the American government that we are not your enemies," he informed me.

The boycott by American officials of the leader of anti-Aristide rebels is a small part of the American syndrome that includes lingering support for Aristide within the U.S. political community. Latortue's words to me might well be heeded in Washington: "We are committed to not only democracy but also development. You would not have total democracy here."

I found the fear among many Haitians that John Kerry as president (under Congressional Black Caucus pressure) will return Aristide. The Democratic candidate should consider the experience of Mary Louise Baker, for 33 years co-owner of a five-building apparel factory in the Cite Soleil (pro-Aristide) slum -- employing 700 people and feeding 7,000.

On Feb. 27, two days before Aristide left, some 200 heavily armed pro-Aristide gang members entered the Baker plant to loot and destroy equipment, leaving it an empty shell. I asked Mrs. Baker whether she will rebuild. "I will have to see what happens here, whether you Americans send Aristide back again," she replied. Such widespread doubt stalls economic recovery for this tragic land.

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Plan now for Haiti's long-term stability
OUR OPINION: THIS TIME, STAY UNTIL THE REAL MISSION IS ACCOMPLISHED, Posted on Sun, Mar. 07, 2004, Miami Herald

The array of tasks facing the U.N. rescue mission in Haiti is staggering: Disarm the gunmen and find a way to deal with the criminals among them. Provide for the urgent needs of those who lack food and medical attention. Assist Haitians of good will in establishing a provisional government. Above all, create and maintain a safe environment so that Haitians can go about their business without fear.

That's the short-term agenda. Harder to achieve will be the long-term goal of putting Haiti on the road to democracy, prosperity and stability. The mission won't be easy, cheap or brief.

Stabilize the country

Given the magnitude of the task, it does little to inspire confidence when U.S. leaders, in a misguided attempt to calm public opinion, seek to put an immediate restriction on the time that U.S. forces will remain in Haiti. Years after U.S.-led NATO forces moved into the Balkans -- in Kosovo and Bosnia -- U.S. soldiers are still there, still under the NATO umbrella. Why then the unseemly haste to get out of Haiti? As in the Balkans, the mission doesn't end when shooting stops.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan put it best: ``This time I hope that the international community is not going to put a Band-Aid on, and that we are not only going to help stabilize the current situation but assist the Haitians over the long haul and really help them pick up the pieces and build a stable country.''

Exactly. Haiti is beset with overwhelming problems that must be overcome if it is to avoid a repetition of the cycle of political turbulence that it has suffered through endless times. Nearly 80 percent of the population live in abject poverty. Half of those age 15 and over can't read or write. The unemployment rate is 70 percent. AIDS ravages the country. Life expectancy is 52 years. No democratic government -- no government of any kind -- can survive in this environment.

Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding Jean-Bertrand Aristide's hasty departure from the national palace have become the focal point of the debate over Haiti. Given Mr. Aristide's long history of saying one thing and doing another, or simply twisting reality to suit his own needs, his claims of being kidnapped must be taken with a grain of salt. Haiti was ailing long before Mr. Aristide came on the scene, and the important question now is whether other countries are willing to make a commitment to fix the fundamentals.

U.S. must take the lead

A damage-control mission may enjoy short-term success, but it is doomed to long-term failure. The nations willing to assist Haiti must set positive goals for the country -- eradicating illiteracy, for example, and establishing a working judicial system -- and then be willing to stay as long as it takes to get the job done.

This is a task for the entire international community, but the United States must lead. Our self-interest in success should be self-evident, just as failure is evident when Haitian boats are on the horizon.

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Power Shift In Haiti Puts Rights at Risk

The Washington Post, 2004-03-07

Haiti Democracy Project web page item #1877 (http://www.haitipolicy.org)

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service

In the days ahead, Marie-Yvlene Gilles, a prim woman with gold-rimmed glasses and tight braids, plans to make a grim tour of the morgues, slums and ruined houses to determine what has happened to her country.

She returned to her office at the National Coalition for Haitian Rights on Wednesday, three days after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile, as the fury of looting and violence ebbed from the capital. But the death threats against Gilles and the other human rights investigators did not wait for the office to open.

The call came within hours of Aristide's pre-dawn resignation, and warned Gilles and her staff to watch their backs. She does not know who was behind the threat, as both Aristide supporters and their political opponents have reason to feel imperiled by her work.

But Gilles suspects members of the triumphant rebel army, some of whom have been convicted in absentia of political killings in recent years and whose crimes she has described in reports. The caller's number is stored in her cell phone, but she does not know where to deliver the evidence in a country where the elected government has vanished in the face of a rising armed threat, carried out by men determined to restore the army to its traditional place at the top of Haitian politics.

"All of these people have just come back," Gilles said.

By many measures, Aristide failed to fulfill the democratic promise of his 1990 election, which ended nearly two centuries of military-backed government in Haiti. The former Roman Catholic priest, who helped topple the Duvalier family dictatorship in 1986, practiced a winner-take-all politics by packing all levels of government with his partisans and employing armed gangs to intimidate political opponents.

Within his imperfect democracy, however, sprouted the beginnings of a government that was more responsive to Haiti's poor and willing for the first time to take on difficult human rights prosecutions -- at least against its enemies. Now those tentative openings may disappear as the political power shifts back from Aristide's mostly poor followers to a group of former military officers, traditionally the enforcement arm of Haiti's economic elite, who have reentered politics at the head of a rebel army.

Literacy programs, laws to raise living standards for the vast majority of Haitians who live in poverty, and judicial reforms that brought seminal prosecutions of military and paramilitary figures for past crimes are suddenly at risk. So, too, is Haiti's weak democracy as an appointed government struggles to guide the country until its next elections.

Many members of Aristide's Lavalas party have fled the country in fear, retracing a route they followed after Aristide's first ouster by a military coup in 1991. U.S. troops returned him to power three years later, and a multinational force that includes 1,000 Marines are again standing in the middle of Haiti's political divide.

Thousands of prisoners have been set free across the country, including former military officers serving time for political killings and many others who say they were wrongly jailed by the Aristide government. Meanwhile, armed civilians from the wealthy hilltop neighborhoods of the capital patrol slums loyal to the president in luxury sport-utility vehicles. Although an exact count has yet to be performed, human rights workers say the number of reprisal killings carried out since Aristide's Feb. 29 resignation could be in the dozens.

"It's hard to think of a more abrupt and complete reversal of the progress we made," said Brian Concannon, a U.S. lawyer with the Bureau of International Lawyers who had helped Aristide's government prosecute groundbreaking human rights cases in recent years. "What has happened is disastrous."

Political Passions

As news of Aristide's resignation first rippled over radios across the capital, angry crowds surrounded the offices of the National Literacy Program in the middle-class neighborhood of Delmas 19. The mob tried to enter the building but was pushed back by police firing shots into the air. Cars emblazoned with the program's logo were stolen.

Although the program's annual budget was only $1.2 million, Aristide's constant advocacy of the campaign made it a symbol of his populist government. He launched the program in September 2001 in an address to thousands of supporters packed into a downtown soccer stadium.

In a country where 65 percent of the population cannot read, the program turned elementary schools into adult literacy classrooms each afternoon. The Cuban government designed the reading lessons broadcast daily on community radio stations. Aristide estimated that 100,000 people had learned to read because of the campaign -- a figure even some program officials say is high.

"Even up until now the literacy campaign has been a political affair," a program manager, who said he was afraid to give his name, commented during a recent interview at the mostly empty offices. "At the same time, it is extremely important for the future development of this country. Now we just wait to see what will happen with it."

Neither the classes nor the radio lessons have started again, leaving hundreds of people such as Toussaint Destin and his wife with a first-grader's reading ability and a desire for more. The education minister has remained out of sight since Aristide's departure, and the manager is preparing a report that will determine whether the program will continue.

Like many Haitians, Destin, 55, is a jack of all trades. He has a small potato and corn farm near the capital, and earns a little money betting on his fighting cocks. The birds are tied to small stakes in the shadow of the half-built office building where he lives with 10 children.

Destin and his wife began attending the free classes six months ago, and several neighbors joined them each afternoon in the classroom across the street. Now, Destin, a jolly man with close-cropped gray hair and sloping shoulders, can read street signs.

"They could kill Aristide right now and I wouldn't forget what he has done for us," said Destin, who voted for Aristide in 2000. "We'd never had anything like it before. Once it started we've tried to hold onto it tight."

Aristide aroused political passions among many Haitians who had never felt a part of public life. Many later turned against him as his government adopted increasingly authoritarian tactics, including allowing armed gangs to operate in poor neighborhoods to keep down a growing opposition movement.

Those gangs are now demanding a commitment to Aristide's populist agenda from whatever new government emerges from a selection process overseen by U.S. and other diplomats.

James Petit-Frere, 22, worked as a guide and translator for the U.S. troops in 1994. Today he is a leader of an Aristide gang in Cite Soleil, the sun-bleached seaside slum that is the capital's largest. He rides through the maze of dirt alleys and open sewers, lined with cinder-block shacks, behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi pickup in a trademark straw hat. He keeps a .45-caliber pistol tucked in his baggy pants.

In recent days, Petit-Frere said, he has been meeting with other leaders of pro-Aristide gangs, which served as the funnel for much of the party's patronage in the slums. He said the gangs could count on 3,000 armed men to keep the police and their paramilitary collaborators out of Cite Soleil, indefinitely if need be.

"Aristide is gone already," Petit-Frere said. "And we don't want to die anymore. But if the United States makes this government, it must have someone in it who represents the poor man. If I die and everyone else here dies, there will still be more to keep this up."

A Chance to Start Over

The looting that followed Aristide's flight to the Central African Republic devastated a downtown district where many of Haiti's wealthy families own warehouses and factories. Many were stripped of equipment and merchandise, then burned to the ground. Pierre Saint-Remy's five factories, which turned out clothes and containers for U.S. retailers, were among them.

Since then Saint-Remy and a group of men who live in Petionville, the heartland of the economic elite, have taken matters into their own hands to root out the Aristide gangs that extorted them for years. Two-way radios connect more than 100 businessmen, he said, and they all carry guns. His only military training is the R.O.T.C. program he completed as a student at Northeastern University in Boston.

"They started off just like normal street gangs, and then they were recognized and armed by Aristide," said Saint-Remy, 32, echoing a claim corroborated by human rights groups here.

Saint-Remy, a father of three young sons, said he has suffered more than $1 million in losses in the recent violence. But he said he hopes for reconciliation among Haitians after decades of conflict that Aristide exploited for political advantage.

Two years ago, Aristide angered much of the business elite by raising the daily minimum wage from 80 cents to $1.30, a move never enshrined in law. The change pushed Saint-Remy to raise wages for the 1,000 people who work in his factories.

"The new government will decide what to do about this, and I'm sure they won't lower it, but they should make their decision based on what is really best for business, not just for politics," Saint-Remy said. "This country only gets so many chances to start over. This may be our last."

After his return in 1994, Aristide disbanded the army, the instigator of most of Haiti's 32 coups since it became independent 200 years ago. The rebels who helped remove him from office this time are led by men such as Guy Philippe, a former military officer who has demanded the army's return.

A number of Philippe's top lieutenants have been implicated in -- and in some cases convicted of -- grave human rights abuses, including civilian massacres, in the years between Aristide's first ouster and his return. Now they patrol the streets freely, surrounded by dozens of armed guards. The sight worries human rights lawyers, who say it sends a message of impunity to potential witnesses that may make future prosecutions nearly impossible.

Concannon helped convict more than 30 military officers and their paramilitary accomplices for ordering the murder of 15 civilians in the seaside slum of Raboteau in 1994. Among those convicted in absentia were leaders of the coup that ousted Aristide in 1991.

At the time of the November 2000 trial, Concannon said, one witness explained his reluctance to testify with a Creole proverb: "A constitution is paper, the bayonet is steel."

The case still stands as Haiti's most important human rights victory. But at least three members of the military junta's high command convicted in the killings were freed by the insurgency the day Aristide fled the country. The men were serving time in the now-empty National Penitentiary.

Given Haiti's history of instability, prosecuting military leaders took courage, Concannon said.

"They knew the risks better than I did, and they took those risks anyway," Concannon said in a telephone interview from Oregon, where he lives part of the year. "It's heartbreaking to see them now, people who for a few years had victory in their hands, scared to death."

At least two dozen Lavalas officials have fled the country, an exodus that Gilles, the human rights worker, wants stopped. She has accused Yvon Neptune -- Aristide's prime minister, who has remained in his post with U.S. support -- of ordering the killing of three opposition members in Saint-Marc, a port north of the capital, as the insurrection approached Port-au-Prince.

"But for now we're just going to do what we can," Gilles said. "We'll keep doing our work."  

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Joint Statement on Haiti CARICOM, OAS, United States and Canada, 2004-02-14

Joint Statement on Haiti

The following is the text of a joint statement by the United States, the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organization of American States (OAS) and
Canada, issued at Washington, D.C. on February 13, 2004:

We have met today to coordinate efforts to support a peaceful, negotiated,
democratic, and constitutional resolution to the political crisis in Haiti. We
share deep concern over the suffering of the people of Haiti, and deplore the
loss of life that has occurred in the latest wave of violence and lawlessness.
We condemn such violence and call on the Government of Haiti to respect the
rights, especially the human rights, of all citizens and residents of Haiti,
and call on all Haitians to respect the rule of law. We call also on the
Government of Haiti and on all others to ensure that supplies of fuel, food and
medicines are able to reach the people who need them throughout the country.

We urge the Government of Haiti to implement the actions to which it has
committed itself under OAS Resolutions 806, 822, and 1959, and as reiterated by
its adherence to the current initiative begun by the Caribbean Community. Only
through urgent implementation of the confidence-building measures outlined in
these documents can consensus be built to allow a resolution of Haiti s
political crisis, in accordance with the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

We call specifically on the political opposition and civil society to act
responsibly, refrain from violence and fulfill their responsibilities and
engage in the democratic process in accordance with the CARICOM proposal.

As the Government of Haiti moves forward on these measures, the international
community will undertake renewed efforts to restore the rule of law, including
professionalization of the Haitian National Police. Through these steps, we
expect all Haitians to be able to again enjoy their constitutionally-mandated
freedoms and participate meaningfully in the democratic process.

2004/161
[End]

Released on February 13, 2004

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STATEMENT FROM RICHARD BOUCHER, SPOKESMAN

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman January 9, 2004

Haiti : January 7 Attack on Political Demonstration

The United States condemns the actions of the Haitian Government in response to the political demonstration that occurred January 7 in Port-au-Prince. Although it is clear some elements of the police worked diligently to protect the demonstrators, it is also clear that other police officers collaborated with heavily-armed, hired gangs to attack the demonstrators. Throughout the day, these same government-sponsored gangs rampaged through the streets of the capital, stealing cars, attacking radio stations, vandalizing businesses, and harassing people.

These actions contradict the government’s own declarations that it seeks compromise and a peaceful resolution of Haiti’s political crisis. A government that wishes to be considered democratic cannot continue to use street gangs as an instrument of terror and intimidation. The Government of Haiti must end immediately its efforts to suppress peaceful dissent, must punish those who commit violent acts of repression, and must undertake the fundamental reforms necessary to restore the rule of law in Haiti, in accordance with OAS Resolution 822.

The United States Government believes the crisis in Haiti must be resolved through peaceful means and dialogue.

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An open letter to Haiti's totalitarian dictator Aristide; By Evelyne Dominique

Do you hear the cries that ravage the heart of Haitians to the core? A young daughter, only three, was shot point blank in the face by the destructive propaganda of hate of your professed supporters while they were trying to steal a car in Petion Ville. The motive behind this incensed violence is evident; to encourage fear, chaos, and denigrate the sacredness of our Haitian citizenry. We grieve for the unnecessary injury to that child, for the loss of her innocent joy, and for her mother/father who feel her constant pain.

I am a businessman/businesswoman. My commerce was burned down, pillaged, my hard earned money stolen and what was left of my stock was completely damaged by your purported supporters. Three generations have been working to develop the business and in one act, all was gone, including my children who left my side and their country from the sense of hopelessness that now prevails.

Do you hear my screams echoing in the night, while trying to heal the bruises on my scalp, back, arms and legs from an attempt to dodge the bullets spurting out from the pointed barrels of your thugs, this in broad daylight? Through your silence and moral compromise against such barbaric deeds, you reward their social and criminal iniquities with your amoral praises, and sinful pride.

When sifting through the pronouncements of your self-professed glory, do you hear the weeping sounds of my sister whose son was kidnapped on a sunny afternoon, much like this one? He’s never been found! Yet, how often you promised us, while you were in exile, that upon your return you would establish a sense of social order and security for all Haitian citizens! And, how you promised to be "there!" I guess we should have asked you where "there" was because it’s certainly not here, in the country that you are selling to the devils, without a conscientious care. Where has the Pearl of the Islands gone because, under your rule, we only find an empty shell!

When you walk upon our island’s crest, gloating at the downfall of your enemies, do you take stock at the devastation emerging from your political bad faith? We are perishing from the malevolent current flowing harshly through our land. Do you understand that it is not "enemies" being butchered but the very people you promised to serve with grace and justice?

When you smile with "your sneaky smile" for the camera, on the rare occasions that you venture forth from your secured fortress, to slam us with another of your oratorical abuses, do you not see the disillusionment in the eyes of your countrymen, or their repulsion by your very presence? Do you not sense the yearning for stability, civility, progress, shelter, food, healthcare, and productive goals?

Where is your grand plan, Mr. Aristide, as we remain under the weight of your incompetence, indifference and corrupted stance? Where is your economic plan while hard-working businesses fear opening their stores as thugs, and thieves pillage their shelves and cash machines?

Do you hear our sighs when our children sit idle for weeks-on-end due to school closings because of the political unrest that permeates the streets? Do you not care about their academic limitations since competent teachers are forced to quit or become stagnant as they can’t feed their families or they get mugged by your bullish accomplices?

Do you hear the anger of a father whose daughter was raped by your supporters while she was working in a home that they broke into, to steal 100 Gourdes or a used TV? In that realm, your silence is so loud, Mr. Aristide! Was that young woman your enemy too?

Do you grasp the anguish of a man who was attacked on his way home from work because two of your thugs wanted his bicycle? Why don’t you develop jobs for them so they can stop abusing our honest citizens? Instead of giving them so many tires to burn people with, or guns, wooden bats and rocks, why don’t you pay for their schooling where they can learn to become productive and honorable citizens? Titide, you said often that you would accomplish great things…than …why don’t you? Put your heart where your wallet is, the one you never cease to fill with our taxes and our savings, plus a whole lot more!

Where is the purified water for the thousands of children dying each day of gastro-enteritis? I’ll bet it’s in your swimming pool! Where are the hospital beds for the dying and the sick? Where is the medication? Where are the training programs to teach farmers to develop their land, plumbers, electricians, fishermen, secretaries, nurses, doctors, lawyers, accountants, painters, construction workers, artists, school-teachers, mechanics, and factory workers? Where are your economic plan, budget plan, health care plan, social plan, and spiritual plan?

Where is the "peace and reconciliation" you spoke of at the U. N (while sitting in a very expensive and luxurious exile pose)? You said you were "Titide, our father." Please, spare me – with a father like you, I want to be an orphan!

As an ex-priest, you, more than most, should know that a community needs inspiration, direction and hope to elevate its vision and efforts towards success. Why don’t you borrow your friend Hillary’s book, It Takes A Village? I heard from reliable sources that she’s right - it does take a village, not thugs and evil deeds! As an ex-priest, have you not walked with our Christ long enough to know that good ultimately outweighs evil? Have you not preached His message? And, yet you discard His love, compassion and spiritual discipline?

Remove your Cartier sunglasses, Mr. Aristide, better to see the devastation before you which you are causing with your greed and your sense of insecurity as a man! Elevate your heart to see who you can be, what your country should be and what the Haitian people yearn to be.

Thus far, you show no love of humanity, no self-respect; no respect for the Haitian people, no respect for Haiti and certainly none for GOD! And, I heard (from the same reliable sources) that you don’t respect your wife either, hitting her around the way you do! Shame on you! Shame on her for still being with you! I guess she must have a bank account too!

My young daughter was shot in the face; she is three years old. I am a father whose daughter was raped for a few Gourdes and a TV set. I am the mother whose child was kidnapped by thugs and who has never been found. I am the husband of a lawyer, gunned down in front of the steps of the house of justice, because she dared speak against your regime. I am a journalist assassinated, together with his bodyguard one early morning, simply for sharing the truth about your corrupted government on his radio station. I am a businessman who had to close his doors, after being robbed, beaten, and denigrated. I am the economic funds of the country being depleted by the fraudulent acts of your government. I am the sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, brother, lover, friend, child, grandparent, of a people whose only desires are to live with peace, integrity, hard-work, and hope.

I am the future of my country. I am the child of those who fought for independence, freedom from slavery, prejudice of class and color. I am a Haitian, Mr. Aristide and it’s as grand as that. You are unworthy of my respect, my courage, my beliefs and my energy. Please leave my country and let me be…to find my way towards a new Haitian dawn.

Evelyne Dominique

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