The Caribbean country needs peacekeepers and humanitarian aid. The United Nations and the United States have a responsibility to help bring an end to the violence.
Published February 21, 2004
With violence and chaos spreading in Haiti, the world community cannot afford to just stand by and do nothing. With the police hiding in their barracks, armed thugs patrolling the street and the elected president appealing for international protection, Haiti is on the verge of another major humanitarian and political crisis. It's understandable that the Bush administration has "no enthusiasm," as Secretary of State Colin Powell put it, to intervene militarily. However, there is an urgent need for an international peacekeeping effort. If ever there was a situation calling out for United Nations peacekeepers, Haiti is it.
The two-week-old uprising has killed at least 60 people. The U.S. government Thursday urged Americans to leave, and the Peace Corps began withdrawing its staff. Washington also dispatched a military team to assess security at the U.S. Embassy. As the nation that stood behind the president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the United States has a special obligation to help. Since American military forces restored Aristide to power in 1994, after his ouster in a coup, Aristide has cruelly turned his back on his people and promises. He has not alleviated the human misery in Haiti or reached out to his political opponents. Armed vigilantes roaming the streets terrorize in his name. Aristide has become a polarizing force and a discredited figure internationally. The rebels, however, are not any better. Many leaders are onetime death squad commanders, who have no political legitimacy or idea how to govern.
The United Nations, working with Caribbean leaders and France and Canada, should dispatch a peacekeeping force as soon as possible to try to end the bloodshed. Beyond the need to protect innocent lives and extend a humanitarian hand, the United Nations should underscore that change in Haiti must come through the democratic process. Aristide should be held to the commitments he made to his people. He needs to disarm and disband the vigilante groups, disassociate himself from their operations and bring political opponents into the governing process. The world community has an interest in protecting Aristide, but it stems from his standing as a democratically elected president and because the alternative is even worse. Far from endorsing his presidency, international intervention would be a slap at the character of man who sold himself to the world as a champion of democratic principles and then betrayed those very principles.
Washington has a major role to play in defusing this crisis - and a big stake in the outcome. This country, after all, restored Aristide to power, and it will become the destination of any mass exodus of Haitian refugees. On Friday, diplomats from the United States, Europe and the Caribbean were preparing to present Aristide and opposition groups a plan for political reform and a return to the rule of law. It's largely the same plan that was presented to the warring parties weeks ago. Secretary of State Powell said the plan does not call for Aristide's resignation but added that the United States would not object if he decided to step down before his term ends as part of a negotiated political solution.
Even if the violence can be quelled in the coming days, a humanitarian crisis is already upon one of the poorest countries in the world. The world community should quickly unite behind an effort that offers humanitarian aid and protects both human rights and Haiti's sovereignty.
