-Caveat Lector-
Is this a probable SA future?
November 10, 1999
Haiti's Paralysis Spreads as U.S. Troops Pack Up
By DAVID GONZALEZ
ORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Five years after an American-led force of 20,000
troops invaded this island and restored constitutional rule, the Haitian
people are entering a new and uncertain era.
While crime, insecurity and a crumbling infrastructure continue to threaten
residents, the Haitian government has been virtually paralyzed for more than
two years. Now, the last of the regular American military presence in the
capital is set to end in January, with the 400 troops to be replaced by
shifts of reservists on short-term training missions throughout the country.
The New York Times
American regular troops are to leave Port-au-Prince in January.
That is yet another blow for a country that has made dishearteningly little
progress despite high expectations -- perhaps unrealistic -- since the
invasion. By the end of this year, police trainers and human rights monitors
from the United Nations and the Organization of American States are also to
leave, although United Nations officials hope to maintain a smaller mission.
After Jean-Bertrand Aristide, then a radical Roman Catholic priest, was
elected in 1990 as Haiti's first democratically chosen president in decades,
an army-led coup drove him into exile in 1991. After three years of
repression, he was restored to power in a negotiated settlement backed by an
American-led occupation. The current president, René Préval, was his
hand-picked successor, but Aristide, who resigned from the priesthood in
1994, remains Haiti's leading political figure and is expected to run again
next year.
The American military's role in Haiti has gone from ensuring security to
carrying out the kind of work that brings tangible relief to the residents
of the hemisphere's poorest nation -- providing free medical care, repairing
wells and building schools. While thousands of Haitians have benefited from
this assistance, countless more have taken psychological comfort from the
mere presence of the American troops.
On a recent day, Anès Anis came home from her factory job to find an
American soldier sitting behind his M-60 machine gun atop a Humvee while
another paced the side of her hilly dirt street. She said she welcomed those
silent sentries.
"We're happy to see them," she said. "If something happens now, we could
call on them. Otherwise, we have nothing at all to protect us."
But the soldiers were not there to bring peace to her neighborhood. They had
only come to secure the area while dozens of American sailors painted a
local schoolhouse.
Like Ms. Anis, many Haitians hoped that the intervention would solve
day-to-day problems. The departing forces leave behind a nation that is
still trying to create a democratic, functioning state.
The Haitian Army was disbanded but not disarmed, contributing to an increase
in street and drug crimes. While a new police force struggles to enforce the
law, a dysfunctional judiciary has hampered its efforts. People and cars
crowd the streets in midday, but few people venture out very early or late,
lest they become targets for bandits.
Foreign investment has been a trickle. With unemployment hovering at 60
percent, factory owners have been closing up as clients shift orders to
nations with equally cheap labor but more stability.
With regularity, residents in some neighborhoods vent their frustration and
try to get the government's attention by hauling tires and trash into the
street and setting up flaming roadblocks.
It has hardly helped. The government itself has been virtually paralyzed
since 1997 while Préval fought with his opposition in Parliament over his
choice for prime minister. He finally appointed a de facto prime minister
earlier this year when the Parliament's term ended, leaving the nation
without a functioning legislature.
Throughout the standoff, the government failed to pass either a budget or
laws that would have brought $500 million in international aid to shore up
its crumbling infrastructure and reduce suffering.
Legislative elections have been pushed back from December of this year to
March 19, prompting fears of campaign fraud or violence. International
observers and diplomats have accused supporters of Aristide of trying to
wrest control of the civilian police force to use it for their political
advantage. Recently, a daylong voter education event sponsored by the
national electoral council was disrupted by hecklers.
The governmental paralysis has disappointed both Haitians and other
countries, which are coming to realize that they also had unrealistic
expectations.
Decades of dictatorship under François (Papa Doc) Duvalier and his son,
Jean-Claude, left the country with scant experience with democratic rule.
Now, as Haiti continues the transition to democracy that it
