The United States Must send a United Message To Haiti
BY JAMES DOBBINS
For more than a decade,
Washington has been bitterly divided on policy toward Haiti. In 1994
the Clinton administration, over virulent Republican opposition,
sent U.S. troops into Haiti to restore President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide to power. In 2004, in a move condemned by Democrats, the
Bush administration spirited Aristide out of Haiti and sent U.S.
troops back into that country in support of the regime that had
overthrown him.
During the intervening 10 years, mixed signals from Washington
consistently exacerbated Haiti's endemic political divisions. The
New York Times recently revealed one such episode, in which
representatives of the federally funded International Republican
Institute conducted activities in Haiti that, in the view of the
U.S. ambassador at the time, undercut his efforts to promote
reconciliation between Aristide and his domestic critics. Whatever
the truth, the widespread impression was created in Port-au-Prince
that influential voices in Washington opposed reconciliation and
wished to see a premature end to the Aristide presidency.
This month's election in Haiti may finally have broken this
pattern. René Préval, who served as Aristide's first prime
minister in 1991 and who is still known in Haiti as Aristide's
''twin,'' was declared the winner on Feb. 16 after a retabulation of
the vote.
The Bush administration, which would almost certainly have
preferred a different outcome, nevertheless persevered in seeking to
keep the electoral process on track to deal responsibly with the
many charges of massive fraud and to promote an outcome that
recognizes the clear choice of the Haitian people. Assuming that Préval
ultimately gets the clear backing of a conservative Republican
administration in Washington, the divisive and debilitating American
debate on policy toward Haiti might finally be brought to a close.
U.S. should take the lead
It is easy enough to see the basis for a bipartisan accord on
Haiti. Aristide is gone, and should stay that way. Representing the
same constituency of impoverished, uneducated, desperate Haitians,
Préval has emerged and won a clear political mandate. U.N.
peacekeepers will need to remain for years to come as Haiti builds
new institutions for public security and the rule of law.
The United States, as Haiti's near neighbor, should take the lead
in helping to build those institutions and in alleviating the
poverty of its long-suffering population.
Préval should be encouraged to be inclusive in his choice of
cabinet and advisors. Opposition leaders should be encouraged to
recognize and accept the election outcome and to work with the new
government. No one in Washington should back dissident elements in
Haiti that seek to challenge the results. No federally funded voices
in Port-au-Prince should undercut policies being advanced by the
American ambassador.
The durability of any such American accord will, of course,
depend heavily on how Préval handles his new responsibilities.
During his last term of office from 1996 to 2001, American officials
found Préval to be personally honest, accessible and willing to act
against abuses in his own regime, but rather undynamic and unwilling
to press forward with necessary economic reforms. Without Aristide
at his elbow, Préval may prove more decisive this time around.
Much responsibility for the lost opportunities of that earlier
period also rests with the opposition parties that then controlled
the Haitian Parliament and which were unwilling to pass the measures
need to qualify for billions of dollars in international assistance.
The Haitian Parliament that emerges from this most recent election
may well be dominated by those same opposition figures.
Only a united message from both sides of the aisle in Washington
has any hope of getting the various Haitian factions to work
together for the good of that country. The early call made by
President Bush to Préval, congratulating him on his victory and
urging him to build an inclusive government, could signal a new era
in U.S. Haitian relations.
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