Almost exactly two hundred years ago, the people of Haiti staged a successful revolt against their French colonial masters. Ironically the bicentenary of their independence has been marked by another uprising which has seen the ouster of Jean Bertrand Aristide, who happened to be the first democratically elected leader in the country’s long and troubled history.
The arrival yesterday of US Marines along with Canadian and French troops will, it is hoped, end the lawlessness that has seized Haiti since the rebellion against Aristide began in the north of the country on Feb. 10. This UN-sponsored military mission will be welcomed by the majority of Haitians, whatever their political views. Well-armed and disciplined troops are likely to prove more than a match for gun-toting thugs who have been terrorizing ordinary people. But once peace is restored, then what?
An end to lawlessness should only be a precursor to a longer lasting commitment on the part of the international community to help Haiti end its long cycle of economic and social misery. The deposed President Aristide seemed, when he was first elected in 1990, to represent a real change for a wretchedly poor and backward country. His overthrow a year later was backed by the elite which had grown wealthy during the long regime of the Duvalier family, notable for both its brutality and corruption. Aristide’s US-backed return in 1994 seemed destined to put the policy of social and economic reform back on track. Unfortunately, whatever Aristide’s personal qualities, he was a useless politician. He lacked the strength and will to create new institutions able to make real changes. Thus the country drifted on for a decade until despair turned to anger and the widely supported insurrection that saw Aristide’s overthrow.
It is, however, hard to see how any new president and government, however popularly elected, is going to do a better job. Aristide’s failure demonstrated that Haiti simply cannot fix its problems by itself. It must have generous and well-administered and targeted outside aid. By sponsoring an international military intervention to restore law and order, the UN is only applying a Band-Aid to a fracture. Much more is needed to change life in Haiti. The question is if the international community is prepared to meet the bill?
Positive intervention is needed to rebuild this wrecked and poverty-stricken society on the very doorstep of the United States, the world’s richest nation. The UN now has the opportunity to institute programs of reform and infrastructural improvement that could transform Haiti. Working with a popularly elected government, the UN could, if it wanted, work wonders with a long-term commitment to help Haitians help themselves. Nevertheless the challenge will be monumental since what the Haitians know best is despair. If, however, no such program of aid is put in place, in a few months time, when the UN peacekeepers withdraw, Haiti will most likely sink back into the misery which is almost all it has known for much of its 200 years of independence.
