Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9411150057
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And it took a huge bribe to get the military dictator Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and his family to leave the country. This was a parole that makes former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis' springing of Willie Horton look ``tough on crime'' by comparison.
Maybe Bob Barker should have hosted the event. Hey, Raoul Cedras, come on down and let's play ``The Price Is Right.''
Not only did we thaw Cedras' frozen assets (estimated to be $79 million), we also agreed to spend American tax dollars to rent his three houses in Haiti. They are a walled hillside villa, a beach-front residence and the private home of Cedras' mother-in-law. The monthly rental costs to the taxpayers are estimated at $3,000. Couldn't we have cut a deal with Club Med instead?
President Clinton's national security adviser, Anthony Lake, said (presumably with a straight face), ``There is no bribe here, there is nothing hidden here, there are no hidden inducements.'' Could hidden inducements be more outrageous than the ones we know about? ``I am not apologetic,'' said Lake. ``This is success.''
The administration appeared afraid that those it had denounced as rapists, criminals and thugs only days before might fire their ancient rifles or voodoo darts and kill one or two Americans. Such an incident, of course, would have caused domestic political harm at the moment Democrats are trying to avoid disaster. So Clinton paid the equivalent of protection money to people who should have been brought to justice for their outrageous violation of the human rights of their own people. Who says crime doesn't pay?
Roger Blamby, executive director of the Haitian Catholic Center in Miami, assumed the role of designated driver while others got drunk over the ``victory'' in Haiti. Said Blamby, ``This is a shame for the U.S. government to allow these criminals refuge in the United States." He was referring to the ``parole'' of 23 Cedras associates into this country. ``Soon we'll find out where they are,'' said Blamby, ``and we'll be demonstrating wherever they are.''
Is this the long-awaited Clinton administration foreign policy? In the future, will we use military power or its threat to bring thugs, murderers and thieves not to their knees but rather to the U.S. Treasury? Cedras and other dictators can now look forward to becoming FDIC-insured.
The money has only begun to flow from Washington to Port-au-Prince. Some estimates put the initial cost of Aristide's installation at $550 million. It will cost a lot more before the plexiglass can be removed and Haiti can be called a true democracy. Attitudes must change. Tradition and history must give way to political and economic ways untried in Haiti's history.
The pomp and circumstance engineered by raw American power looked good on television, and there is always reason to hope that Haiti's long national nightmare is over. If it is, President Clinton will deserve some credit.
But what can he say to the relatives of those murdered, raped and imprisoned by Cedras' thugs? Reconciliation is a noble goal, but it is difficult to be reconciled to people who have killed your relatives and who have escaped accountability courtesy of the United States and the American taxpayer.
We now have the answer to the question, ``What price glory?''
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB