THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010045
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Haitian refugees might soon begin pouring back into Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, just as they were when President Clinton criticized President Bush's Haitian policy. It looks more and more like back to the future. Instead of hinting about an invasion, the president would be wise to start untying American policy from exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and feel out other political factions there.
Economic sanctions are destroying the Haitian economy and increasing the incentive for people to leave. The sanctions increase the profits of Haitians who control the distribution of humanitarian aid and the black market where half of that aid turns up. The elite still get what they need.
Insisting on the restoration of Aristide stiffens the resolve of the military and the rich, who have most to lose from his return. Relaxing the policy of repatriating Haitian boat people is encouraging Haitians to hit the water for a respite from deprivation and better odds of a grant of asylum than they get at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.
Military intervention is the worst option. The United States has already occupied Haiti once in this century. Another occupation would risk embroiling us in a futile nation-building exercise, similar to Somalia.
Delinking U.S. policy from Aristide - who is using the frozen Haitian assets the U.S. Treasury has made available to him by hiring high-priced lawyers and public relations consultants - would be a useful first step. Haiti's parliament harbors other democrats, some more committed than he, who with U.S. and multilateral support could form a negotiated interim regime.
Immediately repatriating Haitian boat people would save lives and a replay of Guantanamo's inadequacies as even a short-term refugee camp. Lifting the sanctions and increasing humanitarian aid would begin to repair the economic damage the embargo has caused.
These steps together would give Haitians what they have most lacked: the time, the means and the impetus to explore constructive, workable alternatives to the destruction of the past three years. by CNB