Haiti’s Repugnant Clique of Thugs : More patience--and continued sanctions

Even seasoned diplomats, trained in foreign affairs, can get frustrated with the complexities they must deal with. And when they face a situation as seemingly intractable as the crisis in Haiti, the frustration is understandable.

We hope the report filed from Port-au-Prince this week by Times correspondent Kenneth Freed quoting U.S. (and foreign) diplomats as saying they are ready to give up on efforts to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide reflects only short-term frustration and not a change in U.S. policy toward Haiti. Reacting to The Times’ report, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said the United States will stay the course. We take him at his word.

“The whole process is dead,” Freed quoted one diplomat as saying about the tortuous effort to implement a diplomatic accord between Aristide and the military junta that ousted him in 1991. Under last July’s U.N.-brokered accord, the world body agreed to lift stringent economic sanctions against Haiti if the military would step down by October to expedite Aristide’s return from exile.

The United Nations, with U.S. support, met its end of the bargain. But the Haitian military leadership, a wholly corrupt clique supported by Haiti’s small economic elite, did not. The junta refused to cooperate with U.N. peacekeepers and tried to impose new conditions for peace. Now, almost two months after Aristide was due to return, he’s still in exile, the people still suffer political and physical indignities and foreign diplomats are still trying to find a way out of the mess.

Frustration over the standoff peaked this week with the resignation of Robert Malval, interim prime minister under the U.N. accord. Because Malval was acceptable to both Aristide’s supporters and the military, it was hoped he could get the two factions to work together. He failed, and not just because of the military’s arrogance. Aristide, who can be stridently difficult, also refused to compromise.

Where to go from here? Giving up is certainly no answer, either for the United Nations or the United States. Leaving the military in power, with only token economic sanctions against its regime, is morally unacceptable. And, as long as the crisis continues, desperate Haitians will try to flee as refugees to U.S. shores.

What is needed now is more patience and continued sanctions, fine-tuned to hurt Haiti’s elite. It took almost two years for sanctions to bring the Haitian military to the negotiating table. It may take that long again. But while Aristide may be hard to deal with, he was a popularly--indeed, overwhelmingly--elected president. And the alternative, a gang of thugs waiting out the world, is too repugnant to even ponder.