French Compensation Could Make Amends to Haiti

[seemslikeadream]

French Compensation Could Make Amends to Haiti
Thursday, 1 April 2004, 9:33 am
Opinion: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

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Council On Hemispheric Affairs
Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere

Memorandum to the Press 04.11
Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Unique form of French Compensation for Past Injustices Could Make Amends to Haiti, if Action is Immediately Taken

Opposition refutes to dialogue, time running out on Powell’s flawed policy towards the island.

Let France take the lead to rescue Haiti before it falls over a precipice.

If U.S. Haiti policy remains paralyzed, or if it is seen as secretly wanting Aristide to be overthrown, France should act unilaterally, if need be, but preferably in conjunction with Canadian and CARICOM forces.

Time is running out for Chirac to make a down payment on debt owed to Port-au-Prince, with Haiti about to go into convulsions.

The Security Council should act decisively
Haiti’s political opposition decided this afternoon to turn down Secretary of State Powell’s peace plan solution. If nothing is done, Haiti’s current reality can only change for the worse in the next few hours and days, as forces of the violent opposition tighten the noose around the nation’s capitol. Meanwhile, the benighted country continues to suffer from its historical scourges of repression, violence, and unforgiving poverty. Even before the current devastating crisis, Haiti was one of the most hapless human habitats on the globe, ranking 146th on the UN’s Human Development Indicator scale, out of a total of 173 countries. It was far behind its Caribbean neighbors: Bahamas (41), Cuba (55), Jamaica (86), and Dominican Republic (94). Haiti’s social profile very closely parallels that of the most impoverished Central African nations, with almost 50 % of its adult population being illiterate, and 65% of islanders living below the poverty line.


In addition, Haiti’s political system has been accompanied by unrelieved venality, with the annual Corruption Perception Index placing Haiti on the bottom of the 133-country list in 2003. As city after city is being seized by a well-armed force led by former members of the Haitian military and their even more blood-stained paramilitary force, the FRAPH (together responsible for the murder of over 5,000 innocent civilians during the period of military rule), Haiti as an organized polity will cease to exist if decisive action isn’t taken immediately.

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