Deja Vu All Over Again

As we are asked to trust the Democrats with foreign policy, another of Clinton/Gore's failures is roiling offshore in Haiti.

Aristide seeks help to end bloodshed

Gonaives, Haiti — Amid fears of a refugee exodus, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appealed for international help to end a bloody 11-day rebellion.

On Tuesday, former colonizer France considered sending peacekeepers.

Ex-soldiers have seized the key central city of Hinche, setting fire to the police station and freeing prisoners. Rebels also control most roads leading in and out of the Artibonite, home to almost one million people, and have isolated the north by chasing police from a dozen towns. At least 56 people have been killed.

Amid a growing scandal the Chirac Government ponders and Kofi Annan dissembles.

France ponders Haiti peace force

The wave of unrest began in Gonaives nearly two weeks ago
France says it is ready to consider sending a peacekeeping force to its former colony Haiti, where civil unrest has left more than 50 people dead.
France has set up a unit to monitor the crisis, as a revolt by opponents of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide spreads from the north.

...Other UN officials have expressed "extreme" concern about the humanitarian situation in Haiti.

Pondering, monitoring for two weeks, concern, maybe, perhaps. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. These are the people Kerry would consult before defending our interests? If Al Gore was in the White House is there any doubt that we would still be pondering and monitoring Afghanistan and Iraq.

For those of you inflicted with Leftie situational amnesia:

Carter Successfully Convinces Clinton to Change Haiti Policy
By Ann Devroy
The Washington Post, September 20, 1994

At 9 p.m Thursday, President Clinton explained to the American people why U.S. forces had to move immediately into Haiti. The country's dictators, led by Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, were "thugs" who had created a "nightmare of bloodshed," a "reign of terror."

By 9 a.m. Monday, some 84 nerve-racking hours later, Clinton stood by as former President Jimmy Carter, briefing congressional leaders at the White House on his mission to Haiti, offered a quite different view of Cedras: He was not a dictator, and to call him that was "plain wrong." Cedras had not led the coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide but had saved his life during the coup, Carter said. Forcing him into exile was wrong.

How Clinton - wanting to avoid a hugely unpopular and risky military invasion - came to accept Carter's view is much of the story of the last four days. Clinton ended up adjusting his policies in the face of Carter's arguments that he had misunderstood Cedras and the Haitian psyche. Over the course of more than 20 hours of negotiation between Haiti and Washington, the Clinton policy became Carterized, its edges rounded, its demands softened, its rhetoric muted.

Carterized = failed.

CNN
February 4, 2001
U.N. mission in Haiti ends as Aristide returns to power

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- In the peak years of the U.N. presence in Haiti, hotel verandas were packed with diplomats, white U.N. all-terrain vehicles lined the crumbling streets and impoverished Haitians imagined things might finally be getting better.

But as the United Nations prepares to fold up its latest mission on Tuesday, the cast of thousands has dwindled to fewer than 200. At the Hotel Oloffson, the gingerbread house made famous in Graham Greene's novel "The Comedians," the wicker chairs stand empty and forlorn.

Years after the U.S. military intervention and the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in 1994, the U.N. International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti was supposed to promote human rights, reform the judiciary and build an effective police force.

..And the lawlessness. In August, the U.N. transport chief, a Barbadian, was dragged from his car by a mob and shot to death. In November, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended closing the mission.

"A combination of rampant crime, violent street protests and incidents of violence targeted at the international community could severely limit the ability of" the mission "to fulfill its mandate," he wrote.

Annan said Friday the United Nations would continue its efforts in Haiti through development assistance and other U.N. projects on the ground.

"I wish the new government and the people of Haiti every success," he said, "and I hope that all the efforts that have been made to install democracy would not be for nought, and that the government will respect the rights and the will of the people."

UN misson = failure.

How many billions have we poured into Haiti, where did it go and why isn't the media asking who is responsible?

Posted by feste at February 17, 2004 11:22 AM | TrackBack