Advertisement
Advertisement

Haiti led by world-class thugs

THE Haitian junta is a particularly nasty regime, using murder, torture and rape as punishments for perceived opponents, and fear as a means of discouraging opposition. Amnesty International says hundreds of people ''disappeared'' last year, in addition to those who were known to have been murdered. The openness of the junta's brutality at times appears to be made for television, with one assassination staged in church and bodies regularly dumped on roadsides.

But while the Haitian junta may be exceptional in the brazenness of its brutality, it has much in common with former regimes in Latin America that were either installed or supported by the United States. While the Clinton administration deserves credit for focusing on human rights, Washington often appears disingenuous in discovering human-rights abuses.

Haiti has had the distinction of being led by some world-class thugs over the years, particularly the Duvaliers, but the US has felt unmoved to invade since getting mired there from 1915 until 1934.

If the US objective is to bring down the junta, it should give sanctions longer to work. Sanctions are more likely to be effective in Haiti, which is poor, small and isolated, than elsewhere. If the US, for whatever reason, wishes to invade, it should do so in force, with clear objectives and with its exit plotted ahead of time. Washington would be foolish to blunder in, as happened in Somalia, sacrificing lives and credibility to little purpose.

Post