Dueling Haiti op-eds

Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has an op-ed in the Miami Herald noting a few successes in Haiti and urging the international community to maintain its support and presence so that elections can be held and more improvements towards security can be made.

On the same op-ed page, two human rights activists say the upcoming elections will be a sham. Only 3.5% 13% of people have registered to vote, there are no registration sites in poor communities and the Lavalas Party is boycotting until political raids cease and political prisoners are freed.

The truth is somewhere between the positions of these two op-eds. The government's police units are guilty of gross violations of human rights and few in the international community seem willing to call them out on it. The level of voter registration for the election is awful, in large part because the UN peacekeeping force hasn't succeeded in providing security. Aristide's Lavalas thugs and other gangs in the Haitian slums aren't any better. They terrorize the poor population, they traffic in drugs and weapons, they're responsible for a number of the recent kidnappings and they threaten anyone who may try to work with the interim government. The government can't ignore these security threats.

Basically, you have one side trying to terrorize the interim government while the mostly untrained government forces use repressive methods that simply inflame tensions. In the middle of this is the UN force. I have a lot of respect for the countries that sent troops, but at their current levels they simply don't have the numbers and training necessary to fulfill their mission.

The unfortunate part of these op-eds is that neither gives a solution. Latortue is arguing to "stay the course" while daily news stories show that course is not completely on track. International groups are pointing out everything that's wrong and saying "Do better" without a credible plan for bringing peace and security. If it sounds a bit like the current arguments over Iraq, that's because it is, but worse. At least people pay attention to Iraq.