Dark times, part two

Perhaps the two key items in all the press coverage of the trials of Haiti were tossed off in single short references in today's news. From the Toronto Star:

The rebels say they have no political agenda beyond ousting Aristide, but the man who started the rebellion, Gonaives gang leader Buteur Metayer, on Thursday declared himself the president of liberated Haiti.

And from AP:

As an opposition coalition was on the brink of rejecting a U.S.-backed peace plan on the grounds that it did not call for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down, Secretary of State Colin Powell phoned opposition politicians and asked them to delay responding formally to the plan for 24 hours.

Evans Paul, a leading opponent who once was allied with Aristide, said the coalition agreed the extra time "will perhaps give Mr. Powell a little more time to consider his position ... and give us the assurances we need" on Aristide's departure.

The significance, especially of the latter, arises from the situation. On Sunday, the rebels captured Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city, with little resistance. As they have in other places, they burned buildings and freed prisoners from the jails (I note that I've seen no coverage as to who these prisoners are or why they were jailed, or what happens to them. I wonder, frankly, how many become recruits to the cause of "freedom."), unleashing what AP called "a rampage of reprisals and looting." In addition,

rebels hunted down militants loyal to Aristide, accusing them of terrorizing the population in the days before the fall of the northern port city of 500,000. ...

"We're going to clean the city of all 'chimeres,'" said rebel Dieusauver Magustin, 26. Chimere, which means ghost, is used to describe hardcore Aristide militants.

It was not clear what would happen to those detained. One rebel said they were saving them from lynching. But another, Claudy Philippe, said "The people show us the (chimere) houses. If they are there, we execute them."

There is obviously no intent to stop there. Rebel leader Guy Philippe told AP that he hopes to take Port-au-Prince by Sunday, adding, says the Toronto Star, that "I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti."

Remissainthe Ravix, another rebel leader, told The Associated Press there was no turning back.

"We have the weapons and the expertise to take the country," he said. "Nothing can stop us."

Meanwhile, the US has sent a contingent of 50 Marines into Port-au-Prince to protect the US Embassy and staff while

hundreds of armed Aristide supporters set up more than a dozen barricades on the road leading north, near the international airport. Their tension was evident as they banged on a car with rifle butts and waved shotguns and pistols at vehicles to force them to stop.

"We are ready to resist, with anything we have - rocks, machetes," said a teacher guarding one roadblock, who gave his name only as Rincher.

That is the violent, chaotic, and dangerous situation in which the political opposition to Aristide feels it can dither about, making flip remarks about giving the US more time to "consider its position" because of the refusal of the international community to give that opposition everything it wants. Clearly, they smell total victory within their grasp. But if they are being honest about having no connections to the rebellion other than a mutual desire for Aristide to resign, do they really imagine that people like Guy Philippe, on the verge of their own outright victory, are going to just lay down their arms and swear fealty to this "new" government? If they do, I frankly think they're fools.

Since I don't expect that they're fools, I can see only two alternatives: Either they are lying about their support of the bloodshed (perhaps the less likely, since they did condemn the violence in Cap-Haitien) or they are naively convinced they can work with the same thugs whose c.v.s include "drug runner," "FRAPH officer," "coup plotter," "convicted mass murderer," and "notorious human rights violator."

I've already said I think Aristide should step down in return for an orderly transition and new elections. I also think that the opposition should accept the international community's proposal for a new Cabinet while allowing Aristide to finish out his term, as Aristide already has. But it seems to me now that both parties - even assuming honorable intentions - may well have waited too long. The dark days are returning.

And I can almost guarantee that when they do, we'll hear over and over again it was all Aristide's fault. Not just some (surely justified), not even most (doubtful but at least debatable), but all. None of it an opposition dominated by the old guard of the rich, none of it the murderers returning to power, none of it the cutoff of aid that has plunged Haiti into even worse poverty. All Aristide.

Footnote: In the wake of the 1991 coup, economic sanctions were placed on Haiti in an attempt to force the military dictatorship to allow Aristide's return. During that time, a number of voices on the right argued against such a course, saying sanctions "only hurt the poor." The effectiveness (and effect) of sanctions can be argued back and forth - but what's often forgotten is that, as I just mentioned, in the wake of the disputed 2000 elections, millions of dollars in aid to Haiti has been cut off. Have you heard one - just one - of those same rightwing voices say that the aid should be restored to avoid hurting Haiti's poor? That should tell you all you need to know about their actual commitment to justice.