'Cautious Optimism' on Haiti

For many religious peace and justice organizations, the invited invasion of Haiti has posed a dilemma: a clash between the commitment to nonviolence and the hunger for justice.

Prior to the Jimmy Carter-negotiated pact that led to the uncontested U.S. military occupation, most—but not all—peace groups opposed armed intervention in Haiti. In doing so, they found themselves as uncomfortable allies with people who opposed intervention on the grounds that Haitians "aren’t worth a drop of American blood."

"It was difficult to hang on to our commitment to a nonviolent solution and to be able to say in an equally loud voice, ‘We are opposed to military intervention precisely because we care so much about the people of Haiti,’" said Nancy Nye, legislative secretary for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

In the days following the insertion of American forces, the emotions of peace people "have gone up and down drastically," according to Haiti solidarity activists, from initial grave apprehension at the terms of the Carter pact to cautious optimism as the occupation played itself out in the streets of Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien.

Many Haitians felt as if they had been "kicked in the stomach" by the Carter agreement, according to Gordon Zook, the Mennonite Central Committee country representative for Haiti. "It felt like they’d been sold out again from the top" because the pact appeared to preserve the power of the Haitian military and treated as "honorable" those most responsible for the abuses of the past three years.

TransAfrica executive director Randall Robinson, whose hunger strike last spring helped focus the Clinton administration’s attention on Haiti, said he had serious misgivings about the Carter pact—especially the "honor and dignity" it accorded to the "murderous thugs" that have run the country since the coup that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "Let us remember," Robin-son said, "that this is the same military that...litters the streets with bodies virtually every morning as an indication of the kind of terror of which it is capable. These are not honorable people."

Other analysts pointed to the amnesty granted to Gen. Cedras and the other military leaders as the most onerous aspect of the Carter agreement. "The U.S. government is asking the Haitian people to just forgive and forget and not bring to justice through the state people who have killed and raped and extorted them for three years," Laurie Richardson of the Quixote Center told Sojourners. "I think it’s evil. It’s really a sad day."

Marie Dennis of the Maryknoll Society said that "coming as people of faith, reconciliation must be preceded by repentance and rooted in truth. The violations of human rights need to stop and there needs to be accountability before any real reconciliation can take place."

BUT AS U.S. soldiers began to disarm the paramilitary attachés that had reigned in terror for years, hopes grew that "something positive" would result for the Haitian people, according to Zook, who has lived in Haiti for the past four-and-a-half years. "The Haitian people expressed the sense that they’ve been occupied by their own military for a number of years, and so they’ve seemed willing to put up with an international occupation to get rid of that internal occupation," Zook said.

And there have been some direct, concrete benefits from the way things unfolded. "With a full-scale military invasion, there would have been a news embargo," said Leslie Withers, acting director of Clergy and Laity Concerned. "That would have permitted excesses and abuses that simply don’t happen under the full light of the media and the public." Instead, when television cameras captured U.S. soldiers standing by as Haitian police beat pro-Aristide demonstrators, the resulting outcry led to a change in policy that has helped curb such violence.

While pointing to real dangers in the current situation in Haiti, and noting the "terrible legacy of destruction" that U.S.-backed leaders have inflicted on the country over the past century, Withers expressed hope that the Haitian people might emerge with a measure of freedom and self-determination. "I don’t think that the U.S. military or any foreign presence can restore democracy in Haiti," Withers said, "but I think it’s important that we trust the ability of the Haitian people to do that—which is very different from trusting the U.S. military to do it."

Following Aristide’s landslide 1990 electoral victory, thousands of his supporters poured into the streets and ensured that the election results would be honored—if only for seven months. The presence of U.S. troops, activists hope, can "enable Haitians to express themselves and for Haitians to figure out the long-term steps that have to be taken" to achieve this time a genuine democracy that lasts.