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A 'Supercop' Braves Death to Return to Haiti

"When you leave your house in the morning, write your name on the soles of your feet, because your head does not belong to you."

That caution, a Haitian official alleges, was penned by loyalists of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide and circulated in a crude flyer for delivery to police officers in Port-au-Prince last fall.

The warning was all too credible. Three Haitian police officers had already been beheaded in what militants calling for the return of Mr. Aristide termed "Operation Baghdad." One pro-Aristide protestor told the Associated Press in November: "We'll be in the streets until death or Aristide comes back. We won't stop. If they [the police] come in here, we're going to cut off their heads."

Most people wouldn't voluntarily sign up for a job with such occupational hazards. But Mario Andresol is no ordinary person. He is Haiti's most revered lawman, who was forced to flee the country in mid-2002 because his

own government was trying to kill him. On Tuesday he returned to Haiti to become the country's top law enforcement officer. A Haitian diplomat told me that it's the biggest thing to happen in Haiti since Aristide went into exile in Africa last year.

With municipal, congressional and presidential elections slated for later this year, Mr. Andresol has returned at a propitious time. Given the ferocity of the criminal network that flourished under Aristide, his decision is a profile in courage. But he cannot restore law and order alone.

This is a critical moment in Haitian history and one that demands intensive U.S. and international support for efforts to build security. Rather than wait for the next wave of desperate refugees to wash up on Florida shores and create a crisis, the world would be well advised to pay close attention now. The future of Haiti rests on securing the rule of law.

The Haitian Diaspora is famously prosperous, in sharp contrast to the majority of Haitians who never left their country and live in abject poverty. That dichotomy proves that there is no lack of human capital. A dysfunctional political system is the problem, one lasting through a succession of thugocracies.

A decade of Aristide abuses and corruption -- both during his presidency and from behind the scenes during the René Préval presidency -- has left the country destitute. From environmental degradation, to arms and drug trafficking, to street crime, hunger and disease, there is little to recommend the place to either tourists or investors. Misery is so omnipresent that it's hard to set priorities; everything begs for urgency.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has been promising an economic revival, but the culture of bureaucratic corruption, an institutionally weak police structure and, up until recently, an ineffective United Nations peacekeeping presence have stacked the odds against him.

The first order of business now is electing a legitimate government and, for that, law enforcement matters. This is why Mr. Andresol's return is critical. He will not only command enormous respect but having run the Haitian judiciary police at one time, he knows the country's best lawmen and will be able to pull them together for his team. He also has the respect of his peers in Washington and around Latin America. In 2001 a Los Angeles Times news story called him "the closest thing the Haitian National Police ever had to a super cop."

Mr. Andresol is, of course, in a better position than he was in 2002 because his own government will not be out to kill him. Yet his chances of survival and success would be greatly improved if pro-Aristide forces in Washington, Boston and South Africa (where Mr. Aristide is living) would denounce the criminality of the former president's regime and embrace the election process.

There is ample evidence that Mr. Aristide's government was more like an organized crime ring than a democratic government. In 2002, Mr. Andresol charged that, "People involved in drug trafficking are working with

Aristide. If you arrest one of them, the whole country is shaken because you've arrested the president's man." He also alleged that "people I have arrested for drug trafficking and crime were promoted in the police

department."

Back then, Aristide backers like former Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II and the Congressional Black Caucus could ignore Mr. Andresol's allegations. But now that former top officials of the Aristide government have been busted and sent to jail in Florida for their roles in narcotics trafficking, it's more difficult to sustain the Aristide myth. Indeed, it would seem well past time for America's Aristide backers to throw in the towel, admit they backed a crooked politician and defend the coming electoral process.

Instead long-time supporters like California Democrat Maxine Waters want to delay elections, echoing the sentiments of the criminal network in Haiti that still supports Mr. Aristide and threatens violence against anyone who cooperates in the process. Rep. Waters pegs her objections to the lack of security, which is precisely the reaction the anti-democratic forces hope

their killing sprees will elicit. In recent months there has been a new rash of kidnappings and murders, alongside the extortion and robberies carried

out by rival gangs interested in controlling turf and maintaining power. Aristide supporters may not be behind it all but the worse it appears, the more it casts doubt on the viability of the elections that the former president dreads.

One positive development in recent weeks is the more aggressive stance of U.N. peacekeepers led by their Brazilian command. By moving into areas where

gangs stockpile weapons and plan their assaults, the U.N. mission has put the thugs on notice. The fact that pro-Aristide militants are now griping to U.S. human-rights and trade-union activists that they are being persecuted is a sign that they are feeling some heat.

If the beheadings in Port-au-Prince have parallels to Iraq, so does the question of whether the elections ought to go forward. Security should be beefed up. Instead of throwing crumbs during refugee crises, the U.S. should give the brave Haitian democrats the same moral backing that produced all those ink-stained Iraqi fingers in January.

Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, 2005-07-22

[Bonhomme]

At least we had then a governement , what do we have now?