• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Haiti Update

by Dr. Donald E. Schulz.

January 01, 1997

28 Pages

Brief Synopsis

Recent developments in Haiti including political assassinations attributed to both former Haitian military personnel and members of President Preval's presidential security unit have once again thrust that troubled country into the international spotlight. In the process, questions have been raised about the viability of the nascent Haitian democracy and the political stability on which it rests. In turn, that has led to questions about the length and nature of the international commitment, including that of the United States. Thus it was that in September 1996 Dr. Donald E. Schulz, the author of two previous Strategic Studies Institute reports on Haiti (Reconciling the Irreconcilable: The Troubled Outlook for U.S. Policy Toward Haiti, coauthored with Gabriel Marcella, 1994; and Whither Haiti?, 1996), spent a week in country gathering information about the current situation and the prospects for the future. During that visit, he spoke with numerous people, including U.S., Haitian and other nationals, on a not-for-attribution basis. This report is the product of those conversations, his personal observations of what he saw, and his continuing research on Haiti.

Summary

This study reviews recent political and economic developments in Haiti and assesses the prospects for democratization, political stability and economic development. The report is pessimistic, but far from hopeless. While political violence and human rights violations persist and the economy is stagnant, the Preval administration and the Haitian Congress have finally made the hard decisions to press on with economic modernization, including partial privatization and civil service reforms. International lenders are once more extending aid, which means that the economy should improve. In general, both President Preval and Congress receive high marks for their performances. Even the Haitian National Police, though still probably incapable of maintaining law and order without the help of U.N. peacekeepers, has done reasonably well considering its limited resources and the trying circumstances under which it is operating.

Nevertheless, the challenges facing Haiti and the international community remain enormous. The moment of truth will come when the U.N. peacekeepers leave. Since the United Nations is unlikely to stay past July 1997 and the Haitian police will probably not be up to the task of maintaining law and order by that time, other bilateral and/or multilateral security arrangements will have to be made. The United States and Canada should take the lead in forging those arrangements in the months ahead. Beyond this, the report also calls for an accelerated effort to create a functioning judicial system and recommends that the United States convert its military support mission into a semipermanent operation with ongoing infrastructural and humanitarian responsibilities. Finally, the author notes that there is a need to hold the Haitian government's feet to the fire with regard to human rights violations. If allowed to continue, the recent slide down the slippery slope of political violence could destroy everything that has been accomplished thus far.

Access Full Report [PDF]: Haiti Update