February 23, 2004
MIAMI - Civil war, chaos, and economic collapse are once again engulfing Haiti. This small Caribbean nation of 8.5 million looks increasingly like one of its famous undead zombies as it staggers from crisis to crisis.
Haiti may not seem very important, but the mysterious island in the Spanish Main is a tragic symbol of so much that has gone wrong in the Third World.
During the 18th century, when France ruled Haiti, the island's slave plantations and immensely rich soil produced four annual crops of precious indigo, coffee, spice, and sugar. Haiti generated more revenue than all Spain's gold and silver-producing Latin American colonies combined.
In 1791, Haiti's black slaves revolted, led by a remarkably heroic figure, Toussaint l'Overture. He defeated France's finest armies and made Haiti free in 1804. But after his death, Haiti fell into political turmoil.
The liberated slaves began cutting down Haiti's lush forests to make charcoal. After a century of deforestation, the island's rich topsoil washed away, leaving dead earth and destitute peasants. Two thirds of the island broke away, becoming the Dominican Republic.
The US Marine Corps took over Haiti in 1915 and administered it wisely and well until 1934 - and, unofficially, under President Magloire, until 1957. Many Haitians looked back to the era of US rule as a golden era.
Then, an obscure country doctor, Francois Duvalier, came to power. He turned out to be one of the worst tyrants in the hemisphere's history, a sadistic killer, necromancer, and certainly the most frightening man I have ever met.
Better known as `Papa Doc,' Duvalier inflicted a reign of terror on Haiti through his feared thugs, the `Ton-ton Macoutes' (bogeyman in Haitian Créole). Duvalier was high priest, or Hongan, of the island's cult of African black magic (improperly called `vodoo'). Haitians believed Papa Doc was the evil deity, Baron Samedi, who could raise the dead, create zombies, and kill his many enemies by spells.
Haiti in the early 1960's was a bizarre, dangerous place. I lived at Port-au-Prince's fabled Victorian gingerbread hotel, the Oloffson, dodged Ton-ton thugs, and met many characters from Graham Green's delightful book on Haiti, `The Comedians.'
My old Haitian pal Tijo Noustas (later murdered by the police in Haiti) and I wound up in the middle of two attempted coups against Duvalier. We even brazenly crashed a party for Papa Doc.
The Oloffson manager, Mr Seitz, gave us an invitation he and his wife received to a gala for Duvalier at the National Palace. Since Tijo's hair was short, and mine long for the early 60's, I had to play Madame Seitz.
At the reception, President Duvalier came over to me, surrounded by shotgun-toting Ton-tons in mirrored sunglasses. He stared at me for a long time through his coke-bottle thick eye-glasses, then whispered in French, `I hope you enjoy your stay in our country… Madame Seitz!' I was trembling in my shoes. Papa Doc laughed sinisterly and walked off.
Duvalier was succeeded by his chubby son `Baby Doc,' who was exiled from Haiti in 1986. Haiti has since stewed in political and social chaos. During the post-Duvalier years, Haiti's mulatto (light-skinned) minority, which had run the economy and government, were gradually driven from power by black militant groups.
A former leftist Catholic priest, Jean-Betrand Aristide, took power as champion of the black underclass. He was totally incompetent as a ruler, and became a petty tyrant. The tiny mulatto-led army kicked him out.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton, in a comic show of liberal machismo, sent 21,000 US troops to invade Haiti and reinstate the inept Aristide - and to avert mass invasion of Florida by Haitian boat people.
The 1994 invasion accomplished nothing. Democracy never developed, bribery, corruption and political violence raged on, and Aristide had to increasingly rely on thugs. The cocaine trade flourished. Haiti's coffee, sugar, and tourism industries collapsed. Drugs and stealing foreign aid were Haiti's only revenue. Per capita annual income dropped below $380. Rural Haiti went back to the bush, resembling Central Africa.
While Washington and Ottawa preached about `restoring democracy' in Haiti, urban gangs battled over turf and drugs. Canadian-trained police degenerated into criminals. Haiti's mulattos took their money and ran. The peasantry subsisted on the verge of starvation, ravaged by AIDS, syphilis, and other diseases not seen for over 100 years.
In three centuries, Haiti went from the richest nation in the western hemisphere to the poorest. Haitians, once renowned as the most artistic, gracious and cultured of all black West Indians, have been reduced to beggars.
Haiti is too ruined to govern itself. The only solution is foreign intervention. Not a charade, like Clinton's `democracy' invasion, but sustained occupation by forces from the Organization of American States and, hopefully, France, which may lead the rescue mission. The US is too busy trying to colonize Iraq to help Haiti.
A multi-national force should stay until Haiti is re-forested, and its basic institutions - courts, police, civil service, schools - made to function. This tutelage will take a decade and millions. But there is no other choice for desperate Haiti, except more agony, or a Castro-style Marxist revolution.
Foreign Correspondent
