Another Nightmare for Haiti

Haiti’s military president, Gen. Prosper Avril, seems to be getting the message that other nations won’t stand for his government’s crackdown against political opponents. He’s already promised to lift a 30-day state of siege just a week after imposing it. But it’ll take more than that to persuade Haitians that Avril’s not just another dictator on the make.

Avril says that he acted to maintain order after a powerful military officer was assassinated, but the reaction was out of proportion. Dozens of moderate political leaders were arrested, some held in prison without charges and others exiled from the country. They include the man who wrote Haiti’s new constitution after former dictator Jean Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier was ousted in February, 1986. Others Avril exiled included two potential presidential candidates in the Haitian election slated for October--which could be the first legitimate vote since Duvalier fled.

Avril insists that the election will go on, but his crackdown looks suspiciously like an attempt to disrupt pre-electoral activities just as the opposition is getting itself organized. It has also fed a growing fear that Avril, who loyally served Duvalier, either wants the old regime to return or would like to install himself as a new dictator.

That’s why the United States is warning Avril that aid will be cut off unless civil liberties are restored--and why France, Haiti’s other major aid provider, has cut off aid. This is the tough but correct stance to take, and it should be maintained until every opposition leader is either out of detention or allowed back into the country to resume the work of turning Haiti into a real democracy.