Haitian Refugees

The shameless pronouncements by the Bush Administration that it will be intercepting and turning back Haitians should not go unchallenged.

Recent media coverage claiming that well-intentioned policies of the United States are being frustrated by events in Haiti ignore the sad fact that the U.S. has been dragging its feet and obstructing every effort to restore democracy to Haiti. It has been hypocritical, to say the least, in its nonsupport for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was elected by 70% of the voters in an unprecedented exercise of democracy in Haiti. This liberation theologian, with his progressive politics that focus on the needs of the poor, does not sit well with the U.S. or with the self-serving elite in that country.

We’re back to the years when we happily supported “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his notorious death squads, the Tontons Macoutes. As a result, no reforms were ever instituted and the privileged few squandered the country’s wealth.

Not one single government in the world recognizes the legitimacy of the current military junta. Why are we forcibly returning into the hands of the military the thousands of Haitian who have fled that country? Why are we holding others in detention at Guantanamo? These policies smack of racism and hypocrisy and reinforce the view that the Bush Administration is unprincipled, mean-spirited and heartless.

We are the policeman of the world, but when it suits us we become the “helpless giant,” unable and unwilling to exert our diplomatic and economic power for justice and freedom on behalf of a people who have suffered too long.

TANJA WINTER

La Jolla