Clinton’s Changed Haiti Course

President-elect Bill Clinton’s decision to temporarily continue the Bush Administration policy of returning Haitian refugees to their homeland was necessary, although unfortunate. But if that policy remains in place for too long it will compound a foreign policy predicament that is not just a human tragedy for Haiti but a diplomatic embarrassment for the United States.

In a taped radio address to be broadcast in Haiti, Clinton said that “for the time being,” Coast Guard vessels will continue intercepting boatloads of Haitian refugees on the high seas and returning them to Port-au-Prince. That has been the Bush Administration’s policy for the last few months--a policy repeatedly criticized by Clinton during the election campaign.

Clinton’s criticism had raised hopes among many Haitians that his Administration would pursue a more liberal policy, perhaps even allowing Haitian refugees to enter the United States and remain as officials considered their claims for political asylum from the harsh military regime in Port-au-Prince.

In the wake of Clinton’s election, thousands were reportedly preparing to flee Haiti, many of them in small boats. Clinton said he hopes this week’s announcement will prevent refugees from risking their lives at sea, and to that extent his position is certainly reasonable and humane. But like the Bush Administration’s practice of returning refugees to Haiti without benefit of the asylum hearings they are entitled to, Clinton’s statement represents only a short-term answer to the problem. In the long run, Haitians must be persuaded to stay in their homeland permanently, and that can’t happen as long as political power there is in the hands of a tiny political elite protected by a brutal military.

Haiti’s democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted by a military coup because he dared to challenge that system, and it is noteworthy that the flow of refugees from Haiti decreased while he was in office. The Haitian crisis, and the renewed exodus it produced, won’t end until Aristide is restored to power and there are reforms in his country; these are two major steps that will require help and support from the United States. That support was notably lacking in the Bush Administration, another facet of Haiti policy that Clinton must change--and soon.