How to Deal With Haiti’s Thugs

The assassination of Haiti’s Justice Minister Guy Malary--the man whom exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had appointed to clean up that country’s notoriously brutal and corrupt police--tragically illustrates the lengths that Aristide’s opponents are willing to go to in order to hang on to power. It should also serve as a sobering reminder to President Clinton that his decision to get tough with Haiti’s military rulers, while absolutely necessary and laudable, will require patience and determination if the shedding of even more blood is to be avoided in restoring Aristide as Haiti’s legitimate leader.

Malary, a U.S.-educated lawyer and former World Bank official, was slain Thursday by gunmen who as irregular reserve force members are armed and sponsored by Haiti’s military government. Known as “attaches,” these thugs have been largely responsible for a reign of terror that spread across Haiti as the dates drew near for the military rulers to resign, and for Aristide to return home under an agreement negotiated by the United Nations last July 3. In accordance with that agreement, Malary recently was named justice minister by Aristide, who is living in Washington. And although Malary was the best-known Aristide supporter to be killed in the recent terror campaign, by no means has he been the only one murdered.

As U.N. diplomats and their counterparts in the U.S. State Department scramble to preserve what is left of the agreement, it should be obvious by now that it is, for all purposes, a dead letter. That’s why it was necessary for the United Nations to renew the oil and arms embargo against Haiti that had been lifted after July 3. Haiti’s rulers, and the small economic elite that supported their coup against Aristide in 1991, never have been happy with the idea of accepting the return of the country’s first legitimately elected president. The only reason they agreed to do so last summer was because the embargo finally had begun to hurt them financially. Although they no doubt have been stockpiling oil and other goods in anticipation of revived sanctions, the new embargo eventually will begin to hurt them again. Perhaps then Haiti’s elites, finally understanding that their dislike of Aristide costs them a lot more than it is worth, will relent.

President Clinton gave the U.N. sanctions added bite Friday when he had Navy vessels begin patrolling the waters off Haiti to enforce the embargo and ordered additional U.S. economic sanctions, including a hold on all travel visas and financial assets that Haiti’s elite has in this country. Clinton was also wise to order Marines at nearby Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be ready to protect U.S. citizens in Haiti if necessary.

It is to be fervently hoped that the U.S. military will not have to be used to get Haiti’s ruthless leaders to step aside and let democracy take its course for the first time in their nation’s history. But that option cannot be ruled out.