Clinton Going To Haiti
In 1934, Franklin Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to visit Haiti. His arrival by U.S. Navy ship at Haiti’s north coast city of CapHaitien marked the end of a 19-year Marine occupation of the country.
Friday, Bill Clinton becomes the second U.S. president to visit the country in its 191 years of independence. His 10-hour stay marks the end of a 293-day U.S.-led military intervention in Haiti, which restored democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.
Unlike Roosevelt’s 1934 visit, however, Friday’s ceremony doesn’t mark the end of a U.S. military presence in Haiti, only the transfer of control of a U.S.-dominated multinational intervention force to a 6,000-troop peacekeeping force under the control of the United Nations.
About 2,400 U.S. troops will remain as part of the U.N. peacekeepers, to be commanded by a U.S. officer, Maj. Gen. Joseph Kinzer.
“You’ll see very little difference between the multinational force and the peacekeeping force,” said Col. Bill Fulton, a Canadian, who will serve as chief of staff and the thirdranking officer for the U.N. troops.
About 70 percent of the intervention force will simply switch from its own country’s military uniform to the blue berets and helmets of the U.N. peacekeepers.
And also unlike Roosevelt, Clinton will not leave a relatively tranquil country behind, despite the declaration of a “secure and stable environment,” as required for the transfer to the U.N. peacekeepers.
Clinton’s visit comes at a time of rising violence and political tensions, starkly demonstrated by Tuesday’s assassination of Mireille Durocher Bertin, a lawyer and high-profile spokeswoman for the military regime ousted by the U.S.-led intervention.
Durocher Bertin and a client were killed Tuesday when they were shot at from a passing taxi as they drove on a busy downtown street. Members of Aristide’s government reportedly feared that the murders might somehow disrupt Clinton’s visit.
There was no immediate indication of any change in the president’s plans.
Neither was there any indication Wednesday as to who might have been responsible for the assassination. Speculation ranged from hard-line supporters of the military out to create chaos to the extreme fringe of Aristide loyalists or even some questionable business connections.