Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
The infrastructure and institutions of government were
equally in ruin. Key government posts, including that of prime
minister, were vacant. During the three years of de facto rule,
most public officials elected in 1990 or appointed by the
elected government either had fled the country or had gone
into hiding. As they returned en masse—many via a chartered
aircraft that flew back home dozens of parliamentarians who
had sought asylum in the United States and Canada—they
found dysfunctional conditions for governance. Not only were
state coffers empty, but reforms initiated prior to the coup to
streamline and upgrade the civil service had been reversed as
the FAd'H placed cronies in public office and padded the civil
service payrolls with thousands of supporters. Government
offices had been stripped clean, as the army and its allies took
vehicles, equipment, furniture, supplies, and even light bulbs
from offices as they vacated them. When President Aristide was
restored to his office and quarters in the National Palace in
mid-October, there was one functioning telephone, and,
because the furniture had been stolen or destroyed, he had to
sleep on a cot.
Regardless of these conditions, the Aristide government,
with massive assistance from the international community, had
to move with haste to confront a broad array of challenges. The
first order of business was to address the quandary of what to
do about the discredited FAd'H. The army, although removed
from power and stripped of its heavy weapons by the MNF,
remained as an institution whose legitimacy was established in
the 1987 constitution. President Aristide wasted little time completing
the dismantling process begun by the MNF and, as
such, removed the institution from its role as political arbiter.
He nevertheless found a way to respect the constitution. Following
a violent demonstration in December 1994 by members
of the FAd'H over salary and pensions, the Haitian executive
initiated a series of steps that emasculated the force. By May
1995, all that was left of the Armed Forces of Haiti was a small
military band. Without an army to block the way, Haiti now
stood before an unprecedented clear path for political reform.
The disappearance of the FAd'H meant that Haiti no longer
had a police force. That fact, which called for urgent attention,
opened up space for genuine reform of the country's public
safety apparatus. Once again with significant international
assistance, steps were taken quickly not only to reform the
police, but also to fulfill the as-yet unmet constitutional man-
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