Using the Social Statement in Your Congregation
A Case Study in Conflict
Handout #2

SITUATION: It is Labor Day weekend 1994. The President of the United States has gone off to Camp David and when he returns, he wants your recommendation on the following question: Should the U.S. organize and lead a multinational military operation, in keeping with a July 1994 UN Resolution, to intervene in Haiti and restore the democratically-elected government of President Aristide?

Base your recommendation on the following BACKGROUND and the principles in the ELCA social statement, For Peace in God’s World, and the "Just War Criteria" in Handout #2.

BACKGROUND: Haitians have lived in desperate poverty for many years. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. A line of dictators have subjected the people to repression, officially-sanctioned terrorism and other systematic violations of their human rights, except for the brief period in which President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was in office between February and September 1991.

In December 1990, Aristide had won 67% of the vote in the first democratic election in Haiti, an election which was certified as generally free and fair by the United Nations (UN), Organization of American States (OAS) and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). The Haitian military staged a successful coup d’etat against Aristide in September 1991 and forced him to flee, first to Venezuela and then the United States. The military then returned to the repressive tactics of the previous dictatorship. Under the military regime nearly 4,000 Haitians have been killed and up to 300,000 people are said to be in hiding. Children suffer starvation and boat people have fled to the United States (21,000 during a recent two month period alone). The military has rejected three years of appeals by the UN, the OAS and CARICOM that the democratically-elected government be reinstated. These included the Governors’ Island Agreement of July 1993 which called for the transfer of power to President Aristide within four months.

Because the military and para-military forces were engaged in arbitrary detention, the use of torture and rape, especially of family members of those sympathetic to democratic forces, among other violent acts, the UN Security Council imposed an oil and arms embargo against Haiti in June 1993. They suspended it in July 1993 with the signing of the Governors’ Island Agreement but reinstated it with strengthened provisions in October 1993 when the military demonstrated that it did not intend to live up to the Agreement. The embargo has proven to have large "holes." Contraband moves easily across the border with the Dominican Republic.

In the face of these failures, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution in July 1994 authorizing, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, a multinational force to use all necessary means to facilitate the departure of the military regime, the return of the legally-elected President and the restoration of the legitimate government authorities in Haiti. UN diplomatic efforts continued in August 1994 but yielded no positive results.

The Haitian military consists of about 7,500 poorly-equipped regular troops but also effectively controls 4-5,000 additional police, paramilitary forces and so-called section chiefs who carry out its wishes in outlying regions and towns. The United States would have available 20,000 troops, with the provisional agreement of more than 20 other countries to provide a total of 1,500 additional personnel. One potential danger is that when an international force is deployed the Haitian military may try to seek reprisals against supporters of President Aristide during the initial phase of the operation. There are also concerns about the capacity of a restored Aristide government to maintain order once foreign troops have been withdrawn.

QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
(to use in preparing a two to three minute case for or against intervention)

1. In a sentence or two, what is the conflict?

2. Who is the neighbor that we may be called to help?

3. What does it mean for us to "serve our neighbor" in this circumstance?

4. If peace has not been achieved through nonviolent channels, do you advocate military intervention, either unilaterally or multilaterally?

5. Are the just war criteria in the handout helpful or not helpful?

Next section