Haïti ProgrèsWhy Has the U.S. Ambassador Resigned?
8 au 14 Décembre 1999After weeks of rumors, it was finally confirmed last week that Timothy Michael Carney has stepped down as U.S. Ambassador to Haiti. The reasons for his resignation, however, remain murky.
One prevalent theory among observers is that, as a Republican, Carney was in deep disagreement with the Clinton administration's approach to the on-going political crisis in Haiti, and, above all, to next November's presidential election which former president Jean Bertrand Aristide is expected to win.
Congressional Republicans, whose right-wing Haitian counterparts lack even a shred of popularity, are anxious to neutralize Aristide. They stridently accuse him of fomenting recent political violence in Haiti, including the disruption of several rallies. "We have to conclude that the electoral problems... are coming from the government of Port-au-Prince and, it is no secret, that of Tabarre," Congressman Porter Goss (R-FL) said last month. (Tabarre is the Port-au-Prince suburb where Aristide lives.)
Meanwhile, the Clinton administration, with the support of most congressional Democrats, has been pushing for elections beginning next March and has demonstrated willingness to strike a deal with Aristide. The Democrats hope to co-opt Aristide and have him continue implementing the neoliberal reforms begun haltingly by President René Préval over the past four years. The reform program involves privatizing state industries, lowering tariff walls, dismissing thousands of state workers, and closing state services. The goals are the same as those of the Republicans, just the tactics differ. The Democrats prefer co-optation, the Republicans confrontation.
Carney's tenure in Haiti, which began in January 1997, was not auspicious. He was reputed to have made deprecating remarks about the country in private. Even in public statements, he was often less than diplomatic. For example, in the summer of 1998, when Haitians protested U.S. claims to Haiti's Ile de Navase (Navassa), a small off-shore island, Carney quipped that Haitians "have more important things to worry about, such as choosing a prime minister." Prime Minister Rosny Smarth had resigned in June 1997 and was not yet replaced due to political wrangling.
Although diplomats are not supposed to opine on the internal affairs of host countries, Carney often lectured Haitians on their country's political turmoil. "This is not democracy," Carney declared after violent street clashes between demonstrators and police last June. "Those who organize violent demonstrations in the street, those who support them, and those who do not condemn them are not democrats." His remarks were aimed at Aristide, but ironically it is right-wing death-squads of former soldiers and paramilitary thugs, whom Republicans have never condemned, which have been most responsible for generating Haiti's turmoil.
According to people who met with him, Carney seemed almost detached from Haiti. "His style was different from [his predecessor William] Swing," said Ira Kurzban, a lawyer for the Haitian government. "My sense was that he didn't feel that the U.S. had to try to support democracy and so forth. This guy gave you the impression that this was his last job, and indeed it turned out to be his last job." After 32 years, Carney will retire from the U.S. Foreign Service on Dec. 31.
Carney's arrogance toward Haiti was matched by that of his wife, Victoria Butler. At an informal meeting with journalists at a hotel earlier this year, "she was very insulting to Haitians and Haiti," said Michelle Karshan, a foreign press aide to the Préval. "She said that she agreed with the bourgeoisie not paying their taxes, saying 'why should they pay their taxes to a corrupt government?' Of course, one should remind her that paying taxes is legislated by law."
Ms. Butler also complained that her dedicated long-distance line was often tapped into at night by Haitians who would make calls to the U.S. She listened in on many of these calls and said that the people always had only one thing to say: send me money. "She said this is a whole country of people just sitting and waiting for money from their relatives in the States," Karshan said. Butler also accused the Haitian government of facilitating the long-distance telephone free-loading and questioned how any foreigners could support Aristide.
"She made a whole lot of points that were just outrageous," Karshan recalled, "and said many degrading things about both the upper and lower classes."
Some also question Carney's ties to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1972, he became the Political Officer at the Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a post which is usually reserved for the CIA station chief. His appointment came at the height of the 1970-1975 bombing of Cambodia, when the U.S. was working feverishly to prop up their puppet, the dictator Lon Nol.
Carney was also the "political officer" in Bangkok, Thailand from 1980-83. In 1992, he was named director of Asian affairs at the National Security Council, a post usually reserved for those with some intelligence background.
Thus in Haiti, one has to wonder whether Carney wasn't working with the CIA to undermine Clinton's tactics of advancing U.S. interests. "The CIA is trying to derail everything in Haiti, while Clinton is trying to salvage it," remarked Ben Dupuy, secretary general of Haiti's National Popular Party (PPN). "We have seen this before. In October 1993, the CIA Station Chief John Kambourian foiled Clinton's first attempt to bring back Aristide by organizing a demonstration by [the death-squad] FRAPH on the Port-au-Prince wharf, which turned back the U.S.S. troop ship Harlan County. We think Carney is closer to the CIA, Pentagon, and Republicans, who can't stand Artistide. This alliance has problems with Clinton because he is more tolerant of Aristide."
No new ambassador has yet been named to replace Carney. But the political stakes are high, since Haitian and U.S. presidential elections will coincide this year. In Washington, Haiti is likely once again to be a political football. Fortunately, it continues to be one that neither Republicans nor Democrats can hang on to.