Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
funds to pay soldiers' salaries and the growing dependence of
senior and junior officers on the proceeds of drug trafficking
contributed to the breakdown of military discipline.
As a result of these economic pressures and the worsening
domestic situation, in July 1993, a Cedras-led delegation
accepted a plan, known as the Governors Island Accord for the
place where it was negotiated, to restore the Aristide government.
As one element of the accord, 1,100 police trainers and
military personnel under UN control were to supervise the
reform of the Haitian army and to introduce the constitutionally
mandated separate police force. The accord did not go
smoothly. When the first Canadian and United States military
personnel were about to go ashore from the cargo ship, the
U.S.S. Harlan County, they were discouraged from landing by a
FRAPH-led dockside demonstration. With the Governors
Island Accord thus repudiated, the UN embargo was reimposed,
and a renewed campaign of terror was instigated by the
FAd'H and FRAPH.
A year later, with stiffened international sanctions that targeted
all trade except food and medicine, and a UN-endorsed
United States intervention imminent, the Haitian military leadership
capitulated and accepted the "permissive intervention"
plan negotiated by a delegation headed by former United
States presidentJimmy Carter.
Disintegration and Demobilization of the Haitian Army, 1993-
95
On September 19, 1994, a day after the Carter agreement
was signed, the first units of the United States-led Multinational
Force (MNF) landed in Haiti. The military leaders, including
General Cedras, resigned, as called for by the agreement, and
went into exile, leaving the FAd'H leaderless and demoralized.
Aristide, who resumed his presidential term in October 1994,
quickly moved to reduce the size of the discredited army,
announcing a reduction in personnel from 6,000 to 3,500.
Some of the former soldiers were enrolled in a United Statessponsored
program to ease their return to civilian life by providing
them with job training and referrals, but few found
employment. To reduce the danger of violence from weapons
among civilians and demobilized soldiers, the MNF instituted a
buy-back program that attracted thousands of firearms but
failed to uncover all the hidden arms that could be used in a
future uprising against the legitimate government. Many ordi-
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