Round 2 for US nation-building in Haiti

As the US puts its soldiers' boots on Haitian soil for the second time in a decade, questions are arising about what went wrong the first time, when the Clinton administration sent 20,000 Marines in 1994 to return to power a president deposed by a military coup.

The idea then was to provide Haiti with the tools it needed - a clean national police, a competent and impartial judiciary, fair elections, and the foundation for economic development - to build the democracy it had never become.

This time, the marines' assignment appears to be much more limited - at least initially: to secure Port-au-Prince's airport and looted port so that much-needed supplies can begin flowing in again.

But coming as it does on the heels of America's deep involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Haiti expedition is again putting a spotlight on the idea of nation-building. As the US and the international community debate how to help Haiti, questions mount about why such efforts work in some cases and not in others - and what lessons Haiti's recent experience may hold for other nation-building projects.

On Monday, with Aristide's departure still fresh, Haitians were preoccupied with other problems: first, an interim government council that would be headed up by former Supreme Court Justice Boniface Alexandre. "We're working hard on that, but it will be impossible to name a government before a day or two," said opposition leader Evans Paul. Mr. Paul is rumored to be a likely candidate for a government post.

Among other issues is what becomes of the armed rebels. Some entered parts of the capital and worked with national police in the initial hours after Aristide's departure to secure sections of city from armed pro-Aristide gangs. Marines took up positions at the presidential palace Monday as rebel leader Guy Philippe, who had said he would enter the presidential palace, instead established a presence across the plaza in police headquarters.

It is also unclear whether a political opposition that has never mustered much popular support can become a voice for more than the small entrepreneurial class. And to whom will Haiti's masses of poor turn, now that their leader has fled?

Representatives of Haiti's civil society say the international role will be crucial in rebuilding, and that Haiti offers a key lesson: focus on institutions, not individuals.

In 1994, the Americans "based their whole relationship with Haiti on one man ... but when [Aristide] went bad, it doomed the effort," says Andre Apaid, head of the Group of 184, a leading opposition group. "This time the international community needs to work with a broader base of Haitian society."

Nation-building remains a tough sell to Americans, who tend to focus on exit strategy. But willingness to stay is key to success, experts say. "With countries that have reached the level of disintegration of Haiti, you have to be prepared to stay for a long time," says Marina Ottaway, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "With Haiti, we really went in thinking before everything else about how fast we could get out."

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