Jimmy Carter's Role in Haiti

In 1987, members of the Center's Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government, an informal group of 25 current and former leaders from the Western Hemisphere, met to discuss the electoral process in Haiti. A presidential candidate had been assassinated, which threatened to undermine the entire process. President Carter, Prime Minister George Price of Belize, and Robert Pastor, director of the Center's Latin American and Caribbean Program (LACP), decided to fly directly to the island and try to steer the elections back on track. They succeeded at the time, but in December, the military intervened and prevented the election.

In July 1990, after a successful election-monitoring experience in Nicaragua, President Carter and Dr. Pastor visited Haiti and were invited by then-President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and opposition leaders to monitor the election. In this effort, the Council joined the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and visited the country several times in advance of the Dec. 15 election. Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti's first free and fair election in its history.

Barely seven months later, President Aristide was overthrown by the military, and from that moment in September 1991 until the Carter-Nunn-Powell mission three years later, The Carter Center was actively involved in assisting the international community to restore constitutional government to Haiti. Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica and U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali visited the Center in December 1992 to discuss possible U.N.-OAS involvement in Haiti, and President Aristide visited the Center the next month as well. Indeed, President Aristide remained in continuous contact with President Carter and Dr. Pastor and participated in many discussions at the Center on how to restore democracy to Haiti. Many of the ideas discussed bore fruit when the Carter-Nunn-Powell team met with Gen. Cedras in September 1994.

Negotiating the Haitian Agreement
"The three delegation members were a spectacular team," Dr. Pastor said. "They followed President Clinton's instructions and conveyed them in a way that permitted a peaceful, cooperative agreement to emerge from the most intense negotiations I have ever witnessed."

The delegation met with Gen. Cedras and other Haitian officials. They also met with Mrs. Cedras. "Gen. Powell and President Carter appealed to their sense of honor, their sense of dignity, their sense of obligation, their sense of wanting to protect their country," Sen. Nunn said. The delegation finally reached an agreement by late afternoon on Sept. 18--five hours past the noon deadline set for them by the Clinton administration. By then, U.S. troops were on their way to Haiti.

President Carter said he felt discomfort when Haiti's army chief, Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby, accused the U.S. delegation of "acting" as peaceful mediators at the same time U.S. paratroopers were en route to Haiti.

"They refused to go any further with the talks," President Carter said of the Haitian leaders. "I made a very emotional address because I thought we had lost."

The impasse ultimately led to a meeting with 81-year-old Haitian President Emile Jonassaint. "He told me that Haiti chooses peace," President Carter said. Soon thereafter, President Jonassaint and Gen. Cedras signed an agreement to step down and restore Mr. Aristide as president by Oct 15.

As part of the agreement, 15,000 U.S. troops were sent to work with the Haitian military to assure the peaceful transition to an Aristide administration.

That night, President Clinton addressed the United States regarding the Haitian agreement. "As all of you know, at my request, President Carter, Gen. Colin Powell, and Sen. Sam Nunn went to Haiti to facilitate the dictators' departure," President Clinton said. "I have been in constant contact with them for the last two days. They have worked tirelessly, almost around the clock, and I want to thank them for undertaking this crucial mission on behalf of all Americans."

"We believe that with the United States forming a partnership with Haiti, the most poverty-stricken nation in our hemisphere will grow into one based on economic progress, democracy, freedom, and respect for human rights," said President Carter, who has now visited Haiti eight times. "That's our dream."