While many complain about the non-functional Haitian state as the country struggles to rebuild, they forget how large a role the "international community" has had in destroying the Haitian government even before the earthquake demolished most of what was left of it.

The reconstruction of Haiti will need a legitimate, functioning state. This will require a process of consensus-building among the country's most important political constituencies. This process will therefore have to include Aristide and his political party, Fanmi Lavalas, which remains the most popular party in the country.

Washington and its allies – including Brazil, which heads up the UN occupation force – will have to accept this reality. Haiti cannot be ruled through violence, as it has been for most of the past century. Aristide, as the country's first legitimate president, was able to eliminate 98 percent of Haiti's political violence – mostly by abolishing Haiti's murderous army. By contrast, after each coup (1991 and 2004) that overthrew his government, thousands of Haitians were murdered. That is the choice going forward: a legitimate government or a violent government.

So far, the international community does not appear to be much concerned about establishing a legitimate government. Fanmi Lavalas was arbitrarily excluded from the first round (Nov. 28) of Haiti's presidential election, in which a record three-quarters of the electorate did not vote. Then Washington and its allies forced the government to change the results of the first round of the election, eliminating the government candidate and leaving only two right-wing candidates in the race.

Haiti today is an occupied country, with almost no legitimate authority. United Nations troops police the country, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide most basic services, which are severely inadequate. More than a year after the earthquake, there has been little progress in removing rubble, or providing adequate shelter or sanitation for more than one million people displaced. And Haiti faces another rainy season beginning next month. Humanitarian needs are dire.

The situation in Haiti is potentially explosive, and it is not because, as the U.S. State Department argues, that Aristide might return before the election. Rather it is because they have denied Haitians their right to self-government, and continue to do so. Aristide has been Haiti's only national political leader for the past two decades, and his party the country's largest political party. It is long past time that the international community recognizes that reality, rather than trying to exclude them from the political process through intimidation and violence.

This column was published by The Guardian Unlimited (UK) on March 17, 2011.

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