Good Riddance

HALF THE FIGHT is over.

Last Friday night Baby Doc Duvalier, the tyrannical "President for Life" of Haiti, left the country for a gilded exile on a U.S. Airforce jet. The Duvalier dynasty, supported for 28 years by a U.S. government that placed more value on supposed stability than decency, had finally collapsed under the weight of its own corruption. Hatians and Americans who want a stable, prosperous Haiti won a round.

The U.S. government supported the Duvalier family from its first days in power; we should do what we can now to make amends. The State Department's role in convincing Baby Doc to seek exile was an admirable first step. Having removed the dictator, the U.S. should use its considerable influence to assure that Haiti's new leaders will bring the country democracy--in the form of free elections--rather than a new round of repression.

The State Department must also try to convince other countries not to give Duvalier asylum unless he returns the hundreds of millions of dollars he stole from the people of Haiti.

Without Baby Doc's infamous corruption, the troubled Haitian economy may perk up some. But most of the Haitian workforce is still jobless, unskilled, and poor. Most deaths in Haiti still come from malnutrition and diseases that were wiped out in the developed world decades ago. Ninety percent of Haitians still can't read or write.

With Baby Doc gone these problems may become easier to attack. But they will not just go away.

The rest of the battle can be won. It has been won in many other places in the world. But Haiti is obviously in no shape to win it alone.

It is time for the U.S. government which so long supported the Duvaliers to make effective investments in education, health care, and economic improvement which will help make it possible for Haitians to build better lives for themselves.

It is time for the United States government to help Haiti with what will prove the toughest part of the fight--pulling itself to its feet.