News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Communications and Publications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
TEL 609/258-3600 FAX 609/258-1301

Release: February 20, 1995
Contact: Tom Krattenmaker (609/258-5748)


Justin Bekelman of Bethesda Travels To Haiti
To Research His Princeton Senior Thesis

Princeton Senior Talks to Aristide, Witnesses Harsh Poverty

PRINCETON, N.J. -- While most of his fellow Princeton University
students sweated out final exams in January, Justin Bekelman of
Bethesda, Md., was traveling around Haiti with a
driver/translator, interviewing citizens and officials including
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Bekelman, who majors in Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs, traveled to Haiti to research
his senior thesis, which explores the U.S. military action last
September to restore democracy to the Caribbean island nation. It
was a memorable experience for Bekelman, who was particularly
jarred by the poverty in a country that lacks the roads,
electricity, abundant food and other seeming necessities that most
Americans take for granted.

"The children I visited had nothing to eat, nothing to wear,"
Bekelman says. "There is 70 percent illiteracy in Haiti, no roads,
no electricity. My experience there was somewhat traumatic. When
it comes to human rights abuses, Haiti might not be on the same
scale as China, Cuba or Angola. But as one of the Haitians told
me, there's not a whole lot of practical difference between human
rights abuses and economic abuses. People are suffering either
way."

Not that Bekelman didn't hear tales of gross human rights
violations. He met one 10-year-old girl who was blinded in one eye
and had her ear slashed as well, in an incident that took place
before the return of Aristide and his demo-cratic government. The
girl's injuries had been inflicted by authorities who were trying
to quiet her cries while they raped and shot her mother.

Humanitarian concerns, Bekelman believes, were ultimately what
drove President Clinton to order the intervention that brought
Aristide back to power. It's easy to rule out economic motives, he
says, since the U.S. has practically no economic interests in
Haiti. While some have viewed the President's action as a bid for
popularity, and others have attributed it to a need to protect
Florida's shores from Haitian refugees, Bekelman thinks otherwise.

"It comes down to two different reasons -- maintaining American
credibility and a genuine concern for democracy in our back yard,"
says Bekelman. "Clinton had said so much about the American
intention to make sure democracy survived in Haiti that the
intervention was inevitable. The other reason, I believe, is that
Clinton was honestly and personally concerned with human rights.
He showed a lot of courage, because he ended up going against the
wishes of Congress and much of the American public. All the polls
prior to the intervention showed people were overwhelmingly
against the idea."

Bekelman's decision to write his thesis on the Haiti episode was
based in part on geography and other practical considerations.
(All seniors at Princeton must perform an independent research
project as a graduation requirement.) Intrigued by the American
actions in recent years in Somalia and Kuwait as well as Haiti, he
wanted to explore the political and military dimensions of
American military interventions of this sort. Haiti, he realized,
would be a better choice for logistical reasons. Not only is it
much closer to Princeton, but some connections were already in
place. The University's Catholic chaplain, Thomas Hagen, is the
founder of an organization called Hands Together that funds
schools, orphanages and clinics in Haiti. During his week in Haiti
(January 11 through 18) Bekelman stayed at a Hands Together house
in Port-Au-Prince, and the organization also helped him make
travel arrangements.

The poor telephone system in Haiti made it impossible for Bekelman
to line up his interviews beforehand, so he had to rely on "being
in the right place at the right time." That's how he got to see
Aristide. Acting on a tip from a Reuters correspondent, Bekelman
went to a reception attended by the restored Haitian leader as
well as U.S. Major General David Meade, who directed the U.S.
military force in Haiti. Bekelman spoke with both at the
reception. Aristide talked about his hopes for improving the bleak
lives of Haiti's poor, impressing Bekelman with his powerful
speaking style. "I came to appreciate why the poor -- most of whom
cannot read or write -- have so much faith in Aristide," Bekelman
says. "He can reach them as a priest connects with his
parishioners."

The same day, Bekelman made a foray to the U.S. embassy in Port-
au-Prince to interview various officials. While he was there, the
embassy received its first word of the shooting of an American
solider, which turned out to be the single U.S. casualty of the
operation. Bekelman was allowed to sit in while a military staff
person briefed the embassy's charge d'affaires. "I was able to
take notes and get the full, uncensored story of exactly what
happened," he says.

Near the end of his stay, Bekelman ventured out of Port-au-Prince
to the impoverished town of Gonaives, where a once-lush landscape
has been denuded in the constant pursuit of fuel. It was there
that Bekelman got his clearest view of the harsh economic
conditions that have led thousands of Haitians to board rickety
boats and attempt the dangerous crossing to Florida.

Intent on making some kind of contribution to Haiti, Bekelman
abandoned his fact-finding one afternoon to volunteer at a Mother
Teresa clinic for the malnourished.

To finance the trip, which cost roughly $1,200, Bekelman patched
together funds from several University sources, including the
Center of International Studies, the Class of '39 Fund, the Class
of '42 Fund and the Office of the Dean of the College. About $200
came out of his own pocket.

"If democracy flourishes in Haiti, our intervention may be pointed
to as a positive precedent for democratic order worldwide," says
Bekelman, who took his finals the week after his return, during
intersession. "But for democracy to flourish in Haiti, the people
must extend their faith to democracy as a system and not just to
the charismatic leader who currently symbolizes democracy to
them."

---