Bill Clinton: Haiti's future will be violent if international community doesn't stay involved

1 hour, 16 minutes ago


By Matt Sedensky, The Associated Press


CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Former President Bill Clinton downplayed the possibility of corruption sidetracking rebuilding in earthquake-devastated Haiti, but said Saturday the international community must remain involved to stave off the potential of future violence.


Talking to reporters at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative at the University of Miami, the president said Haiti has the best chance in his lifetime of becoming a self-sustaining nation, but cautioned against complacency.


"We know one thing for sure: If you like the gunfight that's going on in northwest Mexico, you will love Haiti ten years from now," he said. "If that's what thrills you - this horrible chaos from Monterrey to the border, you will just love Haiti if you walk away from it."


Clinton said he loved Haiti and its people, and was truly optimistic the country could be rebuilt.


"I'm 63 years old. Do you think I'd commit the next five years of my life to working down there if I thought it was a losing enterprise?" he asked.


He urged continued vigilance in spending on Haiti to "hold us all accountable."


Asked about the 10th anniversary next week of the raid on the home of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who was found floating off the coast of Florida and prompted an international custody battle, Clinton said he wouldn't do anything different.


"I did everything I could to try to have this resolved in a peaceful way," he said. "The law in America and the international law was as clear as day."


The boy was returned to Cuba after federal agents, guns drawn, raided the Little Havana home where he was staying and seized him. Clinton acknowledged he "hated what happened" but said "if there is a law, we have to apply it even when we don't like the results."

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