(Editor's note: This CNSNews.com report first ran on Friday, April 17, 2009)

(CNSNews.com) - Former Democratic President Bill Clinton told CNSNews.com during an exclusive interview at the Haiti Donors Conference that Haiti would not be in the "fix" it is in today had the U.S. Congress been more supportive of the country during the 1990s. 

Clinton also said that Haiti, which is Latin America’s poorest nation, does not need to rely on U.S. foreign aid alone to help fix its political and economic problems because “a lot can be done by the private sector.”



Donors at the conference, held in Washington, D.C.,  pledged $324 million over the next two years in additional aid to help Haiti deal with food riots and repair infrastructure damage caused by four hurricanes last summer, among other problems. Haiti’s unemployment rate is currently estimated at 70 percent and, over the next five years, almost 1 million young people are expected to enter the country’s job market.

The United States has been Haiti's largest donor since 1973. According to the State Department, in fiscal years (FY) 2004-2006, the United States spent more than $600 million in Haiti for “improving governance, security, rule of law, economic recovery, and critical humanitarian needs.”

In fiscal year 2007 alone, almost $200 million in aid was given to Haiti to rebuild its hurricane-damages economy and infrastructure. The United States also is Haiti's largest trade partner, with bilateral trade totaling over $1.1 billion in 2005.

Clinton, who addressed the Haiti Donors Conference, runs the Clinton Global Initiative which, according to its Web site, brings together global leaders, including heads of state, non-governmental organizations, and business leaders who have “made more than 1,400 commitments valued at $46 billion” to address global challenges.

CNSNews.com asked President Clinton during an exclusive interview if more foreign aid was the answer to helping Haiti given its seemingly persistent social and economic problems.

“A lot of the money we provided after 2004 was to keep people alive who were, you know, on the verge of destitution,” said Clinton. “After the 2006 elections, when this government came in, they had the best economic year they’d had in more than three decades -- in 2007. So, the answer is to give, to allow them the conditions and the tools to work themselves out of poverty -- to empower them -- and that’s why I said today, what happened in 2008 was a one off, right? All those tornados, I mean all those hurricanes. So, we need to help get to the end of the year, but beyond that, the aid should be directed toward empowerment, toward the road building, the growing agriculture self-sufficiency.”

“I don’t think that government has to do it all,” said Clinton. “A lot of this can be done by the private sector through investments and through non-governmental organizations, and I’m prepared to continue to work hard to try to do that. Last year, we raised $130 million -- completely private capital -- to support education, health, and development and we can do the same with energy. They can become virtually energy self-sufficient -- that would change their whole future. But, we’re in a fix now because of these tornados – because of these hurricanes. And we’ve got to get them to the end of the year. I can’t raise the private capital to build a national road network; that needs to be done through aid. But all the focus now should be on a coordinated plan, high return on the dollars and economic growth.”

Jean-Bernard Aristide, a neo-Marxist and expelled Catholic priest,  was elected president of Haiti in 1990. In September 1991, seven months after he took office, Aristide was ousted by a military coup backed by the army and supporters of the Duvalier dynasty (the past president of Haiti). Violence mounted in the country as the militants killed supporters of Aristide. U.S. troops restored Aristide to power in 1994 under orders of President Clinton.

The Independent reported that U.S. forces had been in the country since 1993 “under the U.N. flag” to “ensure the transition to civilian rule.” Aristide suffered harsh criticism over his alleged human rights abuses. In January of 2004, 10,000 people marched through the capital demanding that President Aristide leave office. The country's parliament shut down as schools, businesses and banks closed. When the Catholic bishop, Pierre-Andre Dumas, criticized the government for promoting corruption and anarchy, the protests mounted.

Aristide was forced out of office in February 2004. He told CNN in an interview that it was a "real coup d'etat ... a modern way to have a modern kidnapping.” In March of 2004, the U.S. State Department spokesman at the time, Richard Boucher, said of Mr. Aristide after he departed from Haiti: "We all know the political history of Haiti is such that during President Aristide's time, he created a lot of division within the society - the polarization grew, the violence grew. There were many armed gangs that were directly associated with him and his rule... So, one way or the other, a lot of the violence did come out of the fact, the way he ran the country."

Jeffrey Sachs, a leading world economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, wrote in a column in 2004 saying “critics fulminated when President Bill Clinton restored Mr. Aristide to power in 1994, and they succeeded in getting U.S. troops withdrawn soon afterwards, well before the country could be stabilized. In terms of help to rebuild Haiti, the U.S. Marines left behind about eight miles of paved roads and essentially nothing else.” 

"In the meantime, the so-called "opposition,” a coterie of rich Haitians linked to the preceding Duvalier regime and former (and perhaps current) CIA operatives, worked Washington to lobby against Mr. Aristide,” said Sachs.

Michele Pierre-Louis currently serves as Prime Minister of Haiti.

When asked if he thought U.S. support for Aristide contributed to the problems Haiti is experiencing today, Clinton told CNSNews.com that if Congress had supported Haiti more, the country would not be in the “fix” it is in today.

“No, I think if we’d supported more, Haiti more in the 90s, they wouldn’t be in this fix today,” said Clinton. “Our bitter reluctance, when I was president and the Congress was so hostile to Haiti, to support an elected president and the, the – I was for the Haitian people, not Aristide. I was for the Democratic process. They were for the military dictatorship, which included necklacing, killing people in the street and doing things that were awful.”

“I think our walking away from Haiti slowed down their reconciliation,” said Clinton. “I think Aristide’s mistake, however, was not to be more like [Nelson] Mandela. He should have been more inclusive and more supportive, but it is what it is, and we are where we are now. The point is, now we’ve got a good government. Everybody concedes they’ve got a good government with both the ability and the determination to do the right thing. We just need to help them with the capacity.”

Below is a transcript of the full interview with CNSNews.com:

CNSNews.com: “Mr. President, given the immense amount of aid the United States has provided since 2004, over 600 million dollars to Haiti, what do you think is the answer? Is more funding the answer, or you know given the social and economic problems in Haiti?”

President Clinton: “First of all, let’s, uh, look at what happened. A lot of the money we provided after 2004 was to keep people alive who were, you know, on the verge of destitution. After the 2006 elections, when this government came in, they had the best economic year they’d had in more than 3 decades in 2007. So, the answer is to give, to allow them the conditions and the tools to work themselves out of poverty; to empower them and that’s why I said today, what happened in 2008 was a one off, right? All those tornados, I mean all those hurricanes. So, we need to help get to the end of the year but beyond that, the aid should be directed toward empowerment, toward the road building, the growing agriculture self-sufficiency. The college program; the education program and I don’t think that government has to do it all. A lot of this can be done by the private sector through investments and through non-governmental organizations and I’m prepared to continue to work hard to try to do that. Last year, we raised $130 million, completely private capital to support education, health and development and we can do the same with energy. They can become virtually energy self-sufficient that would change their whole future. But, we’re in a fix now because of these tornados – because of these hurricanes. And we’ve got to get them to the end of the year. I can’t raise the private capital to build a national road network; that needs to be done through aid but all the focus now should be on a coordinated plan; high return on the dollars and economic growth.”

CNSNews.com: “Do you think U.S. support for Aristide, President Aristide has contributed at all to these problems that Haiti is experiencing right now?”

President Clinton: “No, I think if we’d supported more, Haiti more in the 90s, they wouldn’t be in this fix today. Our bitter reluctance, when I was President and the Congress was so hostile to Haiti, to support an elected President and the, the – I was for the Haitian people, not Aristide. I was for the Democratic process. They were for the military dictatorship which included necklacing, killing people in the street and doing things that were awful. I think our walking away from Haiti slowed down their reconciliation. I think Aristide’s mistake, however, was not to be more like Mandela. He should have been more inclusive and more supportive but it is what it is and we are where we are now. The point is now we’ve got a good government. Everybody concedes they’ve got a good government with both the ability and the determination to do the right thing. We just need to help them with the capacity.”