So Callous a Nation

Haitians are so far down on their luck that if a world prize existed for the most hapless people, they would be edged out on a technicality by perhaps the Chads or Bangladeshis. Haiti, for most of its population, is a prison farm guarded against sea escape by the U.S. Navy and from within by constant military-police surveillance.

Last June I traveled with some friends about 600 miles up and down Haiti, almost to the Dominican mountain border. Before leaving the United States, we had interviewed Haitian exiles in New York Washington and Miami, and also the Haitian Desk officer and a deputy in the Human Rights section of the U.S. State Department. On our 180-mile trip to Cap-Haitien, our van was stopped five times and passengers wer...