Ja: Too little too late

A South African military aircraft, which arrived too late with arms and equipment destined for the Haitian police, spent four days on the tarmac at Kingston's Norman Manley Airport before returning home on Wednesday with all its cargo onboard, the Jamaican government confirmed last night.

"It all went back," Prime Minister P J Patterson told the Observer. "Every bit of it. Customs put a seal on it and it all went back."
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The Boeing 707 aircraft arrived in Jamaica early Sunday, hours before President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's ostensible resignation and exile from Haiti. It left on Wednesday, a day later than planned, because of mechanical problems, officials said.

The South African press had reported last week that President Thabo Mbeki had agreed to send guns, bullets and bullet-proof vests to Haiti's ill-equipped police force to help Aristide, who was facing an armed insurrection, defend himself.

President Mbeki's efforts towards Haiti are more than Caricom did. Had Caricom had Mbeki's resolve, Aristide might now be well dressed and happy in his mansion with $350K slowly turning to powder in a basement safe while Haitians starved. Had Caricom acted with Mbeki's resolve, they would have put in troops on the ground, and those Haitian policemen who abandoned their office and fled to Jamaica should have been made to accompany Jamaican troops. But Caricom lacked the resolve to act. So all of this is moot.