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24810: Hermantin (News) U.N. needs injection of reality



leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

HAITI
U.N. needs injection of reality
By Nancy Roc
April 18, 2005

Every day, it is clearer that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has left a disastrous heritage: Haiti is "a quasi-failed state" as The Washington Post wrote in its April 5 editorial. It also rightly underlined that: "Sadly, U.S. policy hasn't changed much either. The Bush administration still aspires to delegate Haiti's troubles to other countries or international organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States. One direct result of this policy is the continued insecurity, since the Brazilian-led U.N. force of 7,400 has lacked the capability or willpower to disarm the thugs."

The Post concluded by stating that "the Bush administration still resists accepting the obvious: that deeper U.S. involvement in Haiti is inevitable. … The only recourse … later … may be the Marines."

It is urgent that the U.S. policymakers as well as the U.N. Security Council understand that an accurate look on the field must be acquired. Indeed, the Haitians have been stunned to hear Brazilian Lt. Gen. Heleno Pereira, of the U.N. forces in Haiti, often linking the violence to "social injustice," a characteristic of the country's history for the past 200 years. This is an erroneous and dangerous lecture.

A major part of Aristide's heritage was the financing and creation of heavily armed gangs. Violence in Haiti may be partially due to social injustice, but it is also -- and this has to be clearly understood by the partners in the rebuilding of our nation -- highly political, commanded and co-opted by the old regime. The refusal to admit that reality can only contribute to a new failure of the U.N. in Haiti. In addition, the lack of efficiency and strength from the transitional government has worsened the violence by lack of action.

Haiti is often described as an ungovernable country. Haitians can help the international community to achieve democracy with a more accurate sense of their needs. They cannot do so if the U.N. force has no institutional partner other than a government that has failed to restore order and fight the corrupt system left by Aristide. They cannot do so when the U.N. force commander recently equated the use of force with "repression" and refused to employ it against armed thugs.

Haitians are tired of the violence and their misery. The country they once knew is gone for good. The only exit from another catastrophe is not to apply an "imported democracy" scheme, but to work together toward the future with true knowledge of the Haitian reality. This can only be done if the U.N. hears the voices throughout institutional partners which are independent from the Haitian government and preferably linked to civil society and human rights groups. Hearing and acting with true Haitian democrats could avoid not only catastrophe, but also another intervention of the U.S. Marines. Indeed, the latter never has been, nor will be, a solution for Haiti's distress.

Nancy Roc is a prize-winning political journalist and author of three books of political analysis.

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