HAITI-UN: Call for UN to Develop Haitian Institutions

By Marvette Darien and Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 1997 (IPS) - The United Nations should use its last few months of peace-keeping operations in Haiti to build up Haitian institutions so they can continue judicial, human rights and developmental work, say human rights activists.

The National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), a New York- based group, says in a new report that such support for local institutions is necessary because Haitian society is unable to take up the slack once U.N. troops and rights monitors leave.

A U.N. Security Council resolution commits the world body to wrap up the U.N. Transitional Mission in Haiti (UNTMIH) by the end of November. Despite three years of U.S., U.N. and Canadian involvement, the NCHR remains pessimistic that Haiti is able to manage its own affairs.

“Haiti today is adrift,” the NCHR report says. “There is a marked absence of governmental leadership, characterised by an ineffective presidency, a caretaker cabinet of ministers, and much controversy over the conduct of parliamentary and local elections.”

That climate of disorder, the group claims, contributed to the recent voting down of the nomination of Prime Minister-designate Ericq Pierre by the lower house of Parliament, as wellas the resignation of the last prime minister, Rosny Smarth. Both men were bitterly opposed by followers of former President Jean- Bertrand Aristide, whose Lafanmi Lavalas organisation has criticised President Rene Preval for seeking to privatise Haitian companies.

The political infighting between Lafanmi Lavalas and Preval’s centre-left Lavalas Political Organisation has been complemented by a surge in street protests, the report notes.

“Street demonstrations – spearheaded by thugs who have threatened bloodletting unless their demands for new governmental leadership and complete withdrawal of U.N. security forces are met – have regularly brought normal activities to a halt, and have led to deserted streets,” the NCHR warns.

In such a climate, many Haitians feel that the United Nations has not done enough to maintain order. “Many Haitians would agree that the U.N. mission has not serviced the Haitians as they would have liked,” said Miriam Augustine, an analyst of Haitian affairs at the City College of New York.

Although some 1,400 UNTMIH troops remain in Haiti, Augustine argued that Haitians want to see greater disarmament of potentially violent forces, such as the successors of the dreaded Tonton Macoute paramilitaries which had defended the previous Duvalier family dictatorship.

“The support is pretty clear among the populace for a continued U.N. presence,” added Bob Maguire, the Haitian representative of the Inter-American Foundation. “There is a sense of frustration that the United Nations is not doing enough in terms of nation-building,” he argued, noting worries that U.N. troops have been passive in allowing armed forces to operate with impunity.

At the same time, the NCHR says, the U.N.-trained Haitian police force remains ill-prepared to maintain law and order, although the rights group concedes that complaints about police misconduct have dropped in recent months.

“Many officers still resort to the use of firearms too quickly,” the report says, and it warns that problems with Haiti’s judiciary have allowed too many criminals to “bribe their way out of prison.”

The Ministry of Justice itself is poorly-funded and corrupt. “A study of the judiciary has indicated that the legal system actually collects an amount of revenue in fees sufficient to increase significantly judicial salaries…but much of that money is never sent to the Ministry of Justice from local courthouses or disappears in salaries for phantom (justice) employees,” the report charges.

U.N. bodies have essentially covered up many of the main defects by providing needed services, from police training by UNTMIH to human rights monitoring by the Haitian Civilian Mission (MICIVIH). Now, if the United Nations really is intending to leave, those bodies must train Haitian organisations to perform the work they do, the NCHR says.

Such a process, the report argues, “means assisting non- governmental organisations (NGOs) to develop organisationally, to train staff and volunteers, to advise NGOs on how to obtain transport and communication equipment and to secure long-term financing.”

Still, some improvements have been noted. Augustine observed that a major problem in police training was that many officers only received four months of instruction – but recently, the report adds, U.N. trainers have raised that level to eight months. Maguire said other countries, from Canada to the Caribbean Community, are also willing to take up the slack if the U.N. presence is ended – which itself is not guaranteed, since the Security Council has repeatedly extended the mission upon Preval’s request.