U.N. to Send Troops to Haiti

The Security Council unanimously approved a peacekeeping force of 8,300 soldiers and police for Haiti on Friday, the fifth U.N. mission to be sent to the beleaguered Caribbean country in a decade.

Deployment will begin June 1 to replace the 3,600-strong U.S.-led multinational force now in the country, though it will take time for all the new troops, police and human rights experts to arrive. The mission’s initial mandate is for six months, but diplomats said they expected to extend it for as long as it would take to get Haiti back on its feet.

“I hope with this we’ll be there for the long haul and not lose patience as we did in the past,” said Heraldo Munoz, Chile’s ambassador to the U.N. “We will stay until democracy is reinstated, along with the rule of law and a strong state.” Chile, along with France and Canada, sent troops to join the U.S.-led emergency force.

Brazil will lead the new U.N. mission and contribute 1,400 of the 6,700 soldiers. Angola, Benin, Nepal and Pakistan also are planning to send soldiers or police to Haiti.

But the United Nations is having difficulty mustering enough French-speaking forces to send to the Francophone island.

“There’s a surge in peacekeeping, and there’s a squeeze on troops,” said David Wimhurst, the spokesman for the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations. “We’re concerned that it will be difficult for French-speaking countries to step up to the plate.”

New peacekeeping missions expected this year for Ivory Coast and Burundi, both French-speaking countries, as well as Sudan could drive the number of blue-helmeted peacekeeping troops from 49,000 to 72,000, a 10-year high.

“We’re aware it’s not going to be easy,” Wimhurst said.

Caribbean countries also are considering offering security and aid. But lingering resentment over former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s hurried departure in February at the behest of U.S. officials has made them reluctant to get involved, diplomats said.

But the U.N.’s biggest concern is making sure it doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the past. In a report on Haiti released last month, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that future stabilization efforts must avoid the missteps that have allowed the region’s poorest country to be repeatedly engulfed in crisis.

Annan charged that Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, squandered the country’s momentum toward democracy and development and allowed anarchy and an illicit drug trade to flourish.

Aristide formed a destructive alliance with armed groups to maintain his grip on power, which planted “the seeds for future civil unrest,” Annan said. The U.N., for its part, has failed to follow through with aid programs, resulting in Haiti’s increased alienation, he added.

This time, the international community must sustain a commitment to help the country rebuild its weakened democracy and civil institutions, he said, and Haitian leaders must assume full responsibility for their country.

The first task is to disarm militias and rebuild the battered police force to stabilize the country of 8.2 million. Fewer than half of Haiti’s 5,000 police have returned to their jobs since Aristide fled. Guy Philippe, the leader of the main rebel faction, said that his group would reconstitute itself as a political party this month and surrender its weapons.