Backpacks Full of Hope: The UN Mission in Haiti

6. Same Old Story: International Interventions in Haiti

C H A P T E R S I X Same Old Story: International Interventions in Haiti explaining the roots of the successive crises that Haiti has gone through would require extensive analyses of history and sociological, economic and political issues. That, of course, is beyond the scope of this book. Whatever conclusion we reach after analyzing its history, the collective perception abroad– –at least, the most widespread one– –is that Haiti is a place with nearly all the world’s problems: poverty, deforestation, lack of drinking water, violence, corruption and more recently AIDS. Yet it would be unfair to cast Haiti in only a negative light. The country I came to know had strong and proud people, rich cultural expressions and a landscape full of development possibilities. Regrettably, it was not these things that had brought Blue Helmets to the country. The problems Haiti is facing today are not new, and aid and intervention efforts to that country have never given Haiti a stable and orderly state. That the UN has been present in Haiti since 2004 reflects that truth. It would seem– –and I have heard this several times– –that there are already people who think that MINUSTAH will suffer the same fate as past missions and that chaos will return to the country, which in turn will bring about another mission.I am reluctant to believe this,though of course it may happen. 57 58 B A C K PA C K S F U L L O F H O P E I am optimistic, since the country I arrived in had changed for the better by the time I left. But the history of past interventions in Haiti reminds us how hard progress comes to that country. In 1697, Spain recognized France’s sovereignty over the western part of the island of Hispaniola. That colony quickly became one of the world’s leading producers of coffee and sugar– –through the toil of African slaves. A popular uprising against the French, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, JeanJacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe, began in 1791. The struggle ended with the defeat of Napoleon’s forces, and Haiti achieved its independence in 1804. The independence leaders organized a republic based on what they knew. As a result, the new state was a sort of continuation of the old colony. Christophe proclaimed himself emperor and built a fortress in Cap Haïtien named La Citadelle (a site well worth visiting). He also built a magnificent palace, Sans Souci, of which only ruins remain. Yet the freedom his people had so long coveted failed to provide them with stability. Evidence of this: the 1789 census counted 700,000 blacks in the country , yet by 1824 there were only 351,000. This suggests how violent those times must have been and how deeply that violence marked Haiti’s society. Various conflicts followed independence, between the blacks and the mulattoes and also between the inhabitants of northern Haiti and those of Port-au-Prince.Before long,the country had descended into permanent crisis. It is interesting that Miranda and Bolívar, the fathers of South American independence, visited Haiti and were given muskets and coffee to support their dreams of liberation. Dessalines, one of Haiti’s founding fathers, suggested to Miranda during his visit that there was only one way to achieve independence , and it was reflected in his battle cry:“Koupé tèt, boulé kay”(cut off their heads, raze their homes). Various military governments succeeded each other until 1986, when a new constitution was drafted, mainly in order to prevent the Duvalier family from taking power again.1 Since then, Aristide, Cédras, and others had struggled to confront the country’s perennial crisis. In September 1993 the UN Security Council, through Resolution 1940, established the first UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti, UNMIH. Its mandate was to restore democracy, build a safe and stable environment and restructure the Haitian security forces. That mission did not fully succeed, because the Haitian military would not cooperate. In July 1994 the Security Council authorized the deployment of a multinational force of 20,000 to help the legitimate authorities return, bring about a safe and stable environment and promote law enforcement. This multinational force was followed by other UN missions between 1994 and 2001: the S A M E O L D S T O R Y 59 UN Support Mission in...