The United Nations

>>**The United Nations**<<
  
As I was leaving Tuesday’s meeting with Kofaviv, I was asking myself why 
the United Nations never came up in the conversation. The text we had been 
talking about is by Thomas Hobbes. He claims, among other things, that we 
humans are naturally inclined to conflict, and that only the presence of a 
power that we fear makes us safe from one another. Connecting his point to the 
UN presence in Haiti, where several thousand heavily armed UN soldiers 
constitute what is called a “stabilization” force, seemed only too 
obvious. It was on my mind through almost the entire class. But the group found 
other things to talk about, and I never found quite the right moment to bring 
it up.
  
A little way down the street from the Kofaviv office is the side street that 
leads up to the Social Sciences branch of the national university. That’s 
the branch where Frémy and several other of my Haitian colleagues studied. 
It has long tended to be a source of political activism, attracting as it does 
some of the more radical of Haiti’s intellectuals and youth. 
  
As I got to the intersection, I saw a student whom I recently met. He was 
working with some of his friends to block the street. They had hauled the wreck 
of an automobile into the middle of the intersection, and were now surrounding 
the wreck with large rocks and tires. When I asked him what they were doing, he 
smiled and said that they were celebrating the anniversary of the UN. It was, 
in fact, United Nations Day. The student, whose name is Jean-Louis, laughed as 
he said that the UN was in Haiti to help Haitians and that they had decided to 
help too. His sarcasm could not have been more clear.
  
UN forces have now been in Haiti for over two years, and it seems worth 
considering what they are accomplishing. In and around Pòtoprens, one sees 
them everywhere: standing in and around the tank that sits within 100 yards of 
Suzette’s home in Douya, driving personnel carriers or fancy SUVs up and 
down between Pòtoprens and Delma on any of the three congested roads that 
link the two, guarding the entrances – or should I say “the 
exits”? – of the city’s slums, sitting in Epi D’Or, 
Delma’s first-rate fast food establishment. I even heard that they passed 
by Ka Glo once. There are Brazilians, Argentineans, Jordanians, Sri Lankans, 
Peruvians, Moroccans, Nepalese, Chileans, and others. 
  
The first time their presence really struck me here was shortly after I 
arrived. I was traveling to Ench with Saül, riding in a pick-up truck on 
the road that connects Pòtoprens with the Central Plateau. Just before we 
got to Tè Wouj, a small market on the way, we saw a contingent of Nepalese 
soldiers, sitting on and around two armored personnel carriers. When we got to 
Tè Wouj itself, the market was filled with heavily armed Haitians in an 
irregular range of semi-uniforms. They seemed to be just wandering around, 
snacking and chatting with market women. A few turns in the road after Tè 
Wouj, we saw another Nepalese force. We had just crossed two battle lines. The 
Haitians, who were part of a group identifying themselves as former members of 
Haiti’s disbanded military, were surrounded. That Haitian force had been 
one of the collection of violent and non-violent groups that had contributed to 
the deterioration of the situation here before President Aristide left in 
February 2004. But it had not put down its arms when Aristide left and the 
interim regime supported by the American government took power.
  
What was most striking to me at the time was how little the battle lines meant 
to those of us who just happened to be heading to Ench that day. Though it is 
intimidating to see a heavily-armed military force, and even more intimidating 
to see a heavily-armed group of irregulars, nothing actually happened. We were 
not stopped. No one asked any questions. Apparently, we were of no interest to 
either side. Shortly after we made the trip, the force of former soldiers 
evaporated.
  
Things have changed in Haiti since that time and, except for continuing 
inflation, the changes have mostly been improvements, at least as far as I can 
tell. Pòtoprens is very much safer than it was. A year ago, both Haitians 
and foreigners needed to be very particular about where they went around the 
capital. Gunfire was a constant in several neighborhoods. Kidnapping was a 
daily occurrence.
  
Things really are different now. But it’s hard to know whether to credit 
the UN. The most dramatic change we’ve seen can serve as an example. 
Violence stopped very suddenly in Site Solèy shortly after René 
Préval was recognized as the winner of the presidential election. It just 
stopped. At least for awhile. This was after months of almost continuous 
fighting between the Haitian police, supported by UN forces, and the 
area’s gangs. 
  
I don’t think there was much connection, though, between that sudden 
peace and anything that the UN forces or the Haitian police were doing. It 
would be more accurate, I think, to say that the gang leaders decided they 
wanted to give Préval an opportunity to deal with them peacefully. Or that 
they found some less violent way to further their interests.
  
I have occasionally seen UN soldiers roll up their sleeves to do real work. I 
once passed a friendly group of Chileans, with shovels in hand and a tractor 
helping out, repairing a road between Twoudinò and Fòlibète that 
floods had made impassable. One reads about school construction and other 
useful labor as well.
  
But we should not kid ourselves about such work. Unemployment in Haiti is 
extremely high. Ka Glo itself, where most of the men are skilled construction 
workers, is filled with guys who can’t find jobs. It is hard to 
understand why the UN or any other organization would think that it is in 
Haiti’s interest for them to send teams of soldiers to do construction 
work. It would, I imagine, be much less expensive and more beneficial to hire 
available Haitians.
  
And those projects may not all be as helpful as one would like. The heavy
– though distant, Mom – shooting that I heard last Saturday was
directly connected to one such project. Here’s a link to a description in
the “International Herald Tribune”:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/19/news/CB_GEN_Haiti_Slum_Violence.php
But
  
But the story I heard from numerous conversations – none of which was, I
should add, with an eyewitness – was at odds with the newspaper report. I
heard that, in the course of building a road, UN troops were knocking down
houses. The houses were being bulldozed with all their residents’
possessions inside, and the residents were neither being compensated nor helped
to find a new place to stay. I was told that residents were trying to defend
themselves.
  
I cannot vouch for the truth of the matter. I wasn’t there. But the story 
both reflects Haitian opinions of what the UN is likely to do and further 
denigrates the UN in Haitians’ eyes.
  
Usually, if I ask a Haitian what the UN is doing here in Haiti, they will say 
one of two things. Either they’ll say that they are doing nothing or that 
they are making money. Salaries for UN personnel are large. I once spoke to a 
Chicago police officer who was considering an offer of over $100,000, tax-free, 
to spend a year in Haiti training police. High UN salaries must be especially 
attractive to those who come from poor countries. It’s easy to take a 
cynical view of the UN’s work. 
  
I should, however, finish with a serious and opposing view. When I asked 
Suzette what she thinks of the presence of the tank and its soldiers so near 
her home, she said, a little sadly perhaps, that she is glad that they are 
there. Their presence, she said, has settled things down. If they had not been 
there, she added, she could not have invited me. It would not have been safe.
  
Simple answers are hard to find. To say that things would be better or worse 
without the UN presence would be hard to argue convincingly. Comparing reality 
to hypothesis leaves lots of room for the imagination. What is clear is that a 
peace that simply depends on the presence of an occupying power is not a good 
peace. It may be better than nothing, but it’s not simply good. Sooner or 
later, Haitians will have to be allowed to work things out.