More than six months after the call of the Haitian Prime Minister relayed by the UN to send an international force to fight against gangs, the world is looking for new ideas while no country is willing to lead a such intervention.
In the latest effort, a senior American official tried to stir things up during a visit to Brazil, a country which currently sits on the Security Council and which had commanded a previous mission, under the UN flag, in this poor Caribbean country.
President Lula's Brazil "feels concerned about Haiti," said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
The Brazilians "want something to be done, and they are committed to working with us in the Security Council to find a way forward," she told AFP on the plane bringing her back from Brasilia.
"We're making progress, but we're all frustrated that we haven't been able to make progress faster," she added.
The security, political and humanitarian crisis gripping Haiti has worsened in recent months, with a spread of violence from the gangs that control much of the capital.
The country is "suspended above the precipice", summarized this week the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
Diplomatic efforts, particularly from Washington, were primarily aimed at finding another country to lead this non-UN intervention force and help an overwhelmed Haitian police force.
But no one has volunteered, so diplomats say other options are on the table, including a more conventional UN peacekeeping mission.
US President Joe Biden has made it clear that he will not put Americans at risk, even though his administration has pledged support if another country takes the lead in a mission.
And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on whom all eyes were on, also seems to deem the operation too risky.
The new UN envoy for Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, still hopes that a country will come forward, or a group of countries from the region, the Caribbean or Latin America.
But it may also be time for the UN to be "innovative" and "find other ways to provide this force", she said a few days ago.
"It's simple, no one wants to do it. There is no country today that feels a responsibility or a coercion," commented Keith Mines of the American Institute for Peace.
There have certainly been some political advances with the agreement in December between several political, economic and civil society representatives for a transitional government towards elections by the end of 2023.
"But it's a chicken and egg problem. It's hard to see how any political process could move forward while there's this security breakdown," he said.
And some US officials are pessimistic. "It doesn't look like it's going to get any better anytime soon," US Intelligence Director Avril Haines said Thursday.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who launched the appeal for help in October, faces questions of legitimacy as he was appointed just 48 hours before the assassination of the last President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 and no elections have been held since 2016.
In an open letter, Haitian civil society groups had also opposed an international force, which "would perpetuate and strengthen Henry's hand on power and do little to ameliorate the roots of the crisis".
Some fear the population's opposition to a new intervention, while during a previous mission, UN peacekeepers brought cholera, causing an epidemic that killed more than 10,000 people.
But this talk of "constant disasters" in operations in Haiti is misleading, rejects Keith Mines, considering in particular that the Brazilian, Canadian and Chilean troops have been effective on the ground.
"There are tools that are not going to be used when a nation like Haiti is collapsing," he laments.
06/05/2023 09:44:50 - New York (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
