The United Nations Transition Mission in Haiti

The United Nations (UN) plays a crucial role in maintaining peace and security in countries that are experiencing conflicts. Since its establishment in the late 1940s, UN has been actively involved in peacekeeping operations particularly in Haiti, a country that is well known for violence. According to Hall, there is a tradition of political instability in Haiti, and democratic culture is not well-established here (256). The state has a long history of unrest due to discontent over the inability of the government to improve the economic situation and enhance the living standards (Hilaire 67). Government actions are significantly slowed down by violence which hinders economic reforms and progress in the country’s transition to democracy. Consequently, a lot of Haitians view the government as ineffective and unresponsive to public concerns. Furthermore, the emergence of sophisticated organized crime and increased circulation of weapons challenges the police forces who suffer attacks from armed individuals. Haiti’s police is not effective in addressing the problems facing the country due to lack of proper training. Additionally, the public institutions in Haiti particularly those that should guarantee peace and justice are weak (Mobekk 196). As a result, the UN has established several peacekeeping operations in Haiti to restore peace in the country. In particular, on July 30 1997, the organization undertook the UN Transition Mission in Haiti (UNTMIH) to help the country end violence (United Nations Department of Public Information). The given paper argues that UNTMIH successfully professionalized the Haitian national police but failed to overcome violence due to lack of understanding of the causes of conflict and knowledge of the state’s history and culture.

Description of UNTMIH

The UNTMIH focused exclusively on upgrading the Haitian national police. The operation was the third one that the UN established in the country to assist the government to increase the level of the competency of the national police. The program was also supposed to help the government to ensure that the state is stable and secure to successfully professionalize the police force. Overall, the UN aimed to remove violence in Haiti through reform of criminal justice system, promotion of democracy and human rights (Hilaire 67). UN deployed the UNTMIH after the election of the first democratic president. The operation was expected to provide technical assistance to Haiti National Police (HNP), protect human rights and promote the concept of community policing. Additionally, the mission members had an aim to monitor and promote human rights in the area. The multinational force consisted of 250 police officers and 50 military personnel (United Nations Department of Public Information). Civil police trainers were drawn from the US, Tunisia, Togo, Senegal, Niger, Mali, India, France, Benin and Argentina while military personnel came from Canada, Pakistan, Benin and Argentina (Mobekk 196). Some voluntary donor contributors financed the operation. The mandate of the UNTMIH to equip the police with the necessary skills ended on November 30, 1997.The UN envisioned the operation as a tool for training HNP in crowd control, national security and rapid reaction to various incidents. Furthermore, with the help of the UN Development Program, the operation had an objective to enhance police expertise and judicial system.

Performance and Challenges Facing UNTMIH

Police leadership in Haiti faced numerous problems due to the violation of human rights and abuse of authority by the police. Sadly, upon the deployment of the UNTMIH security forces, their ability to reform and influence Haitian police authority remains questionable. Obviously, the UNTMIH was successful in professionalizing the HNP and promoting community policing. It helped Haiti to make progress in the establishment and training of the national police force to cope with the security issues in the country. Moreover, the mission led to the improvement of the economic condition in the state (Hilaire 68). However, the operation was a failure because it did not create a stable and secure environment. Powles and Negar assert that the withdrawal of the UNTMIH after four months diluted many efforts to improve the rule of law (8). The operation did not manage to launch the reforms required to strengthen democratic institutions, create jobs and generate economic growth to prevent violence within the country. Despite the UN efforts to ensure that the law enforcers were highly competent, Haitian police did not stop violence and lacked the ability to restore peace. The security situation deteriorated due to frequent incidents of violence encouraged by politics.

As it has been stated above, the UN’s attempt to reform the national police in 1997 produced disappointing results. The mission failed to bring to an end the long history of abusive police forces despite the UN peacekeeping operations. Due to internal division, the government remained non-functional, and the issue of human rights violation persisted. In spite of the ongoing police supervision and training by the UN, lack of motivation, absenteeism and issues with discipline continued to exist (Hall 256). During this period, some incompetent policemen misused firearms resulting in the death of eight people between September and October 1997. Most of these murders were unnecessary and violated human rights. At the time, some police officers were accused of killing a detainee. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the perpetrators of human rights abuses were not taken for trials to face justice. Due to these scandals, the UN failed to win public trust which in turn led to the failure of training Haitian to settle their disputes peacefully and increasing the credibility of the Haitian justice system.

The failure can be explained by the fact that the UNTMIH faced challenges in its effort to stabilize the country and create a secure environment. The main one was the Haitian culture. The state has a culture of political polarization, mistrust and zero-sum politics which is associated with long-standing risks of instability. However, the UN lacked understanding of the stated above facts and phenomena. As a result, it implemented ineffective peace building strategies that were naïve and ill-conceived. In particular, its scheme centered on the creation of competent, professional, and independent HNP as a vital part of secure environment and fair judicial system. Yet, it was not sensitive to the political culture that complicated the UN’s interaction with the Haitian government and led to lack of public confidence in the mission (Powles and Negar 9). Moreover, the UN staff involved in in the UNTMIH operation did not demonstrate understanding of the challenges that police training in Haiti faced. As a result, they set unrealistic expectations. Most of the troops deployed had no previous experience in Haiti, and the UN made little efforts to provide the knowledge needed.

Another phenomenon that was not considered by the mission members was a custom of the Haitians to form vigilante groups to seek vengeance. These units undermined government authority and showed that Haitians preferred using violence to resolve and instigate problems. The state’s government did not manage to end public violence due to lack of a strong police force and public education. Elimination of public desire to seek retribution requires observable positive results and explanatory work, something that the UNTMIH failed to achieve. Therefore, the public disarray complicated the mission of the UN by creating doubt over the ability of Haiti to achieve democracy. Due to the culture of vengeance, the political instability in the state remained unmanageable, and the country reported many cases of violence with a massive breakdown of law and order (Hall 256). Moreover, the culture of poor governance created a barrier to achieving long-lasting peace. The failure to reform the governance framework in Haiti contributed to instability making it impossible to establish a culture of the rule of law and end violence owing to the lack of improvement in living conditions (Hilaire 67). Poor governance challenged and hindered economic development at the moment when efforts to enhance the living standards were of great significance.

Conclusion

To sum up, the UNTMIH professionalized the national police force but the mission failed to yield lasting peace. Peacekeeping is a highly political exercise that requires an understanding of the country’s culture and history of conflict to implement effective strategies. Sadly, political instability in Haiti remained a barrier in ending violence in the region. Nevertheless, sustained efforts and continuous engagement of the UN in Haiti is vital for the peacekeeping activity to take hold. The experience of the UNTMIH suggests that peace cannot be restored without addressing local governance framework and political environment. Achieving long-lasting peace in Haiti requires not only highly competent and professionalized national police force but also improvement of governance to raise the public trust in the government regarding addressing their issues.