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Haiti: Needs new relationship with international community to flourish
The UN security council will decide imminently whether or not to renew the mandate of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), established in 2004, and now comprising about 12,000 troops from 55 countries. A letter has been delivered to world leaders calling for its withdrawal.
MINUSTAH has not exactly covered itself in glory, with recent human rights abuse accusations against Uruguayan troops only the latest in a tide of negative publicity.
Few Haitians will miss MINUSTAH when it finally withdraws.
The history of the west’s involvement in Haiti is shameful. A totally new relationship with the international community, both political and economic, is needed if Haiti is at last to flourish.
The astonishing apology by former US president Bill Clinton for his part in the destruction of Haiti’s agricultural sector in the 1980s and 1990s is welcome, but cannot reverse history.