UN Marks is 10th Anniversary in Haiti

This year marks the 10th anniversary that the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) has been in the country – since the 2004 coup d´etat – and many Haitians want them out, calling the mission a failure.

Camille Chalmers, the spokesperson for the left wing political party Pati Kan Pep la (Camp of the People) stated in a press conference in May that there has not been a single significant advance in Haiti concerning security and economic stability in the last 10 years of Minustah.

Another Brazilian organization Jubileo Sur Américas, is creating a manifesto in which they demand the immediate retreat of foreign military forces from Haitian territory. Minustah is not a humanitarian mission, they say, but rather a military occupation.

According to Jubileo Sur Américas, Minustah used the coup d´etat as an excuse to enter the country under the guise of a humanitarian project.

“Ten years of occupation, of fighting and resistance by people who live every day the catastrophic consequences perpetrated everyday by Minustah,” says the organization.

The UN has been in Haiti on and off since the 1990´s under various peace keeping operations. On the 1st of June 2004, it established Minustah after the other throw of the Haitian President Bertrand Aristid in February. It was created mainly to help support the Transitional Government by maintaining security in the area.

Since then, Minustah has been Haiti´s main presence in the country, but they also run other development and humanitarian agencies.

Minustah has been a target of criticism since it arrived in Haiti The UN troops have been accused of abusing women and children and also of introducing cholera into the country, which has since killed 8,556 people and infected another hundreds of thousands.

The country itself also remains in a dire situation. It still suffers political and institutional instability, while many Haitians still live in extreme poverty.