A Misdiagnosis in Haiti

One of the under-covered Haiti stories, choosing from the current smorgasboard, involves removal of a top diplomat apparently because of his simple honesty. Brazilian Ricardo Seitenfus has a 17-year history of work in Haiti, and was serving as Special Representative for the Organization of American States (OAS). On December 20, Swiss newspaper Le Temps published an interview in which Seitenfus offered a pointed, yet logical critique of the international community's post-earthquake response. That same day, he was asked to take a vacation and has since been informed he will not resume his former post.

BBC Brazil and Huffington Post have run stories on this, though absent from other other media, and today Aljazeera published a new interview.

Some readers of this blog might know I'm now working with a group attempting to produce a comprehensive report on the presence and actions of the UN peacekeeping forces (MINUSTAH)--which has operated in Haiti since May 2004, on a budget of $865 million this year. We hope our research/advocacy effort can harmonize with a 10-month grassroots campaign against MINUSTAH's mandate renewal, led by the Haiti civil society organizations mentioned in my previous post.

Thus, I resonated with this comment from Seitenfus. How simple, really. One would think.

Aljazeera: "Your main criticism of the U.N.’s work in Haiti is that they put too much of a focus on security. Explain what you mean."

Seitenfus: "I believe the international system of prevention and solution of conflicts is not prepared to treat specific cases such as Haiti. Haiti is not a threat to international security. It is not a threat to regional security. It’s not a threat to Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Haiti doesn’t even have armed forces…. With relation to the UN, I ask myself if we’re not just fooling ourselves. Wouldn’t it be better if the counsel of social and economic development oversees Haiti and would have priority, instead of the council on security? Haiti is not a threat to international peace and security. Haiti is a threat to itself and its own people…The life of the Haitian people is hard. Especially after the earthquake. After the quake we have 1.5 million people that are still living under tents in the parks and in the streets. I imaged that after January 12, 2010, the world would not only show that extraordinary solidarity to help Haiti, but it would also say, ‘Let’s stop and think if we are not mis-diagnosing Haiti with wrong formulas.’ But no, we didn’t ask that question. What we did was to send more soldiers in. So I think Haiti is much more complicated and much more delicate and multifaceted than simply sending peace keeping forces of the UN to image that Haiti can be rescued from the situation. The presence of the military is contradictory and counter-intuitive with me without talking about the moral questions. With MINUSTAH (U.N. peacekeeping forces in Haiti), we spent $600 million dollars per year this year. $865 million dollars this year alone, I think. That is besides what every member of MINUSTAH spends. So I believe we need to do a balance sheet - an audit almost - to take stock of how we have advanced in this last 6 and half years and to make a new strategy with relation to Haiti. I think we fool ourselves with who the real enemy here. The enemy of Haiti is misery, is lack of hope, the lack of perspective, lack of work, lack of income. Not security.”