PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- As the United Nations wound down its 13½-year military operation in Haiti last month, Sandra Honore, the Trinidadian diplomat who steered the country through a deadly hurricane, a protracted political crisis and a presidential election, wondered if the fragile nation would finally get a break.
Hurricane Irma was threatening the northern coast, and the U.N. Stabilization Mission had reduced its presence as the last of its blue-helmeted soldiers prepared to leave.
"We are going to support the government to the extent of our capacity, to the extent of our engineering contingent, until their departure," said Honore, the sixth diplomat to have served as the U.N. secretary-general's special representative in Haiti.
The U.N. military mission ends today, leaving behind a mixed legacy of stability and controversy. But as a smaller mission focused on justice, human rights and police development takes over Monday, there is a lingering question: Can Haiti go forward without a large multinational military presence?
"The U.N. has been present in Haiti for nearly 14 years," Haitian President Jovenel Moise said. "If after so many years, the country is not ready to take charge of its security and peacefully secure its future, this would be a collective failure for Haitians and the international community, which has made enormous sacrifices for the stabilization of the country.
"We are convinced that despite certain social and political difficulties, the Haitian people and the leaders that they have provided themselves with through democratic elections, are ready to assume their future with ambition, and in a spirit of national concord," he said.
Last month, as he addressed the U.N. General Assembly for the first time since his inauguration in February, Moise announced that he was remobilizing the country's defunct army to fill the security vacuum being left by the departing U.N. troops. He also insisted that the U.N. stop considering Haiti a threat to the region's security and remove it from a "Chapter 7" designation, which allows the U.N. Security Council to deploy troops to restore peace.
Moise has so far refused to approve the new U.N. mission. "Today, Haiti is no threat to regional and global peace and security," he said.
Honore said Haiti has made significant progress since U.N. forces arrived in 2004 during street protests and a bloody rebellion that toppled democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
"The Haitian people enjoy a considerable degree of security and greater stability. Political violence has diminished considerably. Armed gangs no longer hold the population hostage," Honore told the Security Council on Thursday as she addressed it for the last time. "All three branches of power are in place with the executive and legislative branches restored to full functioning."
Honore said she was encouraged by Moise's recent moves to rein in public spending and speak out against corruption. She also praised his Caravan of Change program to increase agriculture yields through public-works projects.
Immediate improvements, however, "have yet to be felt by the vast majority of the population, particularly in poor urban areas," Honore said.
Haiti's political situation remains fragile, she said, emphasizing the importance of the role of the new, smaller justice-focused mission, which will continue efforts to strengthen the Haiti National Police. She listed some of the difficulties still facing the country, which lately has been engulfed in weekly and sometimes violent protests. They include "the widely contested 2017-2018 budget, stalled indirect elections, disagreements over the re-establishment of the military armed forces of Haiti, coupled with the known weaknesses of state institutions, as well as the absence of significant improvement in the difficult living conditions of much of the population," she said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he believes that Haiti still has a long way to go, but he doesn't think it needs military forces.
"I think they need a police presence and to build up institutions," which will be the focus of the new U.N. mission, he said.
A Section on 10/15/2017