UN is Sending 680 Troops to Provide Camp Security

The decision to send 680 troops to Haiti to provide camp security is an indication that the UN has no intention of building a better habitat for those left homeless following the January 12th earthquake that destroyed Haiti’s capital and ... ? ?

... surrounding cities. UN leaders have completely ignored the basic principles of human dignity and the discomfort and shame created by the occupation of Haiti, a sovereign nation. Not any sovereign nation, but the first free black nation in the Western hemisphere, a nation that voted the first law to allow African slaves to enjoy freedom once they stepped into its soil.

While the Haitian people are dealing with a chronic double-digit unemployment rate that has only worsened during the past few months, every little opportunity goes to foreigners. In large economic and intellectual centers of the world such as New York and Boston, Haitian workers play a very important role in private security agencies as well as in the public police forces; why can’t Haitians be trusted to take charge of the security of their country?

Some will refer to the coup d’etats and recent violent unrest that has created political instability in Haiti to convince the mainstream opinion that Haitians are not fit to work as security officers in a refugee camp on their own soil; we all know that most of the coups d’etats were engineered and sponsored by American, French and Canadian diplomats. In addition, the situation in many of the countries where the UN recruits its soldiers are inferior to Haiti where the violence is marginal, spontaneous and motivated by shortages of food and jobs and not connected with any organized terrorist or other criminal movement.

Imagine the UN preferring to send peacekeeping soldiers to Haiti selected from countries that harbor terrorists and countries with histories of state-sponsored violence that have adopted anti-democratic philosophies that restrain the freedom of women and practice sexual promiscuity as acceptable behavior.

The UN action in Haiti can be described as a vast conspiracy of greedy, wealthy nations and their accomplices. It is obvious that the UN is navigating far from the purpose for which it was created, to bring all nations of the world together to work for peace and development, based on the principles of justice, human dignity and the well-being of all people.

The UN is petrified to integrate former Haitian soldiers and innocent young Haitian men and women as part of Haiti’s security force, but they have no problem to take the risk of sending "potential Al Qeada and communist operatives" from countries like China and Pakistan to help build democracy in Haiti. Pakistan has UN peacekeepers in Haiti too. Another paradox. Pakistanis are killing their leaders; their own fragile security relies on the US soldiers. The day our soldiers step out of Pakistan, the Al Qaeda will take over.

Why can’t the former Haitian soldiers, who were well trained and who have not committed any crimes, be hired to provide basic security to their people with more dignity? The salary of one UN soldier and their cost of living in Haiti can pay at least 10 Haitians soldiers that will be able to do a better job. Why does the UN refuse to provide logistics and expertise to help rebuilding the Haitian Army? Can the UN learn from the US military experience in Iraq? The basis of the US greatest accomplishments in Iraq is the reintegration and the mobilization of the ranking officers of the defeated Iraqi Army into the new Iraqi defense force.

Instead of sending more soldiers to reinforce its troops in Haiti, the UN should focus on training more Haitian police officers and help create and train an elite national guard to take over the security of their country.

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