(Bloomberg) -- The US wants to turn the cash-strapped police mission it pitched last year to tackle Haiti’s security crisis into a United Nations peace operation, hoping a formal arrangement will allow more funds to flow into the Caribbean nation.
Washington is seeking Security Council backing to transform a Kenya-led multinational security support (MSS) effort into a so-called blue helmet mission, according to the top US diplomat for Western Hemisphere affairs, who noted it would make funding automatic through the UN system.
“Locking in sufficient and sustainable financing for the MSS mission is crucial as we help the Haitian people restore peace and security,” Brian A. Nichols said in an interview. “The United States remains committed to the success of the MSS as underscored by our significant contribution, but we believe others also need to step forward.”
Financial support for Haiti has been hard to come by. Based on voluntary contributions, the current operation has struggled financially as some nations second-guess the arrangement and others choose to allocate resources to other crises.
The US is set to announce more than $40 million in additional funding for the Caribbean nation at a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later Wednesday, according to a senior US official who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. That’s on top of the $360 million Washington has already pledged for the police mission.
Besides Canada, which has also made large donations, other countries have been more timid in their commitments. A UN-managed trust fund created to facilitate voluntary contributions for the MSS has pulled in little more than $85 million in donations — the bulk of it from Ottawa. Countries like Jamaica and Benin have contributed troops, while others offered training and equipment.
The US official said Washington is expecting countries like El Salvador, Argentina and Uruguay to announce donations at the meeting chaired by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lamented last week that if there’s a bank at risk of going under, “then probably billions and billions of dollars will be mobilized to save” it from financial ruin. But “when it comes to just a small operation in Haiti, where all we need is a few hundred millions of dollars” then “there’s no money for that,” he told reporters in New York. “That’s something I can’t accept.”
The Security Council approved the Kenya-led mission in an attempt to help Haiti’s overwhelmed police force confront rampant gang violence that has intensified into a humanitarian catastrophe. With its one-year mandate up at the end of the month, US diplomats are seizing the opportunity to try to convert the mission into a full-fledged peace operation.
The US originally pitched the mission in an effort to find innovative solutions for Haiti’s crisis after two UN operations failed to restore peace in the Caribbean country. The latest such effort, a peacekeeping force led by Brazil from 2004 to 2017, was overshadowed by scandals including allegations of sexual abuse against different nationalities and that peacekeepers unwittingly introduced cholera, which killed thousands of people.
Turning the current effort into a blue helmet force “would fold the Haiti response into existing UN structures, which brings slightly more transparency to it,” said Beatrice Lindstrom, a lawyer at Harvard Law School, who filed claims against the previous peacekeeping mission on behalf of thousands of cholera victims. Yet historically, she cautioned, “the framework that governs peacekeeping missions is a framework that does not ensure accountability to the Haitian people.”
The chances of making a UN peacekeeping mission happen seem slim. Both Russia and China — which wield veto power — have expressed concern over the deployment of blue helmets in Haiti. Last year, they abstained from the Security Council vote that established the MSS.
Blinken got a first-hand look at the dire situation on the ground this month when he visited the country and held talks with its interim prime minister. The UN’s human rights expert on Haiti was also there recently, describing conditions Friday as “catastrophic and cataclysmic.”
For the US, finding a solution to the crisis has implications at home. Florida has been deploying more law enforcement officers to its southern waters this year amid an increase in the number of migrants from Caribbean nations like Haiti coming by boat. US-made guns are also said to be fueling the gang wars on the island. And former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, is seizing on the Haitian community to make false claims about immigrants in the US.
“It’s not about being nice, it’s not about being generous. It’s about what’s in our collective self-interest in the Americas, and, frankly, globally,” said Canadian Ambassador Bob Rae, who chairs a Haiti advisory group at the UN. “It will not do any of us — including the United States — any good to allow this thing to keep on festering.”
--With assistance from Iain Marlow and Jim Wyss.
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