The general's death comes
on the heels of a call by the UN for the
Haitian interim government to hold elections
by February 7, 2006, the 20th anniversary of
the fall of the 29-year Duvalier
dictatorship. The poll has already been
postponed four times, and many in Haiti fear
that even the projected new date is too soon
to resolve logistical needs that have yet to
be addressed by the Provisional Electoral
Council, the Organization of American States
and the United Nations. But with each
passing day unchecked violence in the
capital is growing at a rate equal to the
resentment against MINUSTAH.
Haitians are angry that
the UN force has done little to stop the
wave of kidnappings and other criminal
violence that have cast a shadow over the
election, but MINUSTAH officials insist that
their mission does not extend to fighting
crime. Last week, a general strike was
called for January 9 to pressure the UN to
take action to halt the violence. Despite an
increased presence of troops on the streets,
few residents of the capital,
Port-au-Prince, feel safer. The seaside slum
of Cite Soleil, where most victims are
taken, is off limits to almost everyone
other than those connected to the gangs that
run the 1-square-mile landfill that houses
nearly a quarter-million people. Even the
Haitian National Police are prohibited from
entering the area and conducting any kind of
operation without the approval and
surveillance of MINUSTAH.
High-ranking federal police officials, as
well as some presidential candidates, have
charged privately that certain member
countries of the UN Mission have been
complicit in the kidnapping network, either
by taking payments from cash-flush gangs to
look the other way or supplying them with
weapons. UN Mission spokesman David Wimhurst
vehemently denies the accusations: "If the
government is serious, it should come
forward and offer proof. Otherwise, it's
just another nasty rumor attacking MINUSTAH."
Diplomats fault the
Mission for its reluctance to accept the
full scope of its mandate, which allows it
full reign to enforce peace — one even
called elements of the UN force "wussies."
Given
the mounting violence and allegations and
counter-allegations flying between rival
Haitian candidates, the UN Mission and other
foreign groupings, holding a credible
election right now becomes more of a
challenge. Presidential candidate Charles
Henri Baker, who trails behind frontrunner
and former president René Préval, has
preemptively blamed "tampering" by the
international community in the event that he
loses. "The next day, you will see civil
war," he predicts. Préval, on the other
hand, is so confident of his popularity that
he has done almost no campaigning. "His
record speaks for itself," says one of his
key strategists. That may be true, but like
all things Haitians, there's no consensus on
just what that record is.
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