United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti - Background

Background

According to its mandate from the UN Security Council, MINUSTAH is required to concentrate the use of its resources, including civilian police, on increasing security and protection during the electoral period and to assist with the restoration and maintenance of the rule of law, public safety and public order in Haiti. MINUSTAH was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1542 on 30 April 2004 because the Security Council deemed the situation in Haiti to be a threat to international peace and security in the region. In 2004, UN peacekeepers stormed Cité Soleil in an attempt to gain control of the area and end the anarchy.

In 2004, independent human rights organizations accused MINUSTAH and the Haitian National Police (HNP) of collaborating in numerous atrocities against civilians. The UN, after repeatedly denying having taken the lives of any civilians, later admitted that civilians may have been killed, but argued that this was not intentional, and that it occurred as a by-product of their crackdown on what they call “gangs”. They also said that the UN and MINUSTAH deeply regretted any loss of life during the operation.

In early 2005, MINUSTAH force commander Lieutenant-General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira testified at a congressional commission in Brazil that “we are under extreme pressure from the international community to use violence,” citing Canada, France, and the United States. Later in the year, he resigned, and on 1 September 2005, was replaced by General Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar as force commander of MINUSTAH. On 7 January 2006, Bacellar was found dead in his hotel room. His interim replacement was Chilean General Eduardo Aldunate Hermann.

On 17 January 2006, it was announced that Brazilian General José Elito Carvalho de Siqueira would be the permanent replacement for Bacellar as the head of the United Nations' Haiti force.

On 14 February 2006, in Security Council Resolution 1658, the United Nations Security Council extended MINUSTAH's mandate until 15 August 2006.

MINUSTAH is also a precedent as the first mission in the region to be led by the Brazilian and Chilean military, and almost entirely composed of, Latin American forces, particularly from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay. From 1 September 2007 until his death following the earthquake on 12 January 2010, the mission has been led by Tunisian Hédi Annabi.