The UN Security Council was to land yesterday in the capital of shellshocked Haiti, making its first visit to a country scarred by gunfights and plagued with violence more than a year after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The UN's year-old mission to stabilize Haiti will come under close scrutiny during the four-day visit to the poorest country in the Americas. As Haitians discussed the security council's arrival this week, some offered tentative praise for the UN mission despite the grim conditions of life in the country.
After months of criticism, recent moves by peacekeepers against armed bands and in defense of political protesters have begun to generate some positive assessments.
"Honestly I didn't think they would come and save this country," said Guy Philippe, a leader of last year's rebellion against Aristide. "I think they're working now."
Still, many in Haiti and abroad continue to accuse the UN peacekeeping force, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, of wrongs ranging from ineffectiveness to enabling political repression and murder.
Pro-Aristide organizer Charles Roger pointedly angrily on Tuesday at the coffins of two young slumdwellers killed in gunbattles.
"This girl was 15, that guy was 25," Roger said. "It was MINUSTAH that allowed their deaths here."
The pro-Aristide Catholic Reverand Gerard Jean-Juste said the UN had generated goodwill among the poor this year by beginning to protect protesters from trigger-happy Haitian police. But police shootings of demonstrators last month brought back anger against UN forces, he said.
"The honeymoon they had for a short time with the people, they are losing it," he said.
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