CSMS Magazine Staff Writers
With its president completely passive, Haiti’s sovereignty suffered an other blow last week, when U.N. peacekeepers shifted their focus on the border with the Dominican Republic, citing an urgency to crack down on smuggling and human trafficking, the international mission chief said Saturday.The UN is currently in the process of building observation points and bases along the Haitian-Dominican border to deter what UN officia Hedi Annabi said to be “illegal crossers” and prevent the exchange of drugs and arms.According to Jonathan Katz, AP reporter, Annabi visited the 255-mile border on Saturday, stopping at a future U.N.-run operations base near the main commercial crossing point of Malpasse, the closest entry point to the Haitian capital.Haiti’s customs chief Jean-Jacques Valentin was at hand to chaperon Annabi. “Everybody knows the border is out of control. We don’t have the resources or infrastructure to manage it,” Valentin declared without any shame.We, in CSMS magazine, clearly believe there is a great need to tighten security on the border with the D.R. However, this must be left to Haitian authorities to deal with. Whatever happened to the Haitian government? Shame on Preval. Since being deployed after a February 2004 uprising that ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the U.N. force has been the main power in the country, coaching the government, suppressing violent gangs in the capital while killing scores of innocent victims in the process, and now this: “About 120 soldiers will be stationed at four bases along the porous border,” confirmed Associated press. According to Annabi, three UN bases have been completed with a fourth one, planned for Malpasse, will be finished in a month. A Jordanian platoon will use it to coordinate operations and monitor the brush-covered mountains and saltwater Lake Azuei, which is popular with smugglers. Will Haiti ever regain its sovereignty?Also see Rene Preval to meet George Bush at the White House
