Haiti--When the Helping Hand is also Hurt

The news is full of the Haiti earthquake. I won't remake the wheel, but rather try to give some background and further references.

The United Nations has been concerned with Haiti since 1993, and their presence (combined with the presence of the OAS--Organization of American States) was intended to bring lawful government back to their troubled state. The UN mission was redefined many times in response to worsening conditions. Ten years later, the depredations of military government, contested elections, and a variety of other conditions took their toll, and sparked civil war in February of 2004.

Various UN groups or other international groups such as OAS or the Caribbean Community tried mediation. The UN Security Council redefined the UN role there. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) organization was on the ground by June.

The kind of war the UN wages is not war as we generally understand it, but stabilization. Their light-as-possible footprint can be very effective, (in fact, peacekeeping really works), but it is a latent fear of all states that the UN would presume too much if it became overly aggressive. They are a different kind of army. A kind of police army, an international National Guard. They are a patient force, when everyone else is starving and screaming and shooting.

This war was the war of all against all. People who lived in shacks tore down each other's shacks in the inner city. There were dead children hacked to bits in alleys and murdered families in looted homes. Other houses burned; other businesses were ruined, other drivers shot at and killed. The peacekeepers have had an uphill battle, one frequently full of despair, but over the past few years has done a lot to make Haiti livable again.

According to yesterday's briefing, MINUSTAH headquarters--and the HQ for the police commission--their five-story,  reinforced concrete building--has fallen to the ground. With it, some staff has been lost (from soldiers to secretaries to UN volunteers, there are almost 20,000 people in all of MINUSTAH). [UPDATE: more than 100 are missing from office complex, and many peacekeepers have been killed.] Not everyone or even most would have been in the compound, but they aren't sure how many were. A lot of what's needed, from communications to supplies, to keep aid organized, looting stopped, and order maintained is also buried.

Doctors without Borders has lost all three of their clinics. Hospitals have collapsed.

More on Haiti at Wikipedia.

BBC is usually the best source for world news in our backyard. Here is their Country Profile on Haiti.

The Observer has a very good post on current conditions.

Report on Conditions is reporting rescue teams going in from Virginia and California.

ROC also tips us that The Big Picture has good photos of the disaster. Here is one. Boston.com shows that forces are also arriving from other states, as far away as Taiwan, to bolster rescue efforts.

I'm saying prayers for the devastated in Haiti, the rescue missions of the past and present. I also vow to remember the people of Haiti after the news teams have gone. They have been miserable for a long time.