Global Policy Forum

By Mario Osava*

The countries of the Southern Cone region of South America are sending troops to Haiti to take part in the United Nations peacekeeping mission there, but without the strong internal support usually enjoyed by such missions of solidarity with nations in conflict.

The 1,200 Brazilian troops will take on a ''police role'' in Haiti that the armed forces do not even play in their own country, since the government ''refuses to free up federal troops to guarantee public order in large cities where crime reigns supreme,'' parliamentary Deputy Antonio Carlos Pannunzio told IPS. Pannunzio, a lawmaker with the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party, also accused the government of violating the constitution by deciding to send the peacekeeping troops without prior parliamentary approval.

A convoy of 58 armoured military vehicles, already painted with the UN insignia, set out last Wednesday from southern Brazil on the way to the port of Rio de Janeiro, where they will embark for Haiti. But the mission has not yet received formal ratification from Congress. The Chamber of Deputies passed the proposal last Thursday, and the Senate vote -- also expected to be broadly in favour -- is scheduled for this week.

The fact that the military has already begun to mobilise troops and equipment drew protests from many parliamentarians, even lawmakers that support the government of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. ''If Congress does not ratify it, the troops will not be sent,'' said Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who along with Defence Minister José Viegas was summoned to explain the peacekeeping mission to parliamentary commissions in the two houses of Congress last week.

The Chilean government faced even stronger criticism in early March, when it announced that it was dispatching 300 soldiers to take part in the first multinational peacekeeping force in Haiti, led by the United States and France, without consulting parliament first. In Brazil, lawmakers also criticised the expenses involved in posting troops to Haiti at a time when the Brazilian people are suffering the effects of fiscal austerity efforts that have stood in the way of increasing the minimum wage and expanding social programmes, while aggravating poverty. They also pointed to the uncertain situation in Haiti, where armed bands continue to fight, and which has no Congress and only a government with questionable legitimacy, the product of the Feb. 29 collapse of the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, seen by many as a coup d'etat.

Similar resistance from part of the political spectrum is faced by the governments of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, which plan to add their own military contingents to the multinational force that will continue peacekeeping efforts in the Caribbean island nation as of Jun. 1, under Brazilian leadership. The three countries are also planning to include police officers. Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil (along with Paraguay) are partners in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc, of which Chile is an associate member. But each country is participating ''in an independent and sovereign manner,'' Uruguayan Defence Minister Yamandú Fau explained to IPS.

Montevideo did not decide to send the nearly 600 troops and around a dozen police officers until the United Nations had reformulated its request, originally addressed to the Mercosur as a whole, said the minister, who noted that the bloc does not encompass the aspect of military integration. Uruguay has a tradition of taking part in U.N. peacekeeping missions. It currently has 1,733 troops stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an operation that is more dangerous and complex than the one in Haiti, according to Fau. Another 1,650 Uruguayan soldiers are participating in peacekeeping operations in other parts of the world.

But securing a green light from parliament in the case of Haiti is a more complicated question, due to the doubts surrounding the overthrow of Aristide and other factors. The leftist Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio (EP-FA), which holds 40 percent of the seats in the Uruguayan parliament, will set strict conditions on which tasks can be carried out by the country's troops and police officers, since the mission is governed by article seven of the U.N. charter, which includes the use of force.

The EP-FA has not yet taken a stance on the matter, Deputy José Bayardi, one of the coalition's representatives in the parliamentary Defence Commission, commented to IPS. But before the leftist coalition votes in favour of sending the peacekeeping troops, the action plan proposed by the mission's Brazilian leadership will have to be carefully studied, he added. Bayardi pointed out that the troops will be sent to a country in upheaval, occupied by U.S. and French forces, where violence has continued to reign since the democratic government was toppled.

Washington posted some 2,000 soldiers after the fall of Aristide, who is in exile in Jamaica after spending two weeks in the Central African Republic. He maintains that he was forced to resign by U.S. agents. The United Nations has been urged to investigate the events of late February by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Haiti forms part although it is currently suspended because the bloc does not recognise the U.S.-backed government of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, which has little authority. Non-governmental organisations also accuse Washington of contributing to Aristide's fall.

A concern similar to Bayardi's was expressed by another Uruguayan lawmaker, Luis Leglise of the centre-right National Party, who said it was strange that police officers were to be included in the contingent. And although he said he would back the government's request, he told IPS that oversight of the mission would be greater than in the case of other peacekeeping operations in which Uruguay has taken part. A similar panorama is facing the government of Argentina. The opposition Radical Civic Union accepts the sending of troops ''but within limits'' set by Congress, such as a strict limitation to peacekeeping activities, which would exclude combat.

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos still has to overcome similar difficulties. On Friday he urged the senators to ''adequately meditate'' on the government's request for dispatching a new contingent of peacekeeping troops to Haiti, to replace the one that was sent earlier. This time, the contingent would include 36 carabineros (militarised police), to provide training -- an aspect that has led parliamentarians of the centre-left governing Coalition for Democracy to add their voices to criticism from the right-wing opposition parties.

Meanwhile, in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, the arguments against participating in the peacekeeping mission did not deter a broad majority from voting in favour of sending troops, and a similar outcome is expected in the Senate. Brazil is seeking to ''exercise influence in an area outside of its competence,'' by taking upon itself duties that should fall to other countries, argued Pannunzio, who sits on the foreign relations and national defence commissions in the lower house of Congress.

Lawmaker Fernando Gabeira, who left the governing Workers' Party last year, accused the government of submitting to the interests of the ''industrialised powers of the North'' with a view to gaining a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. But the foreign minister said Brazilian diplomacy, especially under the Lula administration, has provided more than enough demonstrations of its independence. However, Amorim conceded that active participation in helping resolve international problems ensures Brazil greater legitimacy when it comes to influencing decision-making within the sphere of the United Nations.

The peacekeeping mission is aimed at preventing ''a bloodbath'' and ''total chaos'' in Haiti, said the minister, who argued that it is a humanitarian mission and a responsibility that Brazil cannot evade. Sending troops abroad, despite the risks they will face in Haiti, is ''positive'' and in line with Brazil's tradition of contributing to peacekeeping efforts, Clovis Brigagao, director of the Centre of American Studies at a private university in Rio de Janeiro, said in an interview with IPS.

Besides strengthening Brazil's candidacy for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, it serves as ''good training, and 'internationalises' the military spirit that in the past acted against the internal enemy'' -- leftist political leaders and activists -- said the expert in international relations, alluding to the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. With regards to the ''policing role'' and the possible dispatch of police officers by Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, Brigagao noted that today's new peacekeeping missions are ''multi-dimensional'', with a mix of military, police, judicial and social agents.

Note: Darí­o Montero in Uruguay and Marcela Valente in Argentina provided additional reporting.