HAITI
Human Rights monitoring and promotion: Tools in institution-building
It is never easy to get police officers to talk about the beating of detainees and other forms of abuses. It can be even tougher when you are a human rights observer in Haiti, and many members of Haiti's newly created civilian police force suspect that you are just out to make life difficult for them or get them fired for violating human rights.

So the UN-OAS International Civilian Mission to Haiti, also known as MICIVIH, has pushed hard this year to overcome these suspicions and develop a more open dialogue with units of the Haitian National Police about human rights abuses as part of the effort to make the police more professional.

Observers at the MICIVIH regional bureau in the city of Gonaves, who monitor respect for human rights in the rice-growing Artibonite province, decided on this approach. They discovered that police in one Artibonite town, under pressure from residents to stop a local wave of violent crime, had rounded up a number of potential informants and made them stand in painfully uncomfortable postures for several hours in an attempt to get information.

The need for such an approach was again apparent after police in the Artibonite's second largest city of Saint-Marc, reacting to the torching of a police sub-station, drove around the city for three days in large groups carrying shot-guns, hauling many of the poorest residents back to the central police station for heavy-handed interrogation. A total of 45 people were detained on one day.

"It was a show-of-force operation," recalls Victoria Forbes Adam, the MICIVIH coordinator in Gonaves. "Some people were beaten to give names."

Forbes Adam, an anthropologist who worked for eight years with Amnesty International, realized that the police had yet to to develop adequate investigative skills or cultivate sufficient links and information sources within the community. The 5,200-member Haitian National Police was first deployed in 1995 after receiving only four months basic training from a small number of international instructors.

For the first time in Haiti, this basic training had included instruction in human rights principles, some of it given by MICIVIH. As a result, as Forbes Adam pointed out, "if you asked them, they could probably tell you about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but they were clearly having difficulty in applying them."

The MICIVIH team in Gonaves decided to organize a series of seminars for the Saint-Marc police and other police detachments in which MICIVIH specialists would develop the practical human rights issues and members of the UN international civilian police in Haiti (CIVPOL), including United States police officers of Haitian origin, would discuss the techniques of police methods that respect human rights.

For the seminars to be successful, Forbes Adam knew she would first need to overcome some of the suspicions about MICIVIH and so she

persuaded Saint-Marc's police commissioner to let observers have a prior meeting with 30 officers of various ranks.

In the course of a frank two-hour discussion in Creole, the Saint-Marc police officers admitted that many of them thought the sole interest of MICIVIH observers was to get them dismissed. The observers were able to dispell this perception by explaining that they monitor human rights for the same reason they organize seminars and training and otherwise share their expertise: to help make the Haitian National Police more professional and respectful of human rights.

As another part of the preparation, the MICIVIH officers worked with CIVPOL to develop case studies based on real incidents that would encourage the police to reflect on their experiences and, in particular, begin to question the deeply ingrained belief that physical force is the only way to win the respect of their local communities.

The seminar that resulted was frank and honest. A Haitian-American CIVPOL from the New York Police Department warned his fellow Haitian officers not to fall into the trap of being tough and nasty to get the job done. A French CIVPOL told them if they ever felt they could not handle a situation, it was not shameful to retreat.

One message was repeated throughout: don't violate rights during interrogation. Not only does the recourse to violence lose you the confidence and cooperation of the general population, essential in a democratic society, but beating a detainee can result in a false confession and the real perpetrator gets off the hook.

"The police were dying to talk," Forbes Adam notes. "We just had to create a space where they felt comfortable and give them experienced field-workers and professionals to talk to and learn from."

IRAQ
UN Observers in a "unique" humanitarian mission:
Under the "Oil-for-Food deal" authorized by the UN Security Council in resolution 986 (1996), Iraq is allowed to sell two billion dollars worth of oil every six months in order to buy urgently needed food, medicines and other essential supplies. The nation is under a seven-year old embargo, imposed by the Security Council after the conflict that erupted over Iraq's takeover of Kuwait. The United Nations programme, one of the most sensitive and complex humanitarian operations, is described by the Secretary-General as "unique" as it is implemented within the context of a sanctions regime.

To verify that every Iraqi citizen gets his/her proper share of the commodities allowed under the Oil-for-Food programme, the United Nations has set up a comprehensive system of checks and balances which became operational in 1997. It calls for the distribution of commodities in the northern part of the country, and the observation that goods are distributed equitably in the 15 central and southern governorates of Iraq. Humanitarian goods arriving in Iraq are followed from the time they arrive in the country to the time they are distributed to beneficiaries, thanks to a computerized tracking system. Some 151 international observers from 40 different countries, with national assistants, are involved in this process.

International observers regularly visit silos and mills where wheat is made into flour. They conduct spot-checks at food retail agents, and interview ordinary citizens in the street. In the medical sector, the observers visit hospitals and clinics to verify stock levels and proper distribution. Specialists from around the world document the quality of the food and the medical supplies distributed. In total, more than 4,000 observations have been conducted in a typical three month period.

The task of the observer involves grueling work days in excessive heat (upwards of 60 degrees Celsius), with many hours on the road to reach the most remote areas of the country, using desolate back routes. On a twenty-kilometre stretch of poorly-maintained asphalt, they passed through three deserted villages where they found only 23 people. On average, each observer travels from 300 to 900 kilometres a day in vehicles needing major repair or replacement following years of mission use. When breakdowns occur, there is little chance of finding immediate possibilities for repairs, due to in part to the distance from the UN workshop in Baghdad and because of the effect of sanctions on availability of spare parts.

Despite the complex political environment surrounding the Oil-for-Food operation, the population is welcoming and friendly to UN observers. According to Edo Korljan of Croatia, "My most memorable experience was when a colleague from the Gambia and myself were served tea and coffee at the edge of desert, in a guest house where all the travellers, pilgrims and Bedouins stop to rest."

Observers leave in pairs from Baghdad on five- or twelve-day missions. They also scour the countryside from three regional bases in Basrah, Mosul and Kirkuk, and travel to villages throughout the 18 governorates of Iraq. In each location, they are immediately surrounded by 30 or 40 people, many children, who often complain about the lack of suitable items for them as part of the rations. They request food, sometimes toys. "You cannot help but feel embarassment and frustration for not being able to provide them with more", says Sikhander Khan (Pakistan) who has worked in other UN missions.

The psychological impact of the work on all observers cannot be underestimated either. Marianne Buschmann (Luxembourg) recalls her sense of helplessness after seeing a woman cradling her new-born baby in agony after a cesarean section operation without painkillers. "I have a professional job to do but this is really one of the times when you want to sit down and cry", she said.

Recent wars have left the country 's infrastructure in an appalling state. Electricity is in short supply, with only a few hours per day in the provinces. The same applies to the telephone system. Sometimes it's impossible to make even a local phone call. "Our work is seriously affected by the lack of communication in a relatively big country. That is sometimes a critical operational and safety issue", said Graham Day (Canada). To offset this problem, the UN is in the process of installing its own VHF communications system.

Ashraf el-Beyoumi (Egypt), head of the observation unit for the World Food Programme, often remarks on the dedication of the 37 international observers and 150 national assistants he supervises. El Beyoumi praised his staff stating, "They work well beyond the call of duty because they are conscious of the distressing living conditions of the Iraqis... And they understand how critical it is for all beneficiaries to receive an improved food ration".

In a report to the Council on 28 November, the Secretary-General reviewed the implementation of this programme during 1997. He recommended that the Council may wish to consider increasing the revenues currently permitted to meet Iraq's priority humanitarian requirements and to extend the operation for six months.

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