HAITIANS have good reason to be suspicious of foreigners claiming to act in their interests. In the 19th century France, the former imperial power, kindly offered to have Parisian banks finance the reparations it demanded in exchange for recognising the country’s independence. The resulting debt drained Haiti’s treasury for decades. A century later the United States generously built up the country’s infrastructure—using virtual slave labour during a brutal military occupation.
海地人足够的理由怀疑外来者声称维护他们的利益的举动的意图。19世纪帝国主义法国，提出让巴黎银行来进行赔款以换取海地的独立。这次的债务几十年来耗尽了海地的国力。100年之后，美国假装慷慨的要重建这个国家，但实际是在残忍的军事掠夺中使用奴隶劳动力。 Today’s foreign do-gooders in Haiti are the 9,000 members of Minustah, the UN’s peacekeeping force. They are surely better-meaning than the interlopers of the past. But the Haitian government has little more influence over them than it did over America’s marines. And in recent years the force has infliced great damage. Its troops have been blamed for starting a cholera epidemic that has claimed 7,000 lives, and have been accused in numerous cases of rape and sexual assault. Its missteps are leading to ever more strident calls for greater accountability for peacekeepers. 今天在海地的外国维和人士是联合国海地稳定特派团的9000名成员，这个组织是联合国维和的力量。他们确实比过去的闯入者友好的多，但是海地政府对他们和对当年的美国军队一样没有影响。在近几年，他们给海地造成了巨大的损失。他的部队被指控引起了霍乱病并由此造成7000多人死亡，在当地进行多起强奸和性骚扰案。他的失足引发了越来越多的对于维和者责任的呼吁。 The latest public-relations volley was launched on April 21st at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. “Baseball in the Time of Cholera”, directed by two foreign-aid workers living in Haiti, weaves together the stories of a teenage athlete who loses his mother to cholera and lawyers suing the UN for negligent sanitation at a Nepali peacekeeping base. The film features plenty of news footage of the base, including sewage pipes flowing into a tributary of Haiti’s largest river. The first cholera cases appeared near the base, and the bacteria—a South Asian strain—quickly spread along the river and its network of canals, which Haitians use for bathing, drinking, irrigating crops and washing clothes. 最近关于公共关系的问题4月21日纽约翠贝卡电影节上一触即发。电影《霍乱时代的棒球运动》，由两名居住在海地的外援工人导演，串讲了两个故事。一个是少年运动员，他的母亲死于霍乱。另一个是律师们控诉联合国维和人员忽视尼泊尔维和基地的卫生。电影取了许多当地的景，包括污水直接排入海地最大河流的支流，第一起霍乱出现在维和基地，南亚的细菌迅速传入河流和纵横交错的运河网，而这河流是海地人们用来洗浴，饮用，灌溉粮食和清洗衣物的。 Since the outbreak began the UN has tried to dodge accusations of responsibility, saying that the source of the disease is unknowable or unimportant. But a series of epidemiological and genome studies have all but established Minustah’s role as fact. Even Bill Clinton, the UN’s own special envoy for Haiti, has acknowledged it. “It was the proximate cause of cholera,” he said last month. “That is, [a Minustah soldier] was carrying the cholera strain. It came from his waste stream into the waterways of Haiti, into the bodies of Haitians.” 自从疾病蔓延，联合国试图躲避责任谴责，声称疾病的来源不可知也不重要。但是一系列流行病学和基因学的研究都指出霍乱就是联海稳定团造成的这一事实。 即便是比尔•克林顿，联合国驻海地特使，也在上个月声称他们最有可能引起了霍乱。就是一个稳定团的士兵得了霍乱，他所携带的病毒由支流进入海地水流，祸害海地民众。 Citing scientific evidence, in November the lawyers featured in the film filed 5,000 complaints to Minustah’s claims office on behalf of cholera victims, seeking at least $250m in damages. The UN’s peacekeeping department says it is studying them. Until now, the claims office has dealt w2ith smaller matters, such as property damage. 电影中引用科学证据，在11月份，律师代表霍乱受害者，收集5000份证词，向联海稳定团提出控诉，并向联合国提出赔偿2亿五千万美元损失费。联合国维和部门说正在研究调查。截至目前，他们只处理了比如财产损失这样的小事。 Minustah’s agreement with the government states that bigger disputes should be handled by a special tribunal. So far, however, none has been set up. Since the force and its troops enjoy immunity from local courts—which most countries demand before offering soldiers to the UN—cholera victims have no other formal legal recourse. As a result, their lawyers are threatening to challenge Minustah’s immunity in the Haitian courts if the UN does not address their claims. That could affect peacekeeping operations worldwide.， 联海稳定团与海地政府达成协议，较大的纠纷由特殊法庭受理。目前为止，并未受理任何纠纷。因为其部队和军队都不受当地政府的管辖¬¬——这是许多国家向联合国派兵的要求——，霍乱病患者就无法寻求正式的法律援助。所以，如果联合国不对此进行赔偿，当地律师决定改变联海稳定团不受本地制裁这一传统。这将对世界维和事业产生重大影响。 Minustah’s reputation has been further tarnished by charges of sexual abuse. Two Pakistani soldiers were accused of raping a 14-year-old boy, and a group of Uruguayan peacekeepers allegedly sexually assaulted an 18-year-old boy and videoed the incident. The justice system has worked somewhat better in these cases—a Pakistani military tribunal convened in Haiti convicted its soldiers last month, and the Uruguayans seem likely to face trial in their home country. But the Pakistanis were sentenced to just one year in prison. A popular song at this year’s Haitian Carnival included a line cautioning young men nearby the peacekeepers to watch their rears. 联海稳定团的声名因为性侵犯的指控而更加狼藉。两个巴基斯坦的士兵被指控强暴一名14岁的男童，一组乌拉圭士兵轮奸一名18岁男童并录了像。对于这些的处理相对而言公平一些。巴基斯坦军事法庭上月在海地召集士兵并宣布那两名士兵有罪，乌拉圭士兵也将回国接受法律的制裁。但是那两名巴基斯坦士兵仅被判刑一年。今年海地狂欢节一首流行的歌曲是警惕靠近维和部队的年轻小伙要谨防被偷看。 Even as Haitians have been outraged by Minustah’s wrongdoing, they have become increasingly doubtful of the benefits it provides. The UN originally deployed the force in 2004 to stabilise the country during the civil unrest that followed the ejection of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a populist former priest, from the presidency. There has been no serious armed conflict in Haiti since 2006—which can be taken as evidence either of Minustah’s effectiveness or of its irrelevance. Even if the troops do contribute to security, critics of the force note that a single year of its $800m budget might be enough to revamp the country’s decrepit water infrastructure. That might well have prevented cholera from spreading in the first place. 海地人民对联海稳定团的罪行深恶痛绝，并质疑他们提供的援助。联合国2004年在海地部署军队，以镇压因为民粹党前主席，阿里斯基德被推翻而引起的混乱。自2006年起，就没有发生过如此严重的军事冲突了，这点既可以说明联海稳定团起了作用，也可以说与之豪不相关。即使部队确实对维护其安全起了一定作用，批评家说每年8亿的支出足够修复国家破旧的水利机构了。这样的话，起初就很可能可以防止霍乱病毒的进入。 Minustah’s footprint in Haiti is getting somewhat lighter. Assuming that 1,600 troops leave by June as scheduled, the force will be cut to 7,400, roughly the same number as before Haiti’s earthquake in January 2010. But further reductions are unlikely in view of the political tumult during the first year of the presidency of Michel Martelly, a former musician. In February his prime minister, Gary Conille, offered to resign after just four months in office, which he spent mainly investigating corruption. Mr Martelly can do little until a successor is confirmed. On April 17th, 50 members of a rogue paramilitary force, claiming to represent a volunteer militia that has occupied an abandoned army barracks, disrupted parliament and forced it out of session. The president himself was abroad, recovering from an embolism. The government is in no position to dictate terms. Only the UN can restore Minustah’s legitimacy. 联海稳定团在海地的步伐放轻了。按规定，1600名士兵在六月份撤离，军队人数会缩减到7400人，这和2010年1月海地地震之前人数大体一致。前音乐家，马特里会执政，可能造成政治混乱，基于此，稳定团不可能进一步缩减军队人数了。在2月，主要负责调查腐败问题的首相科尼尔,在执政4个月后要求辞职。如果没有一个确定的继承者，马特里的工作也无法如期展开。在4月17日，辅助军事部队的50名成员，声称代表志愿民兵组织，占领了废弃的兵营，扰乱议会，使会议无法进行。总统自己在国外治疗血栓。政府无权发号施令。只有联合国可以恢复联海稳定团的合法性。