For the whole night, yesterday, the very loud noise of the blades of military helicopters made the roofs of the shacks in Citè Soleil vibrate. The UNO tanks made their way among the heaps of rubble, dirt, garbage, and the people ran.
What was happening?  The blue helmets of the Minustah, after having received the go-ahead from the Haitian president Renè Preval, decided to take the situation in hand by force. And they started from the Citè Soleil slum, symbol of the fight against the peace force and the Preval government.

A first step. Three hundred thousand people live in what is considered the biggest and most dangerous slum in Haiti. Here, armed men loyal to the former president J.B. Aristides and an arsenal which might be the envy of an army are hidden. And in this forgotten place, where dying is almost a relief because it allows you to leave behind catastrophic situations, the criminal strategies against the blue helmets and the government are defined. However, for the blue helmets (and not only for them) conquering Citè Soleil and re-establishing order would be a first step towards making the whole country normal. And so begin the Minustah and Haitian police joint operations. Operations that are difficult and dangerous, but no-one cares about their consequences (up to now, tens of people have been wounded in armed fights): what is important is to show that the peacekeepers from 35 different countries are there for something. Because it seems that an ultimatum came from the United Nations, leaving the Minustah with no way out: they either solve the problem of the slum where violence and terror dwell, or else it’s back home with them.
But the Minustah leaders and those they report to in New York did not take their adversaries into account, and these latter, once they learned of the impending  military operations, calmly went away, leaving in practice the blue helments to fight against a few unyielding rebels.

Merly an image-building operation. The Minustah needs to show that the task they were called for has been carried out, as Francesco Fantoli, an Italian journalist who has been on the island for many years, says: “The blue helmets need to prove that they have done something. They went into Citè Soleil aiming to capture a building that had been used by the rebels as an outpost to attack them and as a prison for those they kidnapped. But the Uno force (in Haiti since 2004) badly needs to open a post in this slum”. And the reason, as Fantoli explains, is rather unusual. “They must show that they have a building in the heart of the favela, and men and means capable of controlling it. Just to be able to create an ad hoc photographic service to send to New York, to the high echelons of the United Nations, saying “see, we’ve solved the Citè Soleil problem”. They don’t care if the most wanted men in the country go to other districts to organise their affairs. The important thing is to give the image of a shantytown that has been completely cleaned up. And the Uno flag fluttering on top of the conquered building says a lot”.

Will the mission end? The mandate is about to expire. 15th February next Minustah’s mandate will come to an end. Considering the results, there is the fear that it will not be renewed. The Chinese have already made it known that they mean to leave Haiti. Only the United States have confirmed their readiness to remain on the field. But there are many doubts both within Haiti and outside it whether the mandate can be withdrawn, so much so that general Juàn Guzmàn Muret, deputy commander of the Minustah (of Guatemalan nationality), has made it known that things are beginning to move and even those who were initially diffident about continuing the mission, such as China for example, are apparently now changing their minds. So the Minustah won’t be leaving. But if things don’t change, the problems won’t be leaving Haiti either.