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HAITI: General's Death Revives Debate on Brazil's Peacekeeping Role
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 12, 2006 (IPS) - The death of General Urano Bacellar, the head
of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti, which some members of the
military and government officials in Brazil are reluctant to accept was a
suicide, rekindled the debate on the role this South American country should
play in international security operations.
Bacellar was the first casualty of the Brazilian troops forming part of the
U.N.
Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Police experts and U.N. officials have acknowledged that the evidence,
including a shot in the head with Bacellar's own gun, points to suicide
But Brazilian Vice President José Alencar, who is also head of the Defence
Ministry, and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim were the first to express doubts
as to the suicide thesis.
Other doubters pointed out that it is difficult to imagine an officer of
that rank, trained for war over decades, taking his own life. They also
noted testimony from people who said he was calm and acting normal the night
before his Jan. 7 death, and was showing neither signs of depression or
tension.
Bacellar, who replaced Brazilian Lieutenant-General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro
as military commander of MINUSTAH on Aug. 31, had a wife in Brasilia and two
grown children living in the United States.
His reported suicide fed speculation that he was frustrated or sceptical
about the direction taken by the peacekeeping mission, and its results.
It could also affect the image of the country that appointed him as MINUSTAH
chief, and fuel pressure for the withdrawal of Brazilian troops, given the
persistent chaos in Haiti and the impossible mission of getting the country
back on its feet without the financial aid pledged by rich countries.
Since Bacellar's death, leftist lawmakers have reiterated their demand that
the troops be brought home, and even conservative newspapers criticised
Brazil's military presence in the Caribbean island nation, the poorest
country in the hemisphere.
It is necessary to "rethink the mission in Haiti," stated an editorial
Tuesday in the O Estado de Sao Paulo daily, while the Correio Braziliense
newspaper, in Brasilia, wrote that the country had gotten itself into a
"dead-end alley," and that the situation was only getting worse.
The chairman of the Senate foreign relations commission, Saturnino Braga, of
the leftist governing Workers' Party, announced that he would bring up the
issue at the commission's next meeting on Jan. 19.
Brazil cannot withdraw its troops now, but it can demand that the U.N.
ensure better conditions for them in Haiti, said the senator.
But the debate should be expanded to the role that Brazil and the military -
which like the armed forces of most countries have been experiencing an
"existentialist crisis" since the end of the Cold War - are playing in
international security and peacekeeping, said Clovis Brigagao, director of
the Centre of Studies on the Americas at the Cándido Mendes University in
Rio de Janeiro.
Without a clearly defined new role following the disappearance of the
ideological conflicts that divided the world in the past, the armed forces
now use so-called peacekeeping missions to train their troops, update their
equipment and doctrines, become familiar with military forces from other
countries, "build up mutual confidence and trust," and get a better
understanding of international security questions, he told IPS.
The current predominance of internal conflicts, involving new factors like
drug trafficking, terrorism and migration flows, has led to changes in
military needs, structures, tactics and strategies, demanding new knowledge
and concepts.
Peacekeeping missions have helped, but they cannot completely solve the
"identity crisis" facing the armed forces and the need to formulate new
defence policies "backed by a philosophy," said Brigagao.
The only country that is not facing this problem today is the United States,
thanks to its military presence around the world and its clearly defined war
on terrorism and against the "axis of evil", he added.
At the funeral service held for Bacellar on Wednesday in Brasilia, General
Francisco Albuquerque, commander of the Brazilian srmy, declared that his
death had strengthened "our vocation as warriors of peace."
Brazil, which faces no serious external threats, has a tradition of
participating in multilateral missions, which it has done on 27 occasions.
But the current mission in Haiti is different, said Brigagao, because it
does not simply involve "maintaining peace, but actually intervening and
entering the conflict." This has meant greater responsibilities, as well as
greater risks.
The military command of the 13-nation joint U.N. peacekeeping force sent to
Haiti three months after the Feb. 29, 2004 overthrow of President Jean
Bertrand Aristide has been handled from the outset by Brazil, which
initially assigned 1,200 troops to the mission, more than any other country.
The doubling of Jordan's troops in Haiti over recent weeks to 1,600 now
makes it the largest national contingent in the Caribbean nation.
Nevertheless, Brazil has received decisive backing to retain military
command of the mission, and has already proposed two candidates to the U.N.
as potential successors to Bacellar.
MINUSTAH, headed by U.N. special envoy Juan Gabriel Valdés of Chile,
currently encompasses around 9,000 soldiers and police officers, yet is
still unable to maintain peace and security in the troubled nation,
according to independent reports.
Participation in these missions is "a highly useful foreign policy
instrument" for Brazil, because it strengthens relations with allied
countries and projects a favourable image, according to the Brazilian army.
Brazil's role in Haiti has signified "greater international involvement" in
security issues, a crucial step for a country aspiring to a permanent seat
on the U.N. Security Council, commented Brigagao.
Yet it also exposes a shortcoming on Brazil's part, since this international
activity is limited to the military sphere, when it should be accompanied by
"civil society diplomacy" and conflict-management experts who could aid in
prevention and post-conflict reconstruction.
As a result, Brazil's presence in non-military international agencies and
initiatives pales in comparison with that of much smaller countries. One
outstanding exception to this rule was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.
special representative in Iraq who was killed in the bombing of the
organisation's headquarters in Baghdad in 2004, Brigagao remarked.
(END)
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