Security and Defense Studies Review 2010 Fall ... - Offnews.info

The contribution of Chilean troops in forming a UN force of peace enforcement in Haiti was ahistoric event for its people, not only because of the amount of military personnel deployed and itsshort time of response to a distance of 6.000 kms. from the national territory, but also for its politicalprojection. It was certainly the most important combined effort in the regional in favor of peaceoperations carried out jointly by both military and civil forces.The UN mandate for 2004 MIFH established that Chile should react within a short period todeploy its troops, a situation that although it demanded great effort, served to test the rapid deploymentcapabilities of its Standby Forces, its joint planning capability, and most importantly, the trainingquality given by the Chilean Joint Training Center for Peace Operations (CECOPAC) 9 .In relation to the international cooperation, the Chilean agenda for Haiti is based in three mainpillars 10 :1. Primary education focused on creating educational experimental centers for earlychildhood.2. Food safety and agriculture promotion directed to local and rural development andincluding agro-ecological training.3. Formation of human resources in Chile mainly directed to the Haitian police and thegranting of scholarships in higher education.After five years of MINUSTAH’s work, the achievements of the peace process in Haiti have beenpromising. However, in order to continue this progress, the assessment has shown that more effortsare needed in the socio-economic sphere to reconcile them with the peace dividend achieved so far.Chile’s challenge will continue to be the search for new mechanisms that consolidate these effortsin order to be able to generate contributions that offer real solutions to the current problems Haiti andthe international community face in the field after the January, 2010, earthquake.Nowadays, the reality that MINUSTAH confrontss is that military forces—apart from developingtheir specific taskss of peacekeeping, security and cooperation with NGOs—have also contributedto other types of activities belonging more to the civilian domain, such as humanitarian operations,relief support and reconstruction. These tasks, being beyond the military’s specific mission, show theneed to give a more integral sense to MINUSTAH.For example, until now Chilean participation in peace operations has been focused on forcedeployment in support of security tasks in accordance with the classic use of peace forces. Thishas resulted in broad experience in coping with complex conflict scenarios, new joint capabilities,and interoperability. However, as previously mentioned, Chile’s forces are becoming increasinglyinvolved in civilian tasks.Whatever the perspective, it is evident that an effective action in this regard requires the activeparticipation of the contributing countries that goes beyond the military and social spheres, andfocuses on the activities of civilian sectors into achieve the reconstruction and development of theaffected nation. For example, from an economic perspective, the UN international system as a wholecould became a market demanding goods and services for peace operations of about eight billiondollars annually. 119CECOPAC. Centro Conjunto para Operaciones de Paz de Chile. (Chilean Joint Training Center for Peace Operations) www.cecopac.cl. Created2001 for civilians, military and police.10Agencia de Cooperación Internacional de Chile. (Chilean International Cooperation Agency) AGCI. Cooperación Internacional otorgada por ChilePeríodo 2006-2009: http://www.agci.cl/cooperacion-internacional/apuntes-destacados/estadisticas/cooperacion-otorgada/11United Nations. (2009). Public Information Department , Rev.98 (1634).124Security and Defense Studies Review 2010 Fall-Winter Issue / Edicíón Otoño-Invierno 2010 / Edicão Outono-Inverno 2010 / Volume 11