ACTIVISTS said on Tuesday that the United States is exploiting proxy forces with its proposal to introduce a United Nations resolution for military intervention in Haiti.

The Caribbean nation has been struggling to get to grips with worsening political and economic instability, which has been exacerbated by gang violence.

The US State Department said that it will soon introduce a resolution to the UN security council for a multinational force to help combat gangs in Haiti.

On Saturday the Kenyan government offered to send 1,000 police officers to Haiti to support local police, who have been overwhelmed by the gangs, which dominate much of the country.

The offer has been welcomed by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who has been pushing for months for the security council to authorise a military intervention.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that Mr Guterres “values Kenya’s consideration to possibly lead a non-UN multinational force.”

The US had lobbied Canada to lead a force as French is widely spoken in both Canada and Haiti. But the Canadians have so far refused to get involved.

But many Haitians and their supporters remain opposed to any military intervention due to the disastrous history of past UN and US interventions there.

Haitian civil society groups cite past problems caused by foreign intervention and fears that the international community would be propping up Haitian officials seen as partly responsible for the country’s crises.

Haitians have experienced numerous foreign military interventions in their country, including a US intervention in 1991 aimed at removing a military regime that had overthrown President Jean Bertrand Aristide. 

UN deployments in Haiti have also failed. “Peacekeepers” sent to the country after the devastating 2010 earthquake were linked to an outbreak of cholera that killed more than 10,000 people. And international troops have also been accused of widespread sexual violence.

Activist and journalist Dimitri Lascaris said: “We have seen this scam before. 

“The US government is cynically exploiting proxy forces to impose its will on the Haitian people.”

Ann Garrison of Black Agenda Report said: “If African nations and most of all the African Union spoke out against the pending reinvasion of Haiti, it would be far more difficult for the US to manufacture consent for it.”