International

Le Conseil de sécurité se termine Visite de 4 jours en Haïti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haïti (defend.ht) - L'ambassadeur américain à l'ONU, Susan Rice, a terminé une visite de quatre jours en Haïti jeudi avec 14 membres du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU au cours de laquelle ils ont rencontré des représentants du gouvernement et d'évaluer la sécurité et les conditions humanitaires.

The 15-member delegation, led by Ambassador Susan Rice, of the United Nations Security Council arrived in Haiti on Monday and met with the President of the Republic Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Garry Conille.

President Martelly told the security council delegation that in order to ensure security in Haiti, it would be necessary to create an army and to strengthen the Haitian National Police.

A week earlier, former and aspiring soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army had begun to restore and invest in old army bases, training, even to retrieving arms kept in personal caches. Haitian authorities, the ministry of the interior and senators on the commission of justice and security were forced to intervene and call on men anxious to restore the armed forces to “calm down and return to their homes”.

President Martelly also asked that a line in MINUSTAH’s mandate, characterizing the situation in Haiti as a “threat to the region”, be removed as conditions have changed since the start of the mission in 2004.

According to Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, the Security Council has promised to remove the reference at the renewal of MINUSTAH’s mandate in October.

On Tuesday, the delegation had a meeting with Prime Minister Conille where they assessed the political, economic and humanitarian situation in Haiti as it would affect the mandate of the peacekeeping mission. Also on Tuesday the delegation visited the Haitian parliament where they met with the president’s of both houses, Senator Simon Desras (Centre/Lavni) and Deputy Levaillant Louis-Jeune (Desdunes/Inite).

In a meeting with the Senate Justice and Security Committee, it’s Chairman, Senator Youri Latortue (Artibonite/AAA) said that these meetings were beneficial as they gave an opportunity to look at the problems with the peacekeeping mission. The political, economic and social problems were shared by Senator Latortue who says a plan for retreat should be the new focus of MINUSTAH and it should include reinforcing the national police and giving rise to a new security force.

Ambassador Rice on behalf of the UN Security Council said Haiti’s national police force is the best body for providing security and the government should concentrate on strengthening it. These comments came following a four-day visit by members of the security council.

Ambassador Susan Rice said that the Haitian government and the international community “have invested in building the Haitian National Police as the body that can best provide daily protection for the Haitian people." She said that “the goal has been set to increase it in the next five, three to five years, to another 15,000, 16,000 and perhaps more beyond that.”

But in the press conference, Rice said the U.N. peacekeeping force will remain focused on increasing officer levels of the police, “because that is the institution that exists, that is under way and has the best prospect in the near term of being capable of playing the (security) role."

Senator Latortue profited in their meetings by also reviewing more than 15 cases of rape and abuse by members of the UN stabilization mission and a cholera epidemic that has killed 7,000 since its introduction by a mission base in October 2010.

For Senator Latortue, the UN human rights officials needs to investigate all these matters. The senator is also trying to have the immunity of soldiers involved in the rape of a 14 year old boy in Gonaives lifted so that they may answer to Haitian justices.

The UN Council delegation continued on to a police academy where instructors from the Haitian National Police have been receiving training from UN Police.

Afterwards the Council delegation met with internally displaced persons living in a camp in the capital where they assessed the living conditions and the work done by both peacekeepers and humanitarian staff to help residents.

The council delegation did travel to a cholera treatment centre for a briefing on the cholera epidemic.

Nearing the end of the visit, Ambassador Rice gave a discourse in which she said “we believe that the devastation of the earthquake has created an opportunity after the earthquake to build Haiti back better. On behalf of my colleagues I want to assure the Haitian people and our partners in the Haitian government that the security council and the entire international community stand with you and support you in this effort.”

Ambassador Rice continued to say that “MINUSTAH has played a critical role in improving stability and governance in Haiti and in creating the conditions for security, reconstruction and development, before and after the earthquake, which it too lost over 100 of its own.”

An initial drawdown of peacekeepers in Haiti is expected to take place in June 2012.