Security Council condemns violence in Haiti

The members of the Security Council today condemned the ongoing fighting in Haiti and gave their backing to the top United Nations envoy and the UN peacekeeping operation in the Caribbean nation.

Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry of the United Kingdom, which holds the Council's rotating presidency, said the 15 members called on the parties there "to take as much care as they can to respect the rule of law and to refrain from violence."

They also expressed their support, "very strongly," for the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Juan Gabriel Valdés, and the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), "and we hope that things will get better," he added.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has handed out 1,394 tons of food to about 411,400 people since 22 September when a deadly tropical storm left raging floodwaters in the Caribbean nation, MINUSTAH said at a news conference yesterday.

The national office in charge of coordinating disaster relief gave the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne as 1,870 and the number of people reported missing as 884, while 2,620 were injured and 4,628 houses were destroyed. In all, the people who were negatively affected numbered 298,926, MINUSTAH said.