Haiti: Annan chairs high level panel to help prepare for elections, development

As Haiti prepares for elections in November and December with United Nations help, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the world community to provide necessary aid to help to re-establish order and spur development in the impoverished country, which has been plagued by unrest for many years.

“Countries in all parts of the world, from time to time, face grave challenges that they cannot address on their own. This is such a time for Haiti, and the country's people and leaders have turned to the international community for help,” Mr. Annan told a high-level ministerial meeting at UN Headquarters in New York yesterday, which included interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.

“The United Nations and its partners must not let them down. And we must work alongside them for the long term,” he added at the session of the Core Group, established by the Security Council last year to help the country recover after an insurgency forced elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to go into exile in February 2004.

The group includes Mr. Annan’s Special Representative Juan Gabriel Valdés, who heads the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), MINUSTAH Force Commander and representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), other regional and sub-regional organizations and the international financial institutions (IFIs).

Mr. Annan said it was essential for the Haitian authorities to work closely with the international community to resolve outstanding technical impediments to the elections. “More fundamentally, we must do our utmost to ensure that the elections are inclusive, and that they contribute to reconciliation and stability,” he added.

On promoting security and the rule of law, he noted that MINUSTAH's military and civilian police components, working with the Haitian National Police, “are tackling difficult tasks with courage,” but the emergence of an effective rule-of-law culture will depend upon Haiti's leadership. Provision of technical aid by the Core Group must be linked with the development of appropriate professional standards to ensure that abuses of human rights by those charged with law-enforcement will not be tolerated.

Stressing the need for development, he said: “Haiti will not achieve stability without a concerted attack on poverty and deprivation. This is a long-term project, of course, but people will be especially anxious for concrete progress in the days after a new administration takes office. Assistance from the Core Group can make an important difference.”

MINUSTAH has more than 7,660 uniformed personnel in Haiti, including 6,263 troops and 1,401 civilian police, supported by 423 international civilian personnel, about 443 local civilian staff and 147 UN Volunteers. Its mandate ranges from ensuring a secure and stable environment to helping to organize free and fair elections to promoting human rights.