Peacekeeping chief renews UN support for Haiti reforms

The United Nations peacekeeping chief is on a five-day field visit to Haiti, discussing with national and local leaders the Organization’s mission in the impoverished Caribbean country where it has been seeking to promote stability and development since an insurgency in 2004.

“We are here to help the Haitian Government,” Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy said after meeting with local authorities in Fort-Liberté on the country’s north-east coast. “We are going to sustain and increase our assistance so that the Haitian authorities are able to ensure their own customs and security system.”

Mr. Le Roy, who yesterday conferred with President René Préval and Prime Minister Michèle Duvivier Pierre Louis in Port-au-Prince, the capital, reiterated the goal of the UN Mission, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, to help the national Government build a strong state. He also discussed UN support to local authorities on judicial and police reform and human rights.

In Ouanaminthe, on the border with the Dominican Republic, he received an extensive briefing on the management of the frontier, with officials seeking greater UN involvement in the fight against smuggling.

During his tour of the country, which also took him to the western provincial centre of Gonaïves, Mr. Le Roy was accompanied by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Hédi Annabi, UN Police Commissioner Mamadou Mountaga Diallo and MINUSTAH Military Commander General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz.