Skip to main content

AFP: "Security Council renews mandate of UN force in Haiti"

Source: Agence France-Presse English Wire Date: October 15, 2007

UNITED NATIONS , Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - The Security Council on Monday voted unanimously to renew the mandate of the UN mission in Haiti for one year and urged the force to help the country boost its police capacity in addressing drug and arms trafficking.

The 15-member body passed a resolution renewing the mandate of the force known as MINUSTAH, which expired Monday, until next October 15 and endorsed recommendations that the force be reconfigured to comprise 7,060 troops and a total of 2,091 police.

The resolution called on MINUSTAH to continue helping Haitian authorities to undertake "coordinated deterrent actions to decrease the level of violence."

UN peacekeepers spearheaded a series of raids in the Haitian capital's crime-riven Cite Soleil last December to crack down on armed gangs, subsequently arresting hundreds of gang members and confiscating dozens of their weapons.

Last month, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, in a briefing to the council on his recent trip to Haiti, identified the fight against corruption and narcotics trafficking as key priorities.

The resolution adopted Monday also urged member states, including neighboring and regional states, in coordination with MINUSTAH, to help authorities "address cross-border illicit trafficking of drugs, arms and other illegal activities, and to contribute to strengthening the HNP (Haitian National Police) capacity in these areas."

The council also highlighted the need for the Brazilian-led MINUSTAH to establish patrols along maritime and land border areas in support of border security activities by the Haitian police.

The resolution was sponsored by Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Guatemala, Italy, Panama, Peru and the United States.

MINUSTAH was deployed in the impoverished Caribbean country after then-President Jean Bertrand Aristide fled an uprising in February 2004.

Its main troops contributors are: Brazil, Uruguay, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Nepal, Argentina and Chile.

More than half of the Caribbean island's 8.4 million people live on one dollar a day, according to UN officials.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Widespread Hunger Spurs Riots in Haiti

Violence has again recently struck Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. It started last Friday in Les Cayes, one of the country's more touristic spots and since yesterday in Port-au-Prince. Today, the streets of Les Cayes and Port-au-Prince have been littered with burned tyres and other barricades. Vehicles parked on the road side have been smashed. Petrol stations along the main streets have been ransacked and vandalised. The people have been clamouring against "la vie chère"or the very high cost of living. Eighty percent of the 8.7 million Haitians live in poverty and 54 percent live in abject poverty, according to the CIA's World Factbook. Certain analysts have suggested that the demonstrations resulted mainly from the lack of response from the government concerning this widespread problem. This stance has been taken by the country's business community. The Haiti Chamber of Commerce has reiterated today that it was unfortunate that the governme...
1 comment
Read more

How Aid in Cash, Not Goods, Averted A Famine In Somalia

“ Increasingly, it became clear that a new flow of international aid, cash, and not goods, worked to mitigate the risks of an immediate famine. For now, in spite of acute risks in some parts of the country, Somalia has successfully averted a food crisis,” How Aid in Cash, Not Goods, Averted A Famine In Somalia 08 September - Source: IPS News - 594 Words In February, when the government of Somalia sounded an alarm to the UN about risks of a famine in the country, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), besides quickly shuffling a response team, was acting from a steep sense of history. The Office, instead of sending out massive aid packages, distributed cash vouchers to families who could spend it to buy goods according to their needs. The famine between the years 2010 and 2012, which killed more than a quarter of a million people in the country, offered important lessons to the aid community. This spring, when poor rainfall led to large scale crop failure...
Post a Comment
Read more

Haiti: Deux accidents d ’avion en moins de deux semaines

Ce 11 septembre, un avion de la compagnie aérienne haitienne Caribintair s'est écrasé dans la localité de Source Puante, au nord de Port-au-Prince. Cet accident est le deuxième par cette compagnie en moins de 15 jours, le dernier en date ayant eu lieu le 31 août. Pour suivre les details: http://www.minustah.org/articles/653/1/Deux-accidents-davion-en-moins-de-deux-semaines/11-Septembre-2007.html
Post a Comment
Read more