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Haiti's Security Situation Improving, Says United Nations

12 August 2005

Special representative cites "tangible progress," decrease in crime

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- For the first time since a United Nations multinational peacekeeping force began operations in Haiti in July 2004, a significant improvement has been made in the fight to increase security in the Caribbean nation, according to the world body’s senior official there.

In an August 11 statement, Juan Gabriel Valdés, the U.N.'s special representative in Haiti, said abductions and other criminal acts in the country are decreasing considerably.

"Tangible progress has been made in the fight to increase security," he said.

The representative said that the U.N. mission, known as MINUSTAH, will continue to use "the necessary force that our mandate permits" to defeat criminal elements in Haiti who "understand only the language of violence and weapons."

The United States is providing some of the civilian police and military personnel for the approximately 1,000-person MINUSTAH force working to stabilize Haiti.

The U.N. also reported that over 60 political parties have registered for scheduled elections in Haiti later in 2005.

Haiti's new government is expected to take charge February 7, 2006, said Valdés, adding that the Haitian government's electoral commission has extended the voter registration period in the country by six weeks, until September 15.

"We believe in an inclusive electoral process because it confers a profound legitimacy," Valdés said.  He added that Haiti's political parties had agreed that 30 percent of the candidates fielded in the November and December elections would be women.

The United States is providing $15 million to support the Haitian elections -- part of a $44 million commitment from the international community to promote democracy and stability in the Caribbean nation.  The United States provided $8.7 million in 2004 to support Haiti's electoral process.

MINUSTAH has spent more than a year re-establishing order in Haiti, especially in two shantytowns, Bel Air and Cité Soleil, within Haiti's capital city of Port-au-Prince.

U.N. peacekeepers patrolling Bel Air continued their fight August 10 against kidnapping in the district by finding a man who had been seized the day before.

The U.N. said abductions in Haiti have decreased significantly since mid-July.  The kidnapping victim was the second person found and released in the last 24 hours, the seventh such kidnapping-and-release case in about seven weeks.

In calling for armed groups to lay down their weapons, Valdés said MINUSTAH was prepared to talk with those implicated in violence and offer them the chance to join Haiti's disarmament, demobilization, and re-integration program.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)