UN Chief Asks Security Council to Authorize More Troops, Police for Haiti
Margaret Besheer | Port-au-Prince 18 January 2010
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, just back from a whirlwind tour of earthquake devastated Haiti, has asked the Security Council to boost the U.N. stabilization mission by as many as 3,500 troops and police as soon as possible.
Mr. Ban said the "heartbreaking scenes" he saw Sunday in the Haitian capital compel the United Nations and the international community to act "swiftly and generously" now and over the longer term.
He said most important in the coordination of the massive relief effort is to remove obstacles to reaching those in need and avoid wasting resources.
In order to support the effort better, he has requested the U.N. Security Council temporarily boost the 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers and police. "I recommended that the Security Council raise the number of U.N. police officers in the mission by 1,500, or 67 percent over current levels. I also recommended that the Security Council boost the number of troops by 2,000, a nearly 30 percent increase, for six months."
Mr. Ban's decision exceeded the estimates of senior officials, who said Sunday he would ask only for a total of about 1,250 troops and police.
See a slideshow of Mr. Ban's visit and the destruction he witnessed. Photos by Margaret Besheer
The U.N. Chief was deeply moved by the scenes of devastation he witnessed in Haiti. "The situation is dire and overwhelming. The whole country, the whole city, has been devastated. It is unprecedented. It is one of the largest, most serious natural disasters in recent decades," he said.
The U.N. estimates one-in-three Haitians is in need of assistance following last week's 7.0 earthquake. Haitians have criticized the relief effort, saying they are seeing aid planes arriving, but food and other supplies are not reaching them fast enough and on a wide-enough scale.
Mr. Ban's humanitarian and relief coordinator, John Holmes, said the situation is improving daily. He gave the World Food Program as an example, saying the agency fed about 40,000 people on Saturday and 73,000 by Sunday. "But the aid is scaling up very rapidly. And I am confident we will get to much, much bigger numbers in the next few days," he said.
The U.N. troop and police increase must be voted on in a Security Council resolution.
While the authorization is likely to come soon, getting the peacekeepers to Haiti quickly is another story. Asked how long it might take, Holmes said not to expect to see them turn up "in the next few days."
French Ambassador Gerard Araud said the council would likely vote the increase on Tuesday morning. He said the European Union is among troop contributors who stand ready to send reinforcements.
The United States has also committed more than 10,000 troops to the Haitian relief effort. They are coordinating with the United Nations, but working under their own command.
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