April 13, 2005
A more aggressive stance by U.N. peacekeepers in recent weeks has put Haiti on a path to stability, the leader of a Security Council mission to the Caribbean nation said on Wednesday. "The fact that there is a trend toward stabilization is clear in my mind," Brazilian U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Sardenberg told a news conference at the U.N. ambassadors' arrival in the Haitian capital.
The Security Council envoys' top priority during their four-day visit is to press for greater stability as a cornerstone of economic recovery in the impoverished, violence-ridden country, and for the success of presidential elections planned for November. The council diplomats are in Haiti until Saturday to assess the mission's performance and consider changes in the peacekeepers' current mandate when it expires at the end of May.
The challenge they face was driven home as their motorcade traveled around the city to meet with various officials under the protection of dozens of U.N. peacekeepers wearing flak jackets and carrying automatic rifles. The Security Council wants an elected government to take over from the current interim government in February 2006.
The interim government was put in power after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled Haiti in the face of an armed rebellion and under pressure from Western powers led by the United States. Aristide is now in exile in South Africa. In the ensuing 14 months, violence has remained a big problem, with armed gangs and former soldiers roaming the streets, police stations in some small towns occupied by gunmen, and police officers accused of human rights abuses.
At least 650 people have died in Haiti since September, according to human rights organizations. The country's electoral agency warned this week that the instability could delay the November elections. Recently, however, the 6,000-strong peacekeeping operation has taken more robust action against lawlessness, in some cases working in tandem with Haitian police officers in crackdowns on gangs. Two prominent rebel leaders have been killed this month.
Haiti's interim president, Boniface Alexandre, told the visiting Security Council members in an afternoon meeting that he was pleased by the more robust peacekeeper activity, Sardenberg told reporters. While some critics hoped for an even more aggressive stance, the U.N. peacekeepers "do not have a mandate to plunge the country into civil war," Sardenberg quoted Alexandre as telling him.
The U.N. troops had been slow in arriving in Haiti after Aristide's departure, and only since December have they been present in sufficient numbers to strike back at lawlessness, Sardenberg said. Since the peacekeepers stepped up their activity, there has been a consensus on the council, which authorized the mission in the first place after Aristide fled, that "we are on the right path," he said. "We are not receiving any more complaints that (the U.N. peacekeeping force) is not robust enough," he said.
Other council ambassadors on the trip told Reuters they agreed there had been a significant improvement in the mission's recent performance after a period when some had serious concerns about its future. The biggest test lay ahead, in the months running up to the planned elections, said Russian Ambassador Andrei Denisov. "The situation is very hard. There are many problems, but nobody knows what to do," Denisov said.
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