NY. The “forceful use of force” is necessary in a multinational police deployment and resort to military assets to disarm the gangs and restore law and order in Haiti, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) insisted yesterday. Antonio Guterres, before the Security Council in a report seen by Reuters.
Haiti last year requested international help to combat violent gangs that have largely overrun the capital, Port-au-Prince. Guterres suggested in October that countries send a “rapid action force” to support local police.
Last month, the council encouraged countries to provide security support and asked Guterres to report within 30 days on all UN options, including backing a multinational force outside the organization or a possible peacekeeping operation.
Guterres’ report was circulated to the 15-member council yesterday and outlined two possible UN options: provide logistical support to a multinational force and Haitian police and reinforce a United Nations political mission already in place. the country.
“The current context in Haiti is not conducive to peacekeeping,” Guterres wrote, adding that law and order had to be restored, gangs disarmed, strategic facilities and roads secured, and state presence restored. to provide basic services.
UN peacekeepers were deployed to Haiti in 2004 after a rebellion led to the ouster and exile of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The peacekeeping troops left in 2017 and were replaced by UN police, who withdrew in 2019.
Haitians are wary of an armed agency presence. In 2010, UN peacekeepers dumped infected sewage into a river. More than 9 thousand people died from cholera.
