“The best way in my opinion to overcome this reticence (…) is to have a credible political process” in Haiti, Mr. Guterres estimated, referring to the organization of parliamentary and presidential elections in that country.
The Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterreswhich has been calling in vain since last October for an international force to be deployed in Haitiwhere gang activity has turned into gangrene, he described on Monday the “reluctance” of Western countries to take the lead in this operation.
“There is indeed some reluctance on the part of those countries that have the greatest potential to go ahead with an operation of this type, I would call it an intervention rather, because I think it is a police operation,” Mr Guterres said during a news conference in Kingston. , with the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, at his side.
The head of the UN was responding to a question from the Jamaican press about the absence of “significant efforts on the part of countries such as the USA, Canada, France” for “cooperation with the (15) countries of CARICOM”, the Caribbean Community. Jamaica is a member; its government favors intervention in neighboring Haiti.
“The best way in my opinion to overcome this reticence (…) is to have a credible political process” in Haiti, Mr. Guterres estimated, referring to the organization of parliamentary and presidential elections in that country.
But Haiti has been holding elections since 2016. The country’s current prime minister, Ariel Henri, was appointed to the post just 48 hours before the assassination of the country’s last president, Jovenel Moise, in July 2021, and the legalization is in question. Experts consider it impossible to hold elections under the prevailing conditions.
Last Monday, the UN Security Council expressed its “deep concern” over the worsening security and humanitarian situation in Haiti, adding however simply that it “noted” Mr Guterres’ new call for the deployment of a special international armed force – not the UN–, to help the Haitian police restore order.
Six months after Mr. Henry’s appeal for help delivered by Mr. Guterres, no government has shown a willingness to take on the leadership of such a foreign power.
Last month, the UN’s new special envoy for Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, said it might be time for the UN to be “innovative,” that is, to develop an intervention force made up of police, not military.
“I have strongly appealed to the countries that are able to do so because the [κατάσταση στην] Haiti is not only a problem for Haitians, it is a problem for the whole region and more broadly a problem for all of us”, concluded the UN Secretary General.
Source :Skai
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