UN Delegation Concludes Haiti Visit, Focuses on Police Reform

Above: Security Council President Ambassador Kodjo Menan in Haiti (UN Photo/Victoria Hazou)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A United Nations Security Council delegation concluded its visit to Haiti today with a visit to a police academy where the world body is training the Haitian National Police.

The Security Council’s ambassadors also met with displaced persons living in Port-au-Prince’s Carradeux camp, looking at living conditions in the area.

The delegation met Monday with Haitian President Michel Martelly as well this week, discussing issues from Martelly’s proposal for a Haitian Army and certain phrases in MINUSTAH’s mandate.

It met with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille on Tuesday.

MINUSTAH has spent several years working with the Haitian National Police to train its staff and reform its organizational structure. In the UN talks, Martelly expressed his hope that a stronger police force will be able to fill the security vacuum that will be left behind when MINUSTAH eventually leaves the country.

The ambassadors came to Haiti to monitor the country’s progress since the earthquake in areas such as reconstruction and the growth of the economy. On Tuesday, they met with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, himself a former UN official.

They also visited a cholera treatment centre for a briefing on the cholera epidemic which some allege was carried into the country by UN Peacekeepers from Nepal.