PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – A U.N. Security Council delegation arrived in Haiti yesterday for a four-day visit to Haiti to assess security needs before a decision over reducing the 10,500-member peacekeeping force.
There has been mounting public unease over the U.N. role in Haiti after recent allegations of rape involving Pakistani soldiers, on top of anger over a deadly cholera epidemic in 2010 linked to the peacekeeping force, known as MINUSTAH.
The 15 council members will travel to the cities of Miragoane, Leogane and Cap-Haitien, as well as visiting parliament, earthquake resettlement camps and a police training academy. They are also expected to meet with President Michel Martelly.
Martelly has proposed replacing the peacekeeping force with a reconstituted Haitian army, which was disbanded in 1995 after a brutal period of military rule. U.N. peacekeepers were sent to Haiti in 2004 after an armed uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled into exile but has since returned.
The U.N. peacekeepers had played a crucial role in Haiti and will continue to do so for some time to come, said Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who is leading the Security Council delegation. Rice recognized the controversy surrounding the U.N. troops, though she did not address the proposal to create a new army, focusing instead on the need for better policing.
“While we are clear-eyed about some of the recent tensions and issues, the men and women of MINUSTAH will continue to play an important supporting role in strengthening the Haitian National Police and Haiti’s other critical rule of law institutions,” she said.
Many international experts argue that reviving the Haitian army would be a dangerous and costly move which the cash-strapped nation cannot afford.