The  Unit­ed Na­tions As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al for Eu­rope, Cen­tral Asia and the Amer­i­c­as, Miroslav Jenča, has end­ed a vis­it to Haiti re­it­er­at­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to re­store peace and se­cu­ri­ty in the French-speak­ing Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) coun­try.

Jenča met with the Pres­i­dent of the Tran­si­tion­al Pres­i­den­tial Coun­cil (PTC), Edgard Leblanc Fils, as well as with Prime Min­is­ter Gar­ry Conille, and oth­er se­nior of­fi­cials, dis­cussing ef­forts through the Unit­ed Na­tions In­te­grat­ed Of­fice in Haiti (BIN­UH), to ac­com­pa­ny Haiti’s path to re­store se­cu­ri­ty, de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions, sta­bil­i­ty, and de­vel­op­ment.

He al­so met rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Hait­ian Na­tion­al Po­lice (HNP), the Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port mis­sion (MSS), civ­il so­ci­ety and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of var­i­ous in­sti­tu­tions and po­lit­i­cal par­ties, among oth­ers.

“All of those he met em­pha­sized that se­cu­ri­ty re­mains the biggest chal­lenge. While some suc­cess has been achieved in an­ti-gang op­er­a­tions con­duct­ed by the Hait­ian po­lice with the sup­port of the Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port mis­sion in Port au Prince, it is im­per­a­tive for the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to ur­gent­ly and sub­stan­tial­ly in­crease its sup­port for the MSS as well as the Hait­ian na­tion­al po­lice,”  said Stéphane Du­jar­ric, the spokesper­son for the UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al.

“This is fun­da­men­tal to im­prove se­cu­ri­ty and al­low progress on the po­lit­i­cal track and in de­vel­op­ment,” Du­jar­ric said, adding that Jenča agreed with in­ter­locu­tors on the crit­i­cal im­por­tance of the ex­pe­di­tious ap­point­ment of the Pro­vi­sion­al Elec­toral Coun­cil.

The Unit­ed Na­tions will con­tin­ue to sup­port the gov­ern­ment in plan­ning and ex­e­cut­ing a cred­i­ble and fair elec­toral process.

“Jenča al­so trav­elled to the north­ern city of Cap-Haï­tien, where the peo­ple he met there ex­pressed con­cern that se­cu­ri­ty op­er­a­tions in Port-au-Prince may lead to a spread of gang vi­o­lence to oth­er re­gions. They echoed calls to fur­ther strength­en the Hait­ian na­tion­al po­lice to pro­vide ef­fec­tive se­cu­ri­ty across Haiti,” Du­jar­ric said.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti,  Sept 12, CMC

CMC/al/ir/2024