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Members of the 15-nation United Nations Security Council arrived Wednesday for their first visit to Haiti, seeking to evaluate the work of UN peacekeepers in the impoverished country more than a year after the ouster of former President Jean-Bertran Aristide.
The visit, the first by the Security Council to the region, was made at the request of Brazil and Argentine, according to news reports reaching Havana from Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. The UN diplomats are trying to gauge the security, human rights, political, economic and social situation in the country.
The one-year-old UN peacekeeping mission will come under close scrutiny during the four-day visit. UN diplomats will try to seek ways to resolve problems faced by the interim government of Haiti, the reports said.
The UN delegation will meet people from all walks of life to acquaint themselves with the actual situation in Haiti. Meanwhile, they will urge rebels to disarm and cease violence in any forms and to hold dialogues to create a favorable environment for the planned elections by the end of the year.
The interim government was put in power after former president Aristide fled in 2004 in the face of an armed rebellion and under pressure from Western powers led by the United States.
More than 600 people have died in clashes among pro- and anti-Aristide street gangs, police, peacekeepers and ex-soldiers who helped oust Aristide.
Some 6,000 UN peacekeeping troops and 1,400 UN police have been deployed in Haiti to help stabilize the situation in the Caribbean country ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for November and December.
(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2005)
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