PRESS BRIEFING - UNITED NATIONS IN HAITI - THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
By Sylvie van den Wildenberg, spokesperson of the Mission and Jean-Francois Vezina, Spokesperson of the United Nations Police (UNPOL)
Sylvie van den Wildenberg, SPOKESMAN FOR THE MINUSTAH
Hello to you all and thank you for being with us today for this weekly news conference. I welcome the listeners of Radio MINUSTAH who follow us live. In the contents of this press conference, we will particularly make a point about crime control operations of the Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH) backed by UN peacekeepers and UN police, which continue in Red areas of Port au Prince, and more broadly situate the overall concept of anti-crime efforts, which do not involve the capital.
Our spokesman for the United Nations Police (UNPOL), Jean-Francois Vezina, although you have already bid farewell last week, is still with us for a few days and therefore, is with us this Thursday, and he will give you the full details on these issues.
Before giving the floor, I would like to briefly mention the visit of the Secretary General's Special Representative, Edmond Mulet to the Dominican Republic, on Tuesday and Wednesday 12 and April 13, 2011. As you know, MINUSTAH has an office in Santo Domingo. The Special Representative from time to time makes visits to this office, and also courtesy calls to the authorities of the host country, the Dominican authorities. The visit that Mr. Mulet conducted Tuesday and Wednesday, is part of such courtesy. During the visit, Mr. Mulet has had the honor of being received by the President of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Leonel Fernandez. During their meeting, the President of the Dominican Republic and the Special Representative have discussed the efforts of the Mission in Haiti, the challenges before the new Haitian government and the support the United Nations are preparing to give the new government to meet these challenges. They also discussed the contributions of the Dominican Republic in terms of humanitarian aid and also the terms of reconstruction in Haiti. Note that the Foreign Minister also attended the meeting. Here, briefly, is what the visit of the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN in Haiti entailed. I now give the floor to my colleague, the police spokesman UNPOL regarding operations against crime in progress.
Speech by Jean-Francois Vezina, SPOKESMAN FOR THE UNITED NATIONS POLICE
Today, I think it is important to revisit the rationale for the presence of the UNPOL component, the United Nations Police, in MINUSTAH: It is, above all, in support of HNP, ensuring our presence in partnership with the military component of the Mission a secure and stable environment; that is to say, which offers the opportunity to all Haitians, men, women and children, the possibility to go about their daily business with the feeling of being safe. This is to ensure that children can play outside the "kay"(house); without fearing for their own safety, which is, in fact, working to improve an aspect of the quality of life for citizens, or the feeling of security.
In addition, our participation in MINUSTAH also aims to mentoring / coaching, logistical and operational forces of the Haiti National Police.
Maybe at this moment, you wonder about the message we want to leave this morning. In fact, I want today to discuss two operations held on 8 and 9 April.
The first operation is an operation called "sweeps" (Sweep), which took place at Camp Jean-Marie Vincent on April 8 between 16 and 17 hours. This operation was conducted following a request for support from the DIROPS UNPOL Divisional Commissioner of the Office of Delmas 33 in search of rampant gang members inside the camp. The operation was jointly conducted by the HNP / UNPOL, the FPU and military force of MINUSTAH. 153 personnel were involved - 41 HNP (Delmas 33), 40 military, 30 FPU + 42 UNPOL
Results: 150 people checked, 10 detainees suspected of being associated with a gang active in the camp JMV. According to reports which reached me during the operation, the camp residents have welcomed the arrests by applause.
The second operation was also a search operation held in Cite de Dieu (City of God), Portail Leogane, on April 9, between 6am and 9.30am.
This operation was conducted at the request of the Assistant Commissioner/ Commissioner Portail Leogane to apprehend members of a criminal group active in this sector of the capital. It was a joint HNP / / UNPOL / Military Force to MINUSTAH.
Over 200 people were involved in the action: 160 personnel, 16 UNPOL, 35 HNP (Haitian National Police and SWAT teams two UNPOL attended)
Result: 8 people arrested who are also members or closely related to a very active and dangerous gang (according to our information, one of the suspects is linked to the murder of an officer of the HNP). HNP are investigating the matter. During this operation, we also seized a submachine gun (Uzi), nearly 100 9mm cartridge, 2 cartridges 5.56 mm, 5 chargers, two 9mm high capacity and 4 cell phones.
At first glance, these two operations may seem trivial, yet they are far from it. They are exactly the same as the text of various resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations asking us to provide operational support to the Haitian National Police. Resolution 1542 is clear on this. By the same support, the Security Council also expects us to provide adequate protection for civilians. We are faced with the risk of resurgence of gang violence and organized crime, paying particular attention to the needs of the displaced.
This morning, our message to groups of criminals who try to destabilize the Haitian people by their illicit activities is simple:
Our rationale on Haitian soil, United Nations police officers from 49 nationalities, is currently and will in the future work tirelessly and with determination to the professionalization, development of organizational and operational capacity as well as mentoring Police Nationale d'Haiti, a young police organization that continues to grow since its inception in 1995. We will continue to support the authorities of the HNP to participate alongside them in search of escaped criminals, by participation in operations throughout the country, but particularly inside the capital.
Obviously, the participation, involvement of the entire Haitian population in the continuous improvement of their safety is paramount. Even today, we ask their support in contacting us with any information of a criminal nature that could help the HNP in the success of their operations and in the quest and the continuous improvement of their own security.
Emergency lines 113 to connect to the UNPOL component and 114 to reach the HNP are still being used. I remember that line 113 is a free information line and that any information transmitted remains confidential.
Questions & Answers
Q (Vision 2000): I have three questions: first, I have an idea of the meeting between Mr Mulet and President Fernandez. Second, where are we with the investigation of the Cholera epidemic? Third: what is the reaction of MINUSTAH to the speech of President Rene Preval, where he recently asked to rethink the UN mission in Haiti.
A: Sylvie van den Wildenberg (MINUSTAH): As I explained at the beginning of the press conference, the visit is part of visits that the Special Representative performs in the Dominican Republic where we have a liaison office MINUSTAH in the capital. It also forms part of the courtesy that Mulet performs occasionally with the authorities of the host country for our liaison office, mostly administrative, and neighboring Haiti, where we have our Mission. Mr. Mulet was particularly welcomed by the President of the Republic, Leonel Fernandez, and had a conversation with him for about an hour, in which also participated the Minister of Foreign Affairs. They discussed two main topics, the first being the efforts of the Mission in Haiti, an update on the work of the mission in Haiti, the challenges of the future, but also on the contribution of the Dominican Republic for humanitarian efforts and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. Since Mr. Mulet is the Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, it is sometimes also important that the Secretary General Ambassador to the Dominican Republic make a connection between it and the Government of the Dominican Republic on bringing this country up to date on United Nations efforts and others in favor of Haiti.
Regarding your second question, the independent experts' report on the origin of cholera, I have not updated this since last week: Like you, we await the publication of the report. The group of experts, as you know is a group of independent experts appointed at the request of the Secretary General of the United Nations, and the object of this work was to attempt to determine the source of the cholera epidemic in Haiti. Like you, we await the findings of this report and, I repeat once again, transparently.
Third question: What is the reaction of MINUSTAH to the speech of President Rene Preval, where he recently asked to rethink the UN mission in Haiti? MINUSTAH has no particular comment to make on a speech that was made by the Haitian head of state during an open debate before the Security Council. What I want to remind here is the running of a MINUSTAH mandate conferred on it by the Security Council. We are the incarnation of a Security Council resolution that was decided by Council members. When the resolution changes, and the Council fits our new mandate, we run this new mandate. It belongs to the Security Council to review our mandate and we adapt ourselves to this new mandate.
Q: (MINUSTAH FM): Mr Vezina, you mentioned search operations, you said you were looking for gang leaders. More than twenty people were arrested, they are associated with gangs. Are they gang leaders or gang members?
Jean Francois Vezina (UNPOL): In one of the operations, there was talk of a gang leader. Unfortunately I did not name the person but the authorities at the national police of Haiti, could provide you with this information. The information we have reported following these actions was that in the second operation, in City of God, eight individuals closely linked to a gang had been arrested that had plagued this sector. Among these eight individuals, there was a leader. Is it the supreme leader of the group? I can not tell you ... But it is a very influential leader of the group.
VISION 2000: Will you tell us what are the reports of MINUSTAH in the future government of Haiti?
Sylvie van den Wildenberg (MINUSTAH): We hope they will be excellent, of course. We have already had contact with the future President and his team, we hope that these relations will be very harmonious. We are ready to support this new government, and anyway, as you know, we are here at the invitation of the Haitian authorities. We hope that our relations with the next government will be very smooth and we are confident that this will happen.
Vision 200: What does MINUSTAH have to say about the postponement of the publication of final election results?
Sylvie van den Wildenberg (MINUSTAH):It is a sovereign decision of the electoral authority in the Haitian Provisional Electoral Council (CEP). To my knowledge, the PEC has not yet released a press release announcing a possible postponement. For now, there is just information floating around, and I refer you to the Provisional Electoral Council, which is the relevant institution to whom it belongs to officially announce the results or to formally comment on a publication date. Thank you very much.
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