ARTICLE - ASKING MINUSTAH TO WITHDRAW

ASKING FOR THE WITHDRAWAL OF MINUSTAH
(Haiti Libre) -

Three Nobel Peace prize recipients, led by the Nobel peace prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel from Argentina, hundreds of NGOs, legislators and personalities from more than forty countries sent to the Secretary General a letter released yesterday, in which they requested the withdrawal of international troops from Haiti.

The letter, sent among others to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), José Miguel Insulza, the Head of the Organization of American States (OAS), and to the governments that have troops in Haiti, request the "immediate withdrawal" of troops from the UN Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (Minustah) and that it be replaced by a "solidarity cooperation plan" with the Haitian people, informed Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace prize recipiient in 1980, who was at the head of this action through the NGO he heads; Peace and Justice Service (Servicio de Paz y Justicia - SERPAJ) in association with the organizations Diálogo 2000 and Jubileo Sur. This initiative already has several hundred signatures from more than forty countries of the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.

"The letter is very clear. It states that the Security Council of the UN can not say that Haiti is a threat to world peace. This is absurd. The threat of Haiti is hunger [...] the presence of foreign troops have not improved the situation of the people,... if not exacerbating it by human rights violations" denounced the Nobel Peace recipient.

In an interview with the latino channel TeleSUR, Mr. Esquivel said that Haiti was the scene of "numerous violations against the people" and that Haiti is in great danger ... " from cholera, poverty, the marginalization and exploitation of its people", and adding that "these are the great enemies of humanity and of the Haitian people."

The letter also asks the Security Council of the UN, that after October 15, when the current mandate of Minsutah will be completed, to not extend the mission [with the same terms].

Recall that Ban Ki Moon confirmed Monday, September 19, 2011, to the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, the gradual withdrawal of the Minustah.