Yesterday Thursday, during the question period of the weekly press briefing, of the UN Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (Minustah), Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, spokeswoman for the Mission, gave an update on the will of President Michel Martelly to create a modern army.

"The President-elect Michel Martelly had already mentioned his desire to create a supplementary security force during his campaign. It is a sovereign issue that depends on the Haitian authorities. I will simply recall that the Representative of the Secretary General, Mr. Mulet repeatedly has observed that a single security force in a country was not healthy, when there are many challenges ahead and in the case of Haiti, indeed perhaps that the creation of a supplementary force to the PNH to assist it in all its works to conduct, particularly the civil protection is important. he President-elect Michel Martelly has not yet provided many details on the form that should take this force, is being studied. This could be a civil protection force, or some kind of gendarmerie or something else, but it is the government that will make the choice.

Now, to its request for support of Minustah, we already have contacts with the team of President-elect, who quickly began to prepare the new administration, this issue has already been the subject of preliminary discussions. The United Nations, the Department of maintenance of peace, I must point out, unfortunately have neither the ability nor the means nor the resources nor the mandate to support the creation of security forces. We help - and that's what we do here with the police, to the reform of security forces but, as to create a security force is another thing.

The President Martelly, expressed a demand for technical assistance of the Minustah and I am convinced that the Minsutah will do all it can within its mandate to provide technical support to this thinking, but this support can only be limited because it does not fall within the mandate conferre to us by the Security Council. These are generally matters pertaining to bilateral agreements, with a bilateral agreements perhaps that the Minustah can help make advocacy with donors and support the requests of the elected government for the creation of additional force."

Note that throughout these explanations, the spokeswoman carefully avoided using the word "army" but rather spoken of a "security force" a choice of words far from being innocent, for Minustah.

See also:

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2808-haiti-politic-michel-martelly-wants-to-create-a-modern-army.html

HL/ HaitiLibre / Minustah