Haiti says it supports UN peacekeeping mission to fight country’s violent gangs

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The president of Haiti's transitional presidential council announced Thursday that he supports a United Nations peacekeeping mission to fight gang violence still overwhelming authorities.

It was the first public support announced by a Haitian government official since the US proposed a UN peacekeeping mission earlier this month as one way to secure more resources for a UN-backed mission led by Kenya that officials say lacks personnel and funding.

“I am convinced that this change of status, whilst recognising the errors of the past cannot be repeated, would guarantee the full success of the mission,” Edgard Leblanc Fils, council president, said at the UN General Assembly.

On Wednesday, Fils met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others to talk about the state of the mission, which began when the first contingent of Kenyan police arrived in Haiti in late June.

Nearly 400 Kenyan officers are now in Haiti, joined by nearly two dozen police officers and soldiers from Jamaica. The officers fall significantly short of the 2,500 pledged by various countries, including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados for the mission.

The mandate of the current mission expires soon and must be renewed by October 2.

“We would like to see a thought being given to transforming the security support mission into a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the UN” Leblanc said.

A senior US State Department official said Wednesday that the US and some of its partners would like to make changes to the mandate to lay out a path “to become a more traditional peacekeeping operation,” but the Russians and Chinese, who supported the initial mandate, have expressed concerns about doing that.

The UN Security Council would ultimately have to vote on a peacekeeping mission, and experts have said it's unlikely it would support one. They have noted many Haitians would likely balk at it given the introduction of cholera and sexual abuse cases that occurred when UN troops were last in Haiti.

Since the early 1900s, there have been at least three major foreign military interventions in Haiti led by the United States and the United Nations.

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