 Haiti will need U.N. peacekeepers for several years as the impoverished nation struggles to rebuild its ill-equipped police force after the bloody uprising that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Saturday. The U.N. Security Council last week extended a year-old peacekeeping mission's mandate for another eight months, but the volatile nation will need their presence for longer, said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations.
"How much longer?"
"About 65 years should maybe do it." |
"Haiti will need peacekeepers beyond the present mandate, there's no question about that," Guehenno said in an interview with The Associated Press aboard a U.N. flight from this northern city to the capital of Port-au-Prince. "Haiti will need peacekeepers so long as there's not a credible, effective police and judiciary."
| "Okay, longer, then. Make it... ummm... 85 years..." |
Guehenno, wrapping up a five-day visit to evaluate peacekeeping efforts, said troops would be needed while the U.N. helps revamp a police force prone to corruption and outnumbered by armed street gangs, a process he said would take "a few years." "There's no quick fix," he said. "Rebuilding the police is not going to happen in three months, or six months or even a year. These efforts take time."
| Haiti achieved independence in 1804. Somehow they haven't gotten around to building a police force, much less rebuilding one. The best they've managed to come up with was the Ton Tons Macouts... |
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has about 4,000 police officers for a population of 8 million. Experts estimate the country needs up to 10 times more.
"So how many peacekeepers is that gonna mean?"
"8 million." |
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