Haiti

(Quelle: New York Times) … Nine months after taking office, the interim government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue is besieged by mounting criticism from every sector of society. Recent street fighting, some of it involving gangs that supported Mr. Aristide, has claimed an estimated 200 lives and left much of Port-au-Prince's business district deserted. ... Many politicians and experts said in recent interviews that the election scheduled for next November to restore democracy here was in danger of being compromised or canceled.

(Quelle: Reliefweb) Haitian police launched a manhunt on Monday for a former soldier who has called for guerrilla war against the interim government that took over from ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a government official said. Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said Haitian police were seeking Remissainthes Ravix because he had threatened to kill Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and police chief Leon Charles. Ravix is the self-proclaimed leader of renegade former soldiers who have turned against the interim government.

(Quelle: Reliefweb) A Haitian rebel leader has called on ex-soldiers, who helped oust former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to launch a guerrilla war to unseat the interim government that replaced him. … 'We called on former military from across the country to organize a guerrilla warfare to give a response to the government,' said Remissainthes Ravix, the self-proclaimed commander of the former military, which took over the former Aristide compound on Thursday. The stand-off over Aristide's home underlined the violence and tensions plaguing Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, despite the presence of some 6,000 Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping troops and police.

(Quelle: New York Times) United Nations peacekeepers on Friday stormed the home of the former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to evict rebel former soldiers who seized the compound two days ago. No shots were fired, and the rebels agreed to leave peacefully, said Damian Onses-Cardona, a United Nations spokesman. … It was unclear whether the United Nations troops, led by a contingent from Brazil, had arrested the ex-soldiers, who took over the villa on Wednesday and said they planned to use it to train a new army.

(Quelle: BBC) United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti have launched an operation to take control of one of the most violent slums in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of troops moved into the Cite Soleil district by land, sea and air. The UN says they will stay for at least two months before handing control to local police. Cite Soleil is a stronghold of the former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's supporters, and often witnesses factional violence.

(Quelle: UN News) The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti is set to have more than 8,000 troops and police on the ground by the end of this month and will be able to demonstrate to country's people its determination to disarm rogue groups and establish security, the senior UN envoy to the country has said. The problem of security in the Caribbean country could not be resolved by force, but by a making a huge effort to isolate those using violence and disarming them, Juan Gabriel Valdés, the head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), told a news conference on Wednesday.

(Quelle: Reliefweb) The Government of Canada has given a major boost to the Organization of American States' (OAS) efforts in developing Haiti's system to prepare for next year's presidential and other elections. An agreement, signed this afternoon by Acting Secretary General Luigi R. Einaudi and witnessed by Canada's Permanent Representative to the OAS Ambassador Paul Durand, provides Can$5 million to the work of the OAS Special Mission in Haiti, particularly the Organization's Electoral Technical Assistance Project in that country.

(Quelle: BBC) Heavy gunfire has broken out in Haiti's capital near the presidential palace, where US Secretary of State Colin Powell was holding talks at the time. The government blamed supporters of the former President, Jean Bertrand Aristide, for the shooting. UN forces returned fire. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

(Quelle: UN News) The Security Council today renewed for another six months the 8,500-strong United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti after hearing a report from Secretary-General Kofi Annan outlining a deteriorating security situation with a surge of violence in the impoverished Caribbean country. … It stressed the urgency of conducting Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programmes and urged the Transitional Government to establish without delay the National Commission on DDR, in line with Mr. Annan’s call to remove all illegal weapons from the streets.

(Quelle: BBC) Thousands have marched in Haiti's capital to express support for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They called on the international community to include the ousted leader in the search for peace in the violence-stricken Caribbean country. UN peacekeepers watched as protesters stuck to the slum areas of Port-au-Prince, where support for Mr Aristide runs deep. 'There cannot be peace, reconciliation and democracy without Aristide,' a rally organiser told Reuters news agency. On the streets of Port-au-Prince there is a growing sense of frustration with the interim government.