Haiti

(Quelle: UN News) The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti today opened a new General Headquarters for the capital, Port-au-Prince, after voter registration across the country passed a benchmark of 3 million. The new Headquarters, commanded by a general, aims to ensure that the military component and police component in the area would carry out efficient, better integrated operations, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) said. ... Meanwhile, 310 soldiers out of the extra 750 the Security Council authorized have arrived in the Caribbean country to create a rapid reaction force, especially in and around Port-au-Prince, MINUSTAH said.

(Quelle: AlertNet) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Haiti's interim government, struggling to contain political and criminal violence, to speed up planning for November's elections and urged citizens to get out and vote. In a one-day visit to Haiti on Tuesday under heavy security, Rice met interim President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and expressed concern over planning for the Nov. 20 legislative and presidential poll.

(Quelle: AlertNet) An investigative judge has formally charged Haiti's jailed former prime minister, Yvon Neptune, with masterminding the killings of political opponents last year, radio reports said on Tuesday. Neptune, who served under ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has been held for more than a year on suspicion of involvement in the killings of up to 50 people near St. Marc, about 60 miles (96 km) north of Port-au-Prince, on Feb. 11, 2004.

(Quelle: BBC) Former Presidents Rene Preval and Leslie Manigat, as well as ex-PM Marc Bazin, are among the candidates. … Mr Aristide's Lavalas Family party - which has widespread support, particularly in the capital's poorer neighbourhoods - has threatened to boycott the elections. Earlier this week, it was barred from registering its chosen candidate, Gerard Jean-Juste.

(Quelle: BBC) The party of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been barred from registering a jailed Catholic priest as its presidential candidate. Gerard Jean-Juste was arrested two months ago on suspicion of involvement in the murder of journalist Jacques Roche. He denies the accusations.

(Quelle: Reliefweb) Haitian authorities on Monday changed for the third time this year the dates for the country's first presidential and legislative elections since the ouster of president Jean Bertrand Aristide. The first round of voting will take place November 20 and the second round on January 3, the interim government said. Municipal and local elections will take place December 11, according to the interim government that took over after Aristide fled the country amid an armed uprising in February 2004.

(Quelle: UN News) Venezuela, citing historical ties, has offered to assist Haiti in the areas of energy, education and economic development, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country, Juan Gabriel Valdés, said. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez made the offer in the margins of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Rio Group of Latin American states, focusing on Haiti, last Thursday and Friday in Bariloche, Argentina, he said.

(Quelle: New York Times) Sitting at the gateway of the nation's capital, Cité Soleil is a broiling slum of shacks, dust and ditches filled with human waste. ... Yet, with the first round of national elections now scheduled for Nov. 13, what happens in Cité Soleil is increasingly important to the world beyond its squalor. Not only does it have one of the biggest blocs of potential voters - many of whom back Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the ousted president - but it also can generate the kind of violence that could disrupt those elections. For United Nations peacekeeping forces, bringing some semblance of order to Cité Soleil and giving its residents a chance to vote in the elections are seen as important steps in establishing a new, credible government in Haiti.

(Quelle: UN News) Speaking to reporters in Brasilia, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and chief of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Juan Gabriel Valdés, said: “Previous missions have failed because they pulled out their troops prematurely. MINUSTAH must avoid making the same mistake.” … The international community had to involve itself more deeply for the time necessary, especially in bolstering law enforcement and the judiciary, Mr. Valdés said.

(Quelle: Reliefweb) The party of ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide said on Monday it would boycott elections later this year if a parish priest it views as its likely presidential candidate is not released from jail. Gerald Gilles, a leader of a moderate faction of Haiti's leading opposition party, the Lavalas Family, said Father Gerard Jean-Juste was the most popular figure in the party. Jean-Juste was jailed a month ago by the interim Haitian government in connection with the murder of a journalist.