Mr. Secretary General,
On behalf of the Haitian people, I extend my warmest thanks for your latest report on the situation in Haiti and particularly your intervention before the Security Council on Monday, September 30, 2024, during the meeting in which the Council adopted resolution 2751 extending for a period of one year the mandate of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMAS) in Haiti.
I also want to highlight the leadership of the President of Kenya, His Excellency Mr. William RUTO and also the Governments of the contributing States who have enabled since June 25 the deployment of part of the contingent of this mission in support of the efforts of the Haitian National Police. Since its arrival, several joint operations have been conducted with concrete results. However, I must emphasize that enormous challenges still remain to be overcome to allow the Haitian population to freely go about their business.
On Thursday, September 26, my colleague, Presidential Advisor Edgard Leblanc Fils, in his speech at the general debate of the 79th Session of the General Assembly, explained these challenges and at the same time proposed the transformation of the Multinational Security Support Mission into a UN Peacekeeping Mission, which would allow it to benefit from greater resources and a greater mandate.
Given the urgency of the situation, I have come, Mr Secretary General, to request that the MMAS be transformed into a peacekeeping mission as soon as possible.
I take this opportunity to renew to you, Mr. Secretary General, the assurances of my high consideration.
Leslie VOLTAIRE
President of the Transitional Presidential Council
About Leslie Voltaire's request
Leslie Voltaire’s request for a new UN force for Haiti comes in a context where previous international interventions, notably MINUSTAH, have left deep scars in Haitian collective memory. Although MINUSTAH was deployed with the intention of stabilizing the country, it has been marked by bitter failures, including the introduction of the cholera epidemic in 2010, causing thousands of deaths and a health crisis that could have been avoided. These events have undermined the legitimacy and credibility of UN missions in the country.
For many Haitians, MINUSTAH's legacy is synonymous with chaos. Voltaire does not have popular mandate. This undermines the legitimacy of his request for a new international intervention mission under the guise of stabilization. The contrast is striking between his words of international diplomacy and the deplorable state of the country, where even symbols of national pride, such as the National Palace, lie in ruins since the 2010 earthquake, without restoration. Voltaire, the first to evoke a “Dessalinian pride,” ignores the realities on the ground, under a flag that flies in front of a dilapidated palace, symbolizing the state of decay of Haitian institutions.
His call for the transformation of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMAS) into a UN peacekeeping mission resonates as another attempt by the political elite to offload national responsibilities onto external forces, despite disastrous historical precedents.
Posted Nov. 7, 2024