The US government Tuesday, November 19 issued a travel advisory to its citizens in Haiti where gangs have stepped up warfare.
This came even as Russia and China on Wednesday opposed a US-led campaign to transform the force in Haiti into a UN peacekeeping mission.
The US Embassy in Haiti said the advisory followed incidents of armed violence and disruptions at ports and airports.
“Barricades have been put up in many neighbourhoods and normal traffic patterns are disrupted. The suspension of operations at Port-au-Prince International Airport has been extended through November 25.”
“The area around the airport remains unstable and outbreaks of violence near the airport could occur,” the advisory said in part.
The advisory added due to the continued violence throughout the city and near the US Embassy, embassy operations are limited until further notice.
“All appointments for visas and American Citizen Services are cancelled. US citizens who need emergency services should email: [email protected]; you must include your U.S. passport number and a description of the service you require.”
The US embassy warned that travelling to the airport in Port-au-Prince is not safe and the commercial airlines may not have agents at the airport to assist you until regular commercial travel starts back up.
“The security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous. Travel within Haiti is conducted at your own risk. The U.S. government cannot guarantee your safety when travelling to airports, borders, or during any onward travel. You should consider your personal security situation before travelling anywhere in Haiti. Only attempt to depart Haiti or travel within Haiti if you believe it is safe for you to do so.”
Russia and China on Wednesday opposed a U.S.-led campaign to transform the force in Haiti helping police to tackle escalating gang violence into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
The UN estimates the gangs control 85 per cent of the capital and have spread into surrounding areas.
The United States proposed a UN peacekeeping mission in early September as one way to secure regular financing for the U.N.-backed multinational force, which faces a serious funding crisis.
The US tried to get the 15-member UN Security Council to sign off on a draft resolution last week to start the transformation.
But Russia and China refused to discuss the resolution and instead called for Wednesday’s council meeting where they made their opposition clear.
China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang said the council extended the mandate of the multinational force only a month ago, and discussing its transformation to a peacekeeping operation now “will only interfere” and make it harder to tackle its funding shortfall and get all the police pledged to Haiti".
Peacekeepers should only be deployed when there is peace to keep, and there is no peace in Haiti, Geng stressed.
“Deploying a peacekeeping operation at this time is nothing more than putting peacekeepers into the front line of the battles with gangs.”
The multinational force was supposed to have 2,500 international police but the head of the U.N.’s political mission in Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, told the council late last month that only around 430 are deployed — some 400 from Kenya and the rest from the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica.
She said the UN trust fund that finances the multinational force and relies on voluntary contributions, “remains critically under-resourced".
By last week, the trust fund had received $85.3 million of the $96.8 million pledged.
The US agreed to contribute $300 million to the force, but that total is still far below the $600 million cost to deploy a 2,500-strong force for a year.
Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky, expressing “shock and horror” at what’s happening on the streets of Port-au-Prince, accused the US and other countries that initially supported the multinational force of failing to fund it.
“Conditions on the ground in Haiti are not appropriate for UN peacekeepers,” he said.
“Their role is to maintain peace and not to fight crime in urban areas or to save a dysfunctional state that has been plunged into domestic conflict.”
Whatever the future international presence in Haiti, Polyansky said Haitians need urgent assistance immediately which means providing the multinational force with the necessary materiel, funding and technical expertise.
“Otherwise, quite simply, there will be just nobody left to host Haiti’s leaders have asked for a UN peacekeeping force, and the permanent council of the Organization of American States adopted a resolution on Nov. 13 titled “In Support of Haiti’s Request for a United States Peacekeeping Operation".
