At the Summit of Chiefs of Police from around the world gathered at the UN headquarters in New York, to reflect on the future of the UN police components deployed in the UN missions, Michel-Ange Gédéon, the Director General of the Haitian National Police took the opportunity to explain the challenges and weaknesses of the Minujusth police force in Haiti.

While acknowledging the good progress of the transition between Minustah and Minujusth, Gédéon stressed that it was imperative to ensure the provision of adequate means and logistical resources and modern equipment, adapted to the needs.

Stressing in particular the limited number of vehicles available to the police component of Minujusth since its establishment which makes the intervention and support of UNPol officers difficult. Furthermore, he regretted the total absence of helicopters capable of carrying a fully equipped intervention force.

Addressing the experience and skills of foreign police officers on mission, he stressed the importance for the UN police force in its knowledge transfer activity, to remain consistent and to implement consistent and harmonious procedures and standards with the rules in force in Haiti. In addition, he hoped that the UN would deploy more women police officers to Haiti, in order to facilitate relations with populations most exposed to gender-based violence.

Finally, highlighting the problem of the language barrier, he asked the UN to deploy international police officers who speak at least one of Haiti's two official languages (Creole and French).

PI/ HaitiLibre