UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon said he would recommend peacekeepers stay in Haiti for at least another year and urged world donors to redouble efforts to ensure the impoverished nation does not backslide into chaos.
In his first visit to the country on Wednesday, Ban credited an 8,800-strong peacekeeping force, known as Minustah, with restoring security following a violent 2004 revolt but said Haitian President Rene Preval still needed help bringing jobs and development to the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.
"The international community must not step aside and let spoilers jeopardize Haiti's progress," Ban told reporters during a joint news conference with Preval at Haiti's National Palace.
The UN force was deployed to Haiti after a revolt toppled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and plunged the former French colony of 8 million people into crisis. Backed by Preval, peacekeepers this year concluded a fierce crackdown on armed gangs that has led to a dramatic reduction in violence in Port-au-Prince's vast, fetid slums.
But Ban said the situation was fragile and that he would ask the UN Security Council to extend the mandate for another 12 months when it expires in October.
Preval said he supported keeping UN troops in the country for now and urged his countrymen not to oppose the force out of nationalism.
"The population has benefited from the presence of Minustah," Preval said. "What is good for the country is for the UN to help us reinforce our police and our security. As time goes on, we'll evaluate what form this assistance should take and how long it should last."
Ban praised Preval for taking a stand against corruption and seeking much-needed reforms to the police, judiciary and prison system. He is expected to ask the Security Council for more specialized forces such as naval units to help the Caribbean country guard its coastline from weapons and drug traffickers.
Despite the improved security, UN officials said gangs, drug trafficking and poverty were still a threat to the country and that peacekeepers would be needed at least until Preval's term ends in 2011.
UN peacekeepers provide 85 percent of Haiti's security needs, but the government is working to eventually take over. The national police academy is preparing hundreds of recruits to bolster the nation's 6,000-police force.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not