Police need foreign force to maintain law and order in Haiti: Blinken

San Juan. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the national police of the Caribbean country Haiti needs a foreign force to maintain law and order and deal with the chaotic situation. Blinken’s statement came after top UN officials warned of an increase in insecurity in Haiti and a possible worsening of the situation. The External Affairs Minister made this brief statement on Haiti during his one-day visit to Trinidad and Tobago. The 15-member Caribbean business grouping called CARICOM hosted the three-day summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

The leaders of the Caribbean countries have been meeting regularly to discuss the issue of Haiti. Roosevelt Skerritt, President of CARICOM and Prime Minister of Dominica, said the group supports a Haiti-led solution but also urged US help. In October last year, Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry appealed to the international community to stop the deployment of foreign armed forces in his country. The situation in the country is continuously deteriorating and in view of this, the pressure on the deployment of force is increasing on the international community.

Blinken said a day before a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Haiti that he supports calls for a multinational force to restore security. “We need to pay a lot of attention to this,” he said. Blinken also promised to ask financial institutions to defer loan payments in the event of natural disasters. Blinken also pledged approximately US$5.5 million to help smallholder farmers increase productivity and access technology.

“Every second person in the Caribbean is not financially able to afford a nutritious diet,” he said. The Security Council has so far only approved sanctions against groups perpetrating violence and those who protect . These groups are believed to control 80 percent of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and during this time cases of murder, rape and kidnapping have increased rapidly. Haiti’s national police are short of funds and have 13,000 policemen in a country of more than 10 million. Due to low numbers and lack of resources, the National Police is proving unsuccessful in curbing crimes in the country.

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