MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Haiti UN mission chief meets troop contributors

The troops from several Latin American troops have made history by uniting in a mission to assist a country in the region, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti told a two-day seminar of troop contributing countries in Chile.

Addressing the Santiago seminar entitled "Chile, regional security and the future of Haiti," UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) chief Juan Gabriel Valdés, a former Chilean ambassador, stressed "the importance and the historical value of the joint presence of Latin American armies in a peacekeeping mission to aid a country in the same region."

Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza and MUNISTAH Force Commander General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira joined the Foreign Affairs and Defence deputy ministers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay at the meeting. The deputy ministers re-affirmed their commitment to the mission said the efforts now being made should be maintained.

Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker, however, said the efforts to stabilize Haiti after civil strife have been positive but inadequate. "To arrive at a more significant success in Haiti needs additional efforts, as well as greater financial and human resources," he said.

After an insurgency that forced elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to go into exile in February 2004, MINUSTAH has spent more than a year trying to re-establish order in the Caribbean country. In early regional cooperation, Haiti responded to an 1815 appeal from South American "Liberator" Simon Bolivar by donating supplies and men for the independence struggle that freed Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.