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UN peacekeeper death toll in Haiti could be highest ever
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 13 - 01 - 2010


The death toll among United Nations peacekeepers
in Haiti in a massive earthquake could be the largest number ever
killed during a mission by the international body once formal
casualty figures are established, according to dpa.
The mission chief, Hedi Annabi, his deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa,
and at least another 100 UN personnel were unaccounted for Wednesday,
a day after an earthquake with magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale
struck the impoverished Caribbean nation.
UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Alain LeRoy said in New
York that the UN still had no information about the fate of those
unaccounted for.
"It"s a profound concern for us," LeRoy said.
The UN stabilization mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym
MINUSTAH, is housed in a five-storey concrete building in the Haiti
capital Port-au-Prince. The building is across the street from the
Christopher Hotel, a major residence for UN staff, which sits atop a
fault line.
Both of the buildings, which are among the strongest and most
important structures in the capital, were destroyed.
Some 3,000 UN peacekeepers have been assisting in rescue efforts
in and around Port-au-Prince since the earthquake and some 25
aftershocks struck.
UN peacekeepers die in mission around the world each year, but the
death toll in Haiti could easily top all those killed in the past.
MINUSTAH has slightly over 7,000 military troops, most of them
from Brazil, and 2,000 police sent by scores of countries to Haiti to
train the country"s police force.
At least four Brazilian soldiers were killed in the tremblor and
the death toll could climb, the military said in Brasilia.
MINUSTAH was involved in building democratic institutions in
Haiti, and repairing Haiti"s infrastructure after the country was hit
by four consecutive hurricane and tropical storms in 2008. The
natural disasters destroyed most of Haiti"s agricultural lands and
swaths of properties.
The mission"s stabilization mandate has been to assist the
government of President Rene Preval build a police force to meet
security challenges.
In a progress report issued late last year, UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon said Haiti, after five years of the stabilization
process, has moved "away from a past of conflict towards a brighter
future of peaceful development."
But he warned that progress made so far remained "extremely
fragile, and is susceptible to setbacks or reversal."
A majority of Haiti"s 9 million people still live in poverty and
the country depends heavily on international humanitarian and
development assistance.


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