Haiti government asks for international military assistance
On January 16, the Haitian government asked the Interim Assessment Mission (IAM) to help the country recover from the catastrophic earthquake that devastated the country in 2010.
The request has been received, Minister of Public Administration and National Service and Security Minister Jacques Riviere told the press on January 18. The IAM has met the request.
“We have had discussions on what would be the best response in terms of the international assistance that would be given to Haiti as a condition on the mission,” Riviere said.
Riviere added that after the meeting with the IAM, they decided that the request from the Haitian government would be granted. “We also informed the mission that the government of Haiti has decided to request support from the United Nations to recover from the earthquake.”
The request also includes the need for international assistance for the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure and the reconstruction of government buildings.
The IAM began in May 2011 and is supposed to end in January 2012. The deadline is not set, but has been extended three times.
The IAM is a UN mission that has been sending technical assistance teams to Haiti since 2010.
The IAM is composed of the following UN entities: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Secretariat for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
The mission is not a military mission which allows it to bypass the Haitian government, which is responsible for the reconstruction of the destroyed buildings.
To date, the UN humanitarian arm has sent over $1.2 billion of assistance to Haiti, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
While the recovery and reconstruction of Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake are being taken care of by the UN, the UN Security Council has been dealing with the matter of