Security tightened along Haiti, Dominican Republic border

Following plans by the United Nations to withdraw is peacekeeping force, MINUSTAH, from Haiti, security along the border with the Dominican Republic has been tightened.

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Dominican Defence Minister Rubén Darío Paulino revealed that the number of Dominican troops will be gradually increased all along 391-kilometre border.

“On November 7, they’ll be withdrawn (UN peacekeepers) entirely. We as armed forces will deploy the necessary equipment of both the Army and Border Security to strengthen our border. We are in sufficient capacity to do so,” he said.

The move follows a warning from National Investigations Department (DNI) director Siegfried Pared that the withdrawal of MINUSTAH troops from Haiti would require increased surveillance along the border.

Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission, Sandra Honoré, advised last week that the mission will cease operations in Haiti within six months.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council, Honoré said that the progress achieved during the past 13 years in Haiti’s stabilisation process is notable and it “is therefore timely to reshape the partnership among the international community, the United Nations and Haiti with a view to ensuring the sustainability of this progress.”

The UN mission was established in June 2004 by a UN Security Council resolution, and succeeded a Multinational Interim Force (MIF) after then Haitian President Bertrand Aristide was exiled following an armed conflict that spread to several areas nationwide.

In January 2010, the UN Security Council endorsed the secretary-general’s recommendation to increase the overall force levels of MINUSTAH to support the recovery, reconstruction and stability efforts in the country in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

After presidential elections in 2011, MINUSTAH worked to fulfil its original mandate to restore a secure and stable environment, to promote the political process, to strengthen Haiti’s government institutions and rule-of-law-structures, as well as to promote and to protect human rights.