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Commission wants improved security | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Haiti's electoral commission has admitted that the violence that has claimed hundreds of lives in the country since last September is impacting negatively on the commission's work. Officials say the unstable climate could delay the presidential election scheduled for November, and have called for urgent steps to be taken to improve the security situation. They are warning of "serious and negative consequences" on the election schedule, if action is not taken to reassure voters that they'll be able to go to the polls to cast their ballots in relative peace. "The climate has to be kept at least at an acceptable level of security," Commission spokesman Patrick Sequiere told BBC Caribbean Radio. Haitian and UN police over the weekend killed a former military commander, Remissainthe Ravix, who helped oust former president Jean Bertrand Aristide but who turned his guns on the interim government. They also killed an allied gang leader, Jean Anthony Rene.
Mr Sequiere said Tuesday it was too early to tell whether that would help establish the peace in Haiti or result in a backlash. He says people in the area who had expected some sort of retaliation have started to "go about their business as usual". Security "If this turns into more security for the Haitian people - something that happen in two days, the question is why did it not happen before" the election commission official asked. But he welcomed the development. "I was particularly scared by how things were turning out. They (armed gunmen) were firing shots not at the (electoral office) building but in front of the building. Everybody working in the office felt threatened by whatever was happening in the streets, the firing of machine guns". Like most Haitians troubled by the continuing instability Patrick Sequiere is hoping for a lasting peace,but it's a hope coloured by some not unexpected scepticism. UN Security Council ambassadors are making a special trip to Haiti this week to review the UN peacekeeping mission in the country. Mr Sequiere told BBC Caribbean Radio he hoped the killing of the two rebels was not just an attempt to impress these UN diplomats but a concrete initiative that would help the commission's work. |
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The climate has to be kept at least at an acceptable level of security
