ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: Mr. President, ministers, ambassadors, dear colleagues, welcome to our meeting on Building on Progress to Restore Security in Haiti. I would now offer the floor to Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his opening remarks.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Brian, thank you very much. And good afternoon, colleagues. Very good to be with you today. And thank you for joining us. Thank you also for standing with Haiti, for standing with the Haitian people.
President Leblanc, Prime Minister Conille, thank you very much for your own vision, your leadership, and your resolve on behalf of the Haitian people. To our Kenyan friends in particular, thank you not only for working alongside us, but for working shoulder-to-shoulder with the Haitian people by taking charge of the Multinational Security Support mission.
We're glad that President Ruto could visit Port-au-Prince on his way to New York and see this critical partnership firsthand. And we especially appreciate his announcement that 600 more Kenyan police will deploy to Haiti in the coming weeks.
When we gathered here last year, the situation in Haiti could not have been more urgent.
But no matter how challenging this crisis, we knew that we could not afford to lose our hope or determination. We could not stand by and watch more kidnappings and killing, more sexual violence, more hunger, more suffering.
So we came together to help our Haitian partners, friends, and neighbors in their hour of need.
Thanks to the Haitian-led political transition the Caribbean Community and the United States helped facilitate in March, Haiti has a prime minister, a Transitional Presidential Council, and a cabinet.
Last week, the government named seven of nine members of the Provisional Electoral Council - a critical step toward free and fair elections.
The Multinational Security Support mission - authorized by the Security Council - is providing crucial support to the Haitian National Police as it establishes an essential foundation of security.
Over 380 Kenyan personnel are on the ground in Haiti. In the past several weeks, the first CARICOM contingents arrived - from Jamaica and Belize. We anticipate more personnel from Jamaica - as well as the Bahamas - deploying soon. We've seen dramatic increases in the number of vehicles and equipment for both the MSS and the police.
I want to extend a special thanks to Jamaica for its leadership as the deputy commander of the mission. A number of other partners have also made important contributions - Canada in particular, as well as France, Spain, Türkiye, and Italy.
Already, the HNP and MSS are conducting increasingly sophisticated joint operations and patrols. These operations have strict measures in place to uphold human rights, and ensure accountability for any transgressions.
Greater security has enabled Haitians to slowly return to more normal daily routines. The airport has reopened for commercial flights. Police have retaken the main hospital, where Prime Minister Conille trained as a young doctor. Vendors back on the streets. Along Boulevard Toussaint Louverture, you can see people dancing to the Haitian kompa on the radio.
Earlier this month, I traveled to Port-au-Prince, as Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield did earlier this summer. Immense challenges remain - ongoing violence and displacement, grinding poverty, political infighting. But I also witnessed the many positive forces that are in motion. Today, we have a chance - a chance to build on this foundation of security, to build on this progress, to build on a renewed sense of hope.
The United States is committed to doing our part - both to address immediate needs, and to invest in Haiti's long-term success. We remain the largest contributor of humanitarian aid, including $45 million in additional support that I announced while I was in Haiti. We've already delivered well over $300 million to support the Multinational Security Support mission - armored vehicles, radios, night-vision goggles, drones.
Today, I can announce that we're committing an additional $160 million to support the Haitian National Police, invest in the community violence prevention, and lay the groundwork for Haiti's recovery and stability. I'm also announcing additional sanctions to promote accountability for those who seek to undermine Haiti's institutions and to terrorize its people. I'm here as well to underscore Haiti's call for more support for the MSS - to fund more personnel, more armored vehicles, more drones, more radios, more generators. Each of us must step up, and the time to do that is now.
We must also renew the mission's mandate, which expires in a few short days. And we need to consider how to sustain this mission over the long term - to provide for the predictable funding and deployment of personnel - in a way that has the continued support and trust of the Haitian people.
When I met with the Kenyan commander, Otunga, the head of the multinational mission, he told me, and I quote, "We were deployed here to support our brothers in Haiti. We cannot wait." Neither should we. Haiti's security, its democracy, its future depend on the actions we take together, including the actions we take today. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: And now from Haiti, the President of the Transitional Presidential Council Dr. Edgard Leblanc Fils. Monsieur le Président.
PRESIDENT LEBLANC FILS: (In French.)
(Via interpreter) Mr. Secretary and minister of foreign affairs of Kenya, distinguished representatives of the countries that are friends of Haiti, dear guests, I am particularly happy to participate with you in this meeting this afternoon. I thank you for the particular special attention that you bring to the situation in Haiti.
Haiti is undergoing a multi-dimensional crisis that is political, social, and particularly in matters of security. For the past three years, Haiti has been facing attacks from bandits, armed gangs who occupy 80 percent of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. And a good part of the Department of the West efforts have been made, and progress made since April. After the consensus found with the cooperation of the Caribbean Community on March 11th, we were able to create a Transitional Presidential Council. We chose a prime minister; we have a national government in place.
And despite our differences, we've been able to work to put in place recently a committee - a Provisional Electoral Council. We need only two more to complete that council, and measures have already been taken to create the committee that will ensure the national conference that will help us to reform the constitution that will lead to democratic elections that should take place - that shall take place at the end of 2025, so that at the beginning of the year 2026 we are able to pass power to a democratically-elected government.
This will not be able to be done unless we arrive to deal with the issues of security. Thanks to the international community –and particularly with the support of Kenya, who leads the MMS - efforts have been made in that direction. And indeed, we can hope that we will be able to organize elections in the - to the extent that this mission can be reinforced with funds estimated for its deployment.
Right now, there are about 400 Kenyans and a Jamaican delegation, another coming from Belize to reinforce them. However, we need more equipment, and fortunately, thanks to the promises of President Ruto of Kenya, who visited Haiti this weekend, to increase the number of Kenyans from - to 300 next year and adding 300 more at the end of November. However, we need much more in terms of personnel and also equipment to be able to solve the security problems and allow elections to take place.
We thank the U.S. Government, who to date has greatly contributed to the fund for support of security, but we expect contributions from our friends to allow us to solve problems of security and bring the country back to normal functioning and democracy through elections, as I said earlier, that will take place at the end of next year.
Thank you so much to you all. And after the discussion this afternoon, I hope that we will be able to bring much more details to allow us - to allow you to better appreciate our situation. Thank you. (Applause.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: The honorable Prime Minister of Haiti, Dr. Garry Conille.
PRIME MINISTER CONILLE: Thank you so much, Excellency, Mr. Secretary of State, Mr. President, dear friends and colleagues. Let me reaffirm the words of the president. I think we're making very, very good progress.
And I want to be - I want to express my gratitude first and foremost to our brothers and sisters from Kenya and Jamaica, who have deployed in a very impressive way. They have not waited to be at full capacity. They felt the need and they immediately began to work with the police force to see how they can find solutions that can relieve the pain and suffering of the Haitian people. We meet every Saturday evening with the command. We've been patrolled - in patrols with them. We've seen them train together. The level of commitment and the level of engagement has been extremely impressive. And you can feel, if even slow, improvements in the streets of Port-au-Prince, but most important you're starting to see hope again, and I think that's extremely, extremely encouraging.
For the past four weeks we have actually been engaging quite seriously and we've learned quite a bit in terms of the level of resistance to expect, as well as what it would take to actually eventually restore the level of security that would allow for free and fair elections. And while there is no doubt - no doubt - that the level of commitment of the Haitian police right now, supported by our brothers and sisters from (inaudible), will prove to provide a level of stability, we're nowhere near winning this. And the simple reality is we don't without your help.
There is a sense of urgency because the Haitian people are watching this with cautious optimism. They're really hoping to see clear results. But more than 600,000 of them are living in camps. Half the population is food-insecure. Almost 20, 25 percent of our cadres have left the country. This is a very serious situation that requires urgent support. And it's very, very important that we all come together to make sure the police and the multinational force have the resources that is required for us to intervene in the most effective and urgent way possible. We worry that without the urgent implication of everyone to support this effort, we will lose the little success that we've been able to obtain at a very large price.
I visit the police every time they're wounded. We're having about two police officers wounded every week, and about one death on average per week linked to that engagement, which is quite a bit. The police force right now is underequipped to be able to handle this, and will need further support and help and accompaniment if we're to be successful. We're facing a major danger right now because the port, which is where - the essential source of funding for the country, remains is under serious attack. And as you can understand, when we move our assets to operations, it's sometimes very difficult to redeploy to new areas that are exposed and exploited by the gangs. And because of the limitations we have, the time and the investment it takes to be able to do this creates new pockets of vulnerability that when - we are completely unable to support in an effective way.
Now, Haiti has been extremely lucky so far because the rest of the country, the eight departments, have remained relatively stable. But what we've been seeing over the past two or three weeks is that as we engage in these controlled territories, the gangs flee and tend to attack these new spots. Because the north and the southern roads are blocked, it's almost impossible for the police to intervene in time. They have to use innovative ideas and instruments and systems to be able to make sure they're able to provide the support and protection to populations that are outside the metropolitan area.
I want to give you very practical examples. We have now about 166 SWAT, which is our most sophisticated, elite group of police that intervene in this circumstance. They're largely overstretched. We're deploying and redeploying them. We do not have the capacity to ensure consolidation even when we're able to be successful in operations. So this will require the added support of the rest of the mission. And the promise of about 1,500 by November is a definite must for us to continue to not just address the gang situation but to certainly make sure that the Haitian people feel that there is consistent progress and there is reason for them to hope and wait.
What will inevitably happen if we don't act now is that politics will get into this, new pressures will form on the transitional government, and the little stability we have will quickly become threatened with the added problem of the instability in governance that I think would make it extremely difficult for us to move on the electoral agenda very quickly.
The good news is that we now have an electoral council, but we've already begun - more than that, we've already begun to have serious reflections on how we get the political agenda done. We think it's completely feasible, doable. We have a good understanding of a calendar that we're going to put it place. The government has already invested about 45 million, and by October we'll have $70 million of Haiti money invested in the electoral process, which is about half of what we think we'll need to be able to have a referendum on the constitution by February and then elections by November. And we're quite confident, with the assistance of our partners, that we can do this even though we know that we will not have the highest level of security. But we think we can work around that.
We've invested a lot of time and thinking through the different scenarios and how we can move forward on it. But I'm here to say on behalf of the Haitian people it does not happen - it does not happen - if we do not keep our commitment, first to fully supporting the MSS so that it can be fully deployed, and eventually we have a real serious discussion about the level and the extent of support that will be required for us to cover the whole 27,000 square kilometers in a period that's usually highly tense during the electoral process.
Again, thank you so much for being here today, and we look forward to your discussions and feedback. (Applause.)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY NICHOLS: Representing the Government of Kenya, the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Dr. Musalia Mudavadi.
CABINET SECRETARY MUDAVADI: Thank you, Secretary Antony Blinken, for convening this timely discussion on the progress to restore security in Haiti, a country that is dear to my president, William Ruto, and Kenyans in general. Ladies and gentlemen, the MSS mission is now a reality. The mission personnel now stands at 410 specially trained police officers, of whom 383 are from Kenya, 25 from Jamaica, and two from Belize. We are grateful to the United States, Canada, and other countries whose partnership and support have enabled us to where we are today.
The past weekend, as you've heard, President Ruto made a visit to the Port-au-Prince to have a firsthand experience on the situation on the ground. He seized the opportunity to engage with the Haitian Presidential Council and interacted with the MSS mission personnel. The president left Haiti with renewed hope and optimism for two reasons. Firstly, the leadership and people of Haiti are resolute and united to break from the past and are ready to chart a new future for their country. And second, the deployment of the mission has started to pay off.
Within its first hundred days of deployment, the mission, working in concert with the Haitian National Police, has made demonstrable progress securing critical infrastructure, including the international airport and its surrounding, the national hospital, and the seaport of Port-au-Prince. These developments are resulting in increased economic activities as well as a movement of people and essential goods and supplies.
The joint patrols with the Haitian National Police in locations - the main city of Port as well as downtown locations have enhanced the protection of civilians. The mission is also assisting in clearing roadblocks and opening roads that are facilitating easier flow of humanitarian assistance. I am proud that the mission personnel continue to exhibit the highest standards of transparency and conduct. Not a single case of indiscipline has been reported thus far. The mission operations are guided by the key documents, including the Concept of Operations and Status Protection Agreement, and in compliance with the UN Human Rights Due Diligence policy.
Your Excellencies, the 410 gallant officers have clearly demonstrated that this is a mission possible. But there is also so much that 410 out of - and I emphasize - 2,500 police officers can accomplish. We have an opportunity to increase and then sustain the momentum created for the expeditious achievement of the desired end state. So we must do the following.
First, we need to surge in the number of police personnel in the theater. We encourage all the countries that have pledged personnel to move with speed and join Kenya, Jamaica, and Belize, who have deployed. In Kenya, an additional 600 officers are at the tail end of their pre-deployment training. We will be ready to deploy 300 of them within a month.
Second, we need a continuation of a robust mandate that responds to the gravity of the situation. As the life of the initial mandate of the mission comes to an end, we hope the Security Council will extend it for another period of one year to allow for its full deployment for the achievement of the mandate. The council should also consider innovative ways for the UN to provide the necessary resources to sustain the gains made by the mission.
Third, we need the requisite resource complement. The value of the mission can only be optimized by the availability of the necessary equipment, including air and maritime capabilities, which are currently lacking. We thank the donors who have made contributions to the UN trust fund, which has become the main funding stream for the mission. Unfortunately, the donations thus received far cannot sustainably support even the 410 officers, not to mention the yet-to-be-deployed personnel. It is our moral obligation as member-states to contribute funds, equipment, and logistics for the MSS mission success. Let us do this in solidarity with Haiti and its people.
Before concluding, I must express our deep gratitude to the Haitian political leadership for their exemplary support, without which the MSS mission would not have achieved much. I must also emphasize that while the MSS mission is a critical and innovative intervention, it is only part of the solution. Haiti's stability will only be accomplished through a multi-pronged approach that addresses the root causes of its challenges.
The mission will therefore coordinate and work closely with BINUH, and the UN country team, and the Haitian Government, as they align efforts to achieve an improved security and political situation in the country. I reiterate our gratitude to all stakeholders in this worthy cause from the personnel, contributing countries, to every donor, whether bilateral or through the UN trust fund. Thanks also to the secretary-general for establishing and operationalizing the MSS mission trust fund, which has facilitated support for the various elements.
Finally, I affirm Kenya's unwavering solidarity with our Haitian brothers and sisters and will support them as they work to restore security for social and economic prosperity. Thank you. (Applause.)
