Originally: Argentina’s Kirchner urges EU to take bigger role in Haiti
Argentine news agency Telam, Paris, January 20, 2005
President Nestor Kirchner has today called on the nations of Europe to include on their agendas the search for a solution to Haiti’s institutional problems and urged the EU and Latin America to work “together” in order to obtain “worldwide support” in this cause.
“Haiti’s solution cannot be only Latin American, it is necessary to include it on our regions’ agenda,” Kirchner said while speaking at the Third Europe-Latin America Forum sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Against this backdrop, he said: “It is also necessary for both regions to work together obtain worldwide support” to search for a way out of Haiti’s situation.
He also said that “Haiti’s solution cannot be military”, “it must be economic”.
Kirchner thus referred to the delicate situation of the Caribbean nation, a former French colony, where former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had to abandon the country after a succession of political conflicts.
In the face of the island’s grave institutional and social crisis, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) was organized to support the political transition process, organize the national police and carry on the demobilization of armed groups.
Kirchner highlighted Latin American countries’ determination, “fundamentally Chile, Brazil and Argentina”, to “take charge” of the situation in Haiti “with their peacekeeping forces” under the UN’s direction.
Argentina sent around 450 army, navy and air force troops between July and August of last year to join the peacekeeping mission deployed in the Caribbean island.