Norway to support Haiti’s national police
UN Police at the training facility in the Haitian capital Port au Prince. Photo: Norway Mission/Odd B. Malme
A Norwegian fact-finding team visited Haiti last week to assess the possibility of deploying Norwegian police officers in order to assist in rebuilding and reforming the National Police of Haiti. The Norwegian officers would be part of the UN Stabilisation Mission to Haiti (MINUSTAH).
View a slide show from the trip to Haiti on Norway at the UN on Flickr.
While in Haiti, Odd Berner Malme, Police Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Norway to UN (New York), and Assistant Chief of Police Henning Høgseth, from the Norwegian Police Directorate, met with key officials in the national police as well as MINUSTAH. Both institutions were severely affected by the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January. The leadership of MINUSTAH made clear that they welcome the deployment of highly skilled police officers from Norway. The officers would be included in projects to build capacity within Haiti’s National Police in order to prevent and investigate gender based violence.
During their stay, Malme and Høgseth were taken to see several police stations and the police training academy in the capital Port au Prince. They also journeyed to Les Cayes, the third biggest city in Haiti, to see the UN Police camp and visit the local prison.
The earthquake in Haiti, which killed more than 200.000, left over a million people homeless. Many of the people who lost their homes are now living in tent camps run by UN agencies and other international organisations. Malme and Høgseth visited one such camp. MINUSTAH representatives said that violence and unrest in the camps is on the rise and a sense of unease is spreading among the population. The need to strengthen the local law and order capacities is great.
