Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by representative of the Russian Federation Vadim Kirpichenko at an informal Arria-Formula meeting “Beyond the inconvenient truth about underdevelopment in Haiti: seeking pan-African solutions/pathways and supporting national dialogue and reconciliation”

Mme.Chair,

We are grateful to the delegations of Haiti, Kenya, Tunisia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Niger, as well as Dominican Republic, Mexico and the United States for this opportunity to address the complex situation in Haiti and ways the international community can assist Haitians to overcome numerous existing challenges.

It is objective reality that due to its geographic location the country is vulnerable to natural disasters. In addition to that, for many years Haiti remains in a protracted and deep political, socio-economic and humanitarian crisis with risks of further aggravation.

It has already become an unhappy rule that the executive branch of power in Haiti has been functioning through agreements among various stakeholders, rather than on the basis of electoral process and the free will of Haitians. Such a state of affairs is not normal and we all understand this. So do the Haitians themselves. To make the situation even worse, there are constant attempts to influence the actions of the Haitian Government from abroad, imposing external solutions. We are deeply concerned by the evidence of foreign involvement into the assassination of President Moïze and urge to use every opportunity to assist Haitians in investigating this abhorrent crime and bringing perpetrators to justice.

There were previously periods of "external governance" in Haiti and they have brought no good to the country’s citizens. We have no doubts that such techniques of political engineering can not be helpful this time either. The role of the international community and the UN Mission in particular is to support Haitian efforts to restore constitutional order, political stability and maintain peace.

To conclude I would like to remind that every crisis is unique and there are no universal solutions, however, the truth is that responsible national ownership, based on an inclusive national dialogue has proven to be the only efficient way to bring lasting political solutions to countries in crisis. And we remain ready to assist the Haitians to move steadily in this direction.

I thank you.