Haiti's UN mission chief praises progress

A chief of a UN mission in Haiti on Monday praised advances made by the Haitian government over the past one and a half years, including constitutional reforms and other achievements. President Michel Martelly was working in an "organized" way with a full cabinet, the Supreme Court and the Superior Council of the Judicial Power, said Mariano Fernandez, chief of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah). "Together they have issued several reforms to its 1987 Constitution,which were aspects that Haiti lacked" when he arrived as Minustah chief after being appointed in May 2011, Fernandez said. Although the end of Minustah has not yet been defined, Haiti has made important advances in the country's legal framework, he said. Fernandez on Monday also met with the Dominican Republic's President Danilo Medina, who reaffirmed his country's commitment to continue supporting Haiti's reconstruction process. Minustah was established in June 2004 under a UN Security Council resolution to replace the Multinational Interim Force, which was authorized by the United Nations in February of the year, after the exile of then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in a meeting with Martelly in September 2011, confirmed the gradual withdrawal of Minustah from Haiti with the cooperation of the Haitian government. The UN mission is to decrease the size of military troops from 8,065 to 7,340, and that of police from 3,546 to 3,241. Haiti is struggling to rebuild the country after a devastating earthquake in early 2010, which killed more than 200,000 people and caused material damage worth 7.9 billion U.S. dollars. The Caribbean country is also fighting the effects of a widespread cholera outbreak in October 2010, which has killed 7,000 people so far.