Security Council representatives will leave Wednesday on their first visit to a Latin American or Caribbean nation, where they will support efforts to create a secure and stable environment, the delegation leader said Tuesday.

The six-month mandate of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) expires at the end of May and for the first time the council was showing political interest in the region, Brazilian Ambassador Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

During the four-day trip, the 15-member delegation aimed to support MINUSTAH as it assisted the Transitional Government in disarming all illegal armed groups in preparation for a national dialogue, free, fair and open democratic elections and the accession to power of an elected government in February next year, he said, adding the council was also concerned about human rights compliance.

Military and political strategies would not work in the long term without strategies for economic development, the reduction of poverty and the repair of the damaged environment, he said.

In this regard, the disbursement of pledged aid had started and Haiti, with an unheard of 85 percent unemployment and massive rural-to-urban migration, was getting bilateral help for its national bureaucracy in implementing quick impact projects, Sardenberg said.

It was the first time that Latin American countries had worked together in a UN mission and, despite some domestic opposition in some cases, were prepared to put their resources where their mouths were, he said.

Source: Xinhua