Haiti: we salute you, MINUSTAH

The United Nations (UN) reported that the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in the capital, had collapsed and that the Mission's Chief, Hédi Annabi, his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, and the acting police commissioner Doug Coates of Canada were confirmed dead. Elisabeth Byrs of the UN called it the worst disaster the United Nations has experienced because the organizational structures of the UN in Haiti and the Haitian government were destroyed. Rezene Tesfamariam, the Haiti country director for Plan International, likened the destruction to "Hiroshima in the Caribbean.

The U.N. mission chief in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, died in Tuesday's earthquake that devastated the country's capital, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Saturday.Annabi,a Tunisian, was believed to be 65.

In a statement, Ban also confirmed the death of Annabi's deputy, Brazilian Luiz Carlos da Costa, and of the acting U.N. police commissioner in Haiti, Doug Coates of Canada.

Annabi is the first U.N. mission chief to die in the line of duty since Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil was killed along with 14 other U.N. staff when a truck bomb exploded outside the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in 2003. Ban described Annabi as "the gold standard of service against which all who had the privilege to work with him were measured." He hailed the Tunisian's "unparalleled work ethic -- he was the first in and the last out every day for his entire career."
After working in the Tunisian foreign service, Annabi joined the United Nations in 1981. For nearly a decade, he worked on a political settlement in Cambodia before joining the U.N. peacekeeping department where he rose to be an assistant secretary-general. He had held the Haiti job since 2007.

Ban said of Annabi, da Costa and Coates that "in every sense of the word, they gave their lives for peace."

By Friday, the U.N. death toll in Haiti had stood at 37. The deaths announced by Ban raise that to at least 40, but U.N. officials expect it ultimately to rise well over 100.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said that under the leadership of Annabi and his team, the U.N. mission in Haiti "helped the country turn a corner after the suffering it endured in recent years."

"This is an effort now set back by this unimaginable catastrophe," she said.

(Extract from Reuters Sunday, January 17th, 2010 13:38:00, http://www.mmail.com.my/content/24913-un-confirms-death-haiti-mission-chief-annabi)

MINUSTAH has over 9,000 uniformed peacekeepers deployed to the area; most are searching for survivors at the headquarters

Current strength (30 November 2009):

* 9,065 total uniformed personnel
o 7,031 troops
o 2,034 police
* 488 international civilian personnel
* 1,212 local civilian staff
* 214 United Nations Volunteers

Country contributors

Military personnel

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Jordan, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, Phillipines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, United States and Uruguay.

Police personnel

Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Columbia, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Guinea, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Togo, Turkey, United States, Uruguay and Yemen.

The United Nations reported that the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in the capital, had collapsed and that many UN personnel were unaccounted for. The Mission's Chief, Hédi Annabi, was confirmed dead on 13 January by President René Préval. He is a Tunisian diplomat and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General. The deputy Head, , Luiz Carlos da Costa from Brazil,also died. The acting police commissioner Doug Coates of Canada were confirmed dead. They were having meeting with a Chinese delegation at the time of the disaster. All 8 Chinese military polices were dead.

At least 37 United Nations personnel working with United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) were confirmed dead and over 300 remained missing and presumably buried in the building rubble.

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The above video was done by one of the member of Chinese police personnel of MINUSTAH,Zhong Jianqin(鍾薦勤)who has passed away on 16-1-2010, during Haiti earthquake 2010.

Eight Chinese police officers were killed when they were in the UN headquarters as the earthquake struck, which destroyed the building and trapped their bodies for days afterwards. A Chinese rescue team could only recover the bodies four days after the earthquake struck, due to the difficulties that the heavy debris was causing. Four of the eight were sent by the Ministry of Public Security, while the other four were peacekeepers who were stationed with 138 other Chinese peacekeepers. The ministry officials who perished were: Zhu Xiaoping(朱曉平), director of the ministry's equipment and finance department; Guo Baoshan(郭寶山), deputy director of the ministry's international cooperation department; Wang Shulin(王樹林) and Li Xiaoming(李曉明), both researchers at the ministry. The four peacekeepers who died were: Zhao Huayu (趙化宇), Li Qin(李欽), Zhong Jianqin(鍾薦勤), and He Zhihong(和志虹). It is believed that the eight officers were meeting with Hédi Annabi, whose body was also discovered by the Chinese rescue team, at the time of the earthquake.

中國國際救援隊總領隊黃建發16日宣布，被埋在瓦礫堆中的8名中國方面失蹤維和人員遺體全部找到，按遺體發現的先後順序分別為：

1. 王樹林（海地時間16日3時30分，時年58歲，公安部裝備財務局調研員）
2. 鍾薦勤（海地時間16日7時12分，時年35歲，中國駐海地維和警察防暴隊宣傳官、雲南公安邊防總隊宣傳處幹事）
3. 李欽（海地時間16日11時07分，時年47歲，中國駐海地維和警察防暴隊政委、雲南公安邊防總隊參謀長）
4. 郭寶山（海地時間16日11時35分，時年60歲，公安部國際合作局副局長）
5. 和志虹（海地時間16日11時58分，女性，時年35歲，中國駐海地維和警察防暴隊員、雲南公安邊防總隊昆明邊防檢查站教導員）
6. 李曉明（海地時間16日12時03分，時年35歲，公安部國際合作局維和警察工作處主任科員）
7. 趙化宇（海地時間16日14時38分，時年38歲，中國駐海地維和警隊隊長、公安部警務保障局副處長）
8. 朱曉平（海地時間16日14時58分，時年48歲，公安部裝備財物局局長）

Other list of casualties, please refer to www.wikipedia.org.,Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Casualties_of_the_2010_Haiti_earthquake # united _ nations_casualties.

For queries regarding immediate family members working with the UN Mission in Haiti, contact +1 212.963.4139. This number may also be used by staff seeking information about friends and colleagues working in MINUSTAH. N.B. these support lines are for now our primary means of hearing from concerned family members. [Note: If you’re having difficulty getting through, please keep trying.)

Official websites: http://www.un.org/

“In every sense of the word, they gave their lives for peace,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

Related articles:

1. Hédi Annabi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9di_Annabi
2. Luiz Carlos da Costa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luiz_Carlos_da_Costa
3. Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_2010_Haiti_earthquake#united_nations_casualties
4. United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Stabilization_Mission_in_Haiti
5. MINUSTAH Official website, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/