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OAS Offers Haiti Office as Headquarters for Haiti’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  January 19, 2010

At a meeting of the Group of Friends of Haiti of the Organization of American States (OAS), OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin announced today that the OAS has offered its Office building in Haiti to the country’s government to temporarily house its Foreign Ministry, which lost its own building as a result of the earthquake. This arrangement will provide the Haitian government with the facilities and communication capacity to jumpstart its critical operations.

“The Haitian Foreign Ministry collapsed completely as a result of the earthquake, and they did not have space to work or meet,” Ambassador Ramdin said. “And so we decided to offer the OAS building, which is in relatively good shape, as the temporary headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the coming weeks or maybe months.”

The extraordinary session of the Group of Friends was convened to review the situation in Haiti following last week’s devastating earthquake and share information about emergency relief efforts, financial and humanitarian assistance and other aid currently provided to Haiti by the Inter-American System, regional governments, the European Union and others.

During the meeting, representatives of OAS Member States reported on their countries’ efforts to bring emergency relief, humanitarian and financial assistance to the government of Haiti and the victims of the earthquake, and urged coordination in all assistance efforts to Haiti, a call that was echoed by Ambassador Ramdin.

“Coordination is key,” Ambassador Ramdin said. “The reality has been we have not always deployed effective coordination mechanisms in the past years with regard to Haiti. I hope this crisis, this disaster, will bring us together in really coming up with the multi-layered coordination and consultation mechanisms that are badly needed to assist Haiti as effectively as possible.”

The Assistant Secretary General identified lack of transportation equipment, lack of security and problems with communication as the major challenges currently facing relief efforts in Haiti. He said the OAS is doing its utmost to support the Haitian government.

Ramdin also announced the death of one person employed by the OAS in Haiti as a result of the earthquake, and the disappearance of 48 others who have not yet been accounted for. He said 65 of 114 people employed by the OAS in Haiti have been so far accounted for.

Reference: E-015/10