This week in the Jamaican House of Representatives, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica was prepared to send military and police personnel to Haiti as part of a multinational security assistance deployment project to "support the return to a reasonable level of stability and peace, which would be necessary for the entrenchment of any inclusive democratic process in Haiti."

An announcement that comes a week after the UN's special envoy for Haiti, Helen La Lime, said she hoped the UN Security Council would "positively" deal with the Haitian government's pending request for rapid international intervention in Haiti despite the fact that the United States and Canada show little interest in acting...

Holness added that "Jamaica stands ready to offer bilateral support if needed," recalling that the Jamaican military is one of the most experienced in the region when it comes to dealing with violent gangs, and it regularly mounts anti-gang raids alongside the police.

Andrew Holness said Jamaica's military and police forces have been alerted and have begun planning for a possible deployment to Haiti.

Anthony Hylton, the spokesperson for the opposition People's National Party (PNP) in Jamaica, said that the Holness Government had the full support of the PNP for the deployment of security forces in Haiti, stressing that the stability of Haiti is important to Jamaica.

SL/ HaitiLibre