Update on MINUSTAH by Under-Secretary General for PeaceKeeping Operations
Q: Can you tell us about the casualties. I'm sorry but we need to start with that. Do you have any figures?
Le Roy: We don't have any figures for the time being. But we know clearly it is a tragedy for Haiti, and a tragedy for the UN, and especially for the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti – the MINUSTAH. The only figures we have are the figures of MINUSTAH. All together, we are more than 9,000 uniformed personnel, 490 international civilian personnel, and 1,200 local civilian staff, and 200 United Nations Volunteers. And I didn't mention, among the troops are 7,000 troops and 2,000 policemen. That is the total figure of MINUSTAH.
As far as we know, the main building that was the Headquarters building called the Hotel Christopher has collapsed. As far as we speak, some of our troops – mostly Brazilian troops – are surrounding the building and trying to rescue the people from the main headquarters. As we speak, no-one has been rescued from this main headquarters, but we don't know how many people were in the building when the collapse happened. It happened a little after five o'clock, and we don't know how many people were in the building at the time, so we don't have any number of casualties for the time being.
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