By Lee I-chia /
Staff reporter

Taiwan’s embassy in Port-au-Prince would continue to work with the new government as it seeks to restore order after months of gang-related violence, while maintaining Taiwan-Haiti ties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.

Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, created in April to re-establish democratic order in the nation, signed a decree on Nov. 10 to fire then-interim Haitian prime minister Garry Conille after five months, replacing him with Alix Didier Fils-Aime, a businessman who was previously considered for the job, The Associated Press reported on Monday last week.

Council chairman Leslie Voltaire and Fils-Aime on Saturday inaugurated Haiti’s reshuffled government at Villa d’Accueil in Musseau.

Photo: AFP

The new Cabinet comprises 18 ministers, signaling a new chapter in the transition after the firing of Conille as the country grapples with mounting insecurity and political instability, the online newspaper Haitian Times reported on Monday.

In Taipei, Cheng Li-cheng (鄭力城), head of the ministry’s Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Department, confirmed that Fils-Aime was named the new prime minister on Monday last week and that his Cabinet was inaugurated on Saturday.

Ambassador to Haiti Hu Cheng-hao (胡正浩) was invited to the inauguration event, where he expressed the government’s willingness to deepen bilateral cooperation with the new administration, Cheng said.

The ambassador also expressed that Taiwan’s embassy would continue to cooperate with the new government to assist it in the country’s transition process and to maintain its friendship with Haiti, he said.

Regarding security issues in the Caribbean country, Cheng said local gang violence in the Solino neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital, has forced many residents to flee the area in the past few days.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has since Tuesday last week banned US flights to Haiti for 30 days after gangs shot at three planes, he added.

Taiwan’s embassy in Haiti is still open, and consular employees and their family members, as well as Taiwanese in Haiti are safe, Cheng said, adding that the embassy continues to keep close contact with Haiti’s police and armed forces, other countries embassies in the nation and the foreign ministry.