Memorial for peacekeepers killed in Haiti plane crash focuses on mission's goals

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Eleven caskets draped with U.N. flags gleamed under the Caribbean sun at a Haitian base on Tuesday as the peacekeeping force said goodbye Tuesday to soldiers and airmen killed in an Oct. 9 plane crash.

"They were here in Haiti protecting the country's borders. They were here providing relief to victims of last year's terrible storms and hurricanes. They were helping the people of Haiti fulfil the enormous promise of their proud nation," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a letter read by U.N. mission chief Hedi Annabi.

President Rene Preval also attended the ceremony at a U.N. base belonging to the mission-leading Brazil battalion in Port-au-Prince but did not speak. Instead, one of his staffers read a note offering the government's condolences.

Most of the six Uruguayans and five Jordanians had been in impoverished Haiti for less than three months. Their names were read aloud several times and official U.N. photographs were arrayed on tables draped with their countries' flags, facing the dignitaries' stand.

The speeches focused on the goals of the 9,000-member United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend mission for a sixth year, saying the situation here still constitutes a threat to international peace and security despite recent progress.

Installed in 2004 to break gangs and create order in the chaos following the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the mission is expected to remain at least through presidential elections scheduled for late next year.

The mission's CASA C-212 twin-engine turboprop was flying surveillance along Haiti's mountainous border with the Dominican Republic when it hit a mountain on Friday afternoon, killing everyone on board. An investigation into what caused the crash is under way.

The wreckage of the white, Uruguay-owned and Spanish-built plane remains under guard on the remote mountainside some 30 miles (45 kilometres) from the capital in a region rife with drug smuggling and human trafficking.

During the ceremony Jordanian and Uruguayan honour guards carried the caskets off flatbed trucks, passing a Bolivian marching band and rows of Brazilian soldiers in sunglasses. Sri Lankan soldiers and Turkish police snapped pictures from the gallery as AK-47-wielding Nigerians and Haitian police officers milled around the back.

Jordanian commander Abed Al-Moajdh called those killed "martyrs of duty and humanity" who "spread the message of love and peace to the land of Haiti." Uruguay Col. Edimer Guevara said those from both nations were now part of the "silent squadron that guides us."

The victims of the crash from Jordan were Col. Adidallah Ibrahim Almawajdeh, Lt. Col. Jehad Semrin Almeirat, Maj. Ibrahim Brahim Mohammed Al-Shorman, Lt. Belal Ahmed abu Hujailah and Warrant Officer Ame Mahmoud Alrawashdeh. From Uruguay, Capt. Jose Ignacio Larrosa, Lt. Santiago Gabriel Hernandez, Officer Jose Leonel Pastor, Cpl. Enrique Alejandro Montiel, Cpl. Yiyi Anabel Medina and Cpl. Nestor Fernando Morales.

The bodies are expected to be flown to their home countries.