Multinational Force replaced by UN peace-keepers: special transition ceremony held on 31 March.

• Position: United Nations Mission in Haiti

"This is a great day for Haiti ... and for the United Nations", Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali declared on 31 March in Port-au-Prince, as the Multinational Force (MNF) handed over its responsibility to the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH), a move sanctioned by Security Council resolution 975 (1995) of 30 January. Presiding with Presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti and William Clinton of the United States over special ceremonies in the capital city to celebrate the event, the Secretary-General said the occasion was a "turning point in the international effort to bring peace. stability and justice to the Haitian people", a day marking the "high point of succesful cooperation" between the UN and a coalition of Member States, led by the United States.

As the UN took over, he went on, two factors remained vital: the people of Haiti must maintain their commitment to rebuild their society: and UN Member States must continue to "support this revitalization of the multilateral ideal".

Five years of UN involvement

The 31 March ceremonies capped more than five years of active UN involvement in Haiti, including overseeing the country's first democratic elections in December 1990, the complex negotiations after Mr. Aristide's ouster in September 1991, human rights verification and provision of humanitarian aid, imposition of sanctions. and the dispatch of the MNF in September 1994 to pave the way for Aristide's restoration to power. The Haitian President returned to the island-nation on 15 October 1994.

In his 31 March speech, Mr. Boutros-Ghali said that although the international community was willing to assist in ensuring the security of legislative and local elections, scheduled for June 1995, as well as the presidential elections in autumn, it was the Haitian people themselves who must "buckle down to the task of rebuilding their country on new foundations, which must take charge of their own destiny" .

Operation "Uphold Democracy"--the title given to the MNF--had "lived up to its name". The fact that President Clinton had attended the ceremony was an "expression of successful cooperation" between the United States and the UN, the Secretary-General declared.

"If the world seeks a model for the future, it may find one here", Mr. Boutros-Ghali said later in the day, at a lunch with President Clinton. "When Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill created the term `United Nations', a day like this, I believe, is what they...