(The Ottawa Citizen) – An RCMP superintendent from Ottawa is missing after the deadly earthquake in Haiti Tuesday.
Supt. Doug Coates, acting commissioner of the UN’s Haiti mission, was reported missing along with Sgt. Mark Gallagher from Nova Scotia. Coates may have been inside the UN building in Port au Prince, which crumbled to the ground during the earthquake.
The United Nations said Wednesday most of the mission’s leadership worked out of the main UN building.
Coates has been involved in international policing for more than a decade working in coutnries such as Afghanistan. He was in Haiti to run the policing portion of the mission.
“They were doing a lot of mentoring, training and working with Haitian police because a lot of them are just out of school,” said Lee Woodyear, a spokesperson with the UN’s department of peacekeeping. “They had done a lot of work taking on the different gangs that were wreaking some havoc.”
Ottawa Police Chief Vern White said he worked closely with Coates to develop an agreement to send police officers to Haiti. He called Coates “real gentleman.”
The RCMP has a team of 82 police officers from across Canada stationed in Haiti with the United Nation’s stabilization team.
In an April 2009 press release, Coates said mission to places like Haiti and Sudan have a strong influence on the police in those areas.
“Unstable societies offer ample opportunity for crime to flourish,” he said. “By helping in their communities, our police officers may reduce the spread of that crime to our communities.”
Around 2,000 worldwide were in Haiti for peacekeeping operations when the earthquake hit the area.
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