Memorial ceremony to be held at UN headquarters for staff members killed in Haiti earthquake

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations will hold a memorial ceremony on Tuesday to honor the 101 UN personnel who perished in the Haitian earthquake on Jan. 12, including civilians, military and police, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky announced here on Monday.

UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon will address the family members of the victims, as well as UN staff gathered for this memorial in the Trusteeship Council Chamber here at the UN Headquarters in New York, Nesirky said at a daily press conference.

Senior UN officials, representatives of member states, as well as representatives from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti ( MINUSTAH) will also be in attendance, Nesirky said.

The program will include remarks by the president of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly Ali Treki and Haitian UN ambassador Leo Merores.

Well-known Haitian singer Emeline Michel is expected to perform, and the Permanent Representative of Cape Verde to the UN will read a poem about Haiti.

In February, Ban and the UN special envoy, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, appealed to the world for 1.44 billion U.S. dollars to render humanitarian and early recovery assistance to quake-hit Haiti.

The money, the largest ever natural disaster appeal by the world body, will be used to help some three million people badly affected by the devastating earthquake, totaling 30 percent of the population in the small Caribbean country.