29939: Hermantin(news)US aid to create jobs in Haiti slums (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Feb. 01, 2007email this print this

U.S. aid to create jobs in Haiti slums

BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com


WASHINGTON - The United States will provide Haiti with $20 million to create 
more youth jobs in a gang-ridden slum in the capital that is testing the 
government's ability to bring peace to the country.

Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, made the 
announcement Thursday after a meeting of 21 countries and multilateral 
institutions that have contributed troops or money to Haiti.

Burns said the group also agreed to ask the United Nations Security Council to 
renew the mandate of the 8,400-member blue-helmet peacekeeping force for an 
additional year. The decision is expected later this month.

''Violence in Port-au-Prince is an important and very serious issue,'' Burns 
said at a press briefing, with Haitian Foreign Minister Jean-Raynald Clerisme 
at his side. ``And we understand that Cité Soleil in particular is a place 
where there are many challenges for the Haitian government.''

Special U.N. envoy to Haiti Edmond Mulet, a Guatemalan diplomat, said security 
was better today than it was a year or two ago but nonetheless painted a grim 
picture of marauding gangs terrorizing civilians in urban areas when he 
addressed on Wednesday the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a 
Washington think-tank.

He vowed to eradicate violence and gangs from the Cité Soleil slum in Haiti by 
July. Cité Soleil, where ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is still 
popular, remains a no-go zone for security forces even as the gang activity 
spreads to other Port-au-Prince neighborhoods, and some rural communities.

As early as a year ago Haitian police officials complained that the gangs were 
moving out of Cité Soleil and into Port-au-Prince neighborhoods like 
Martissant. Last fall, both Haitian and UN authorities launched a program to 
disarm up to 1,000 gang members.

UN peacekeepers are coming under fire every day, Mulet said, and 24 have died 
since the mission began in 2004.

He said last summer the UN security mission worked out a plan with Haitian 
authorities that was ''working wonders'' in returning security to 
Port-au-Prince before troops had to be redeployed into the countryside for 
provincial and municipal elections Dec. 3.

In December, following a surge in kidnappings of school-age children, the UN 
and Haiti stepped up efforts going after bandits and kidnappers where they 
lived.

The 6,000-member Haitian National Police is undergoing a vetting process to 
root out members linked to gangs. Mulet said he expects about 1,000 officers 
will be fired after the process is completed.

Mulet also cited an ''extremely corrupt'' judicial system and rising drug 
trafficking as major challenges.

On the same day as Mulet's visit, Organization of American States Secretary 
General José Miguel Insulza reiterated the importance of international agencies 
coordinating their efforts.

Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.

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