21688: Esser: Haiti's rising crime preventing humanitarian aid distribution, UN says (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

UN News Centre

May 4, 2004


Haiti's rising crime preventing humanitarian aid distribution, UN says

4 May 2004 – The rising crime rate in Haiti is restricting
humanitarian aid distribution in the troubled Caribbean country, the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) said today.

Kidnapping has increased, while cars are stopped and the people
inside them robbed, OCHA spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told a news
briefing in Geneva.

The police force was still understaffed and had few weapons, while
some 25,000 people in the country were estimated to own small arms
and other weapons, she said.

The supply of water and electricity were also serious problems, Ms.
Byrs said.

The insurgency in February and March had caused enormous damage to
the water supply sector, including sabotage of installations, looting
of premises and theft of spare parts and vehicles. As a result, the
water supply had fallen to 75 per cent of what it was before, but the
humanitarian agencies were working to improve this, she said.