23008: Durban: (pub) Noreiga comment in Wash Post (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Comment appearing in today's Washington Post...
LPD

Haiti Is on the Right Track

   The Bush administration recognizes the extraordinary
opportunity to help Haiti break free from the debilitating cycle
of corrupt and autocratic rulers who have provided little
opportunity for Haitians to realize their full potential
["Failing Haiti," editorial, Dec. 11].

 Along with our international partners, we are committing
resources and manpower to provide Haitians with the security and
stability they need to begin constructing a functioning polity
and economy. The current U.N. peacekeeping mission has
approximately 6,300 troops and 1,300 civilian police on the
ground, and it is making Haitian streets safer so that
citizens can resume their daily lives. As Secretary of State
Colin Powell said during his Dec. 1 visit to Haiti, security,
economic development and political reconciliation "go hand in
hand."

 Haiti needs our help to start up a functioning economy. The
United States has provided Haiti with about $230 million in the
past year for basic services and health care improvements and to
jump-start private enterprise and help the Haitian people
recover from the devastation caused by recent hurricanes and
storms.

 True to their entrepreneurial spirit, Haitians are working
vigorously to overcome hardships and are making steady progress
toward normalizing business activity. We are working with
Haiti's interim government to promote better governance and to
provide a better, more enabling environment for sustained
development.

 Haitians need our support as they hold elections this year to
institutionalize a democratic government. Haiti's interim
government has established a workable timetable for
presidential, congressional and local elections. The
international community is developing a support strategy
to make sure those elections are successful. The United States
has provided substantial elections assistance to the
Organization of American States and the U.N. mission in Haiti,
and it will continue to work with our partners to ensure that
Haiti receives the support it needs to hold credible elections.

 Yes, more needs to be done -- but we are on the right path
toward helping Haiti become a more prosperous and truly
democratic society.

    -- Roger F. Noriega

 Washington

 The writer is the assistant secretary of state for Western
Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department.