24071: (pub) Chamberlain: Haiti signs $41 million election aid package (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     UNITED NATIONS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Haiti's leaders have signed an
agreement for $41 million in aid to help the impoverished and strife-torn
Caribbean nation prepare for elections later this year, the United Nations
said on Tuesday.
     Election funding pledged by Canada, the European Union and the United
States is to be supplemented by $3 million contributed by Haiti, under the
agreement signed in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, the world body
said.
     Haiti's transitional government plans presidential, legislative and
local elections in November.
     Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, one of the signers, said the
accord "underscores the importance of the groundwork for general elections
this year," according to a U.N. statement.
     U.N. Special Representative Juan Gabriel Valdes said the aid package
showed there was strong international support for "the establishment of a
stable atmosphere for elections and for the return of constitutional order
in Haiti."
     A U.N. peacekeeping mission was sent to help bring stability to Haiti
after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced from power following a
revolt in February 2003.