27965: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti official tells UN not to abandon the country

[corbetre@webster.edu]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

Haiti official tells UN not to abandon  the country

     By Evelyn Leopold

     UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Haiti's interim prime minister
asked the international community on Wednesday not to neglect the Caribbean
country's economic and social needs just because elections have been held.
     "Elections are only the first step of the long path that leads us to
stability and democracy and economic and social development," Gerard
Latortue, told the U.N. Security Council.
     Both he and Chilean Juan Gabriel Valdes, the senior U.N.
representative in Haiti, said the United Nations and others should not
abandon Haiti as they did after elections 10 years ago but help build its
institutions.
     Rene Preval, a 63-year-old agronomist, was declared the winner of the
Feb. 7 election after authorities agreed to redistribute 85,000 unmarked
ballots to settle allegations of vote fraud.
     Preval faces a divided electorate with a landowning elite and a large
impoverished population. Unemployment runs at 80 percent and the average
income is $400 a year.
     The United Nations has fielded a mission of 7,500 peacekeeping troops
and 1,750 international police and will stay in Haiti for at least another
six months.
     Latortue and Valdes on Tuesday visited the World Bank in Washington to
make their case for the country's needs.
    "We will need less military but many more engineers, many more men and
women who are dedicated to economic and social development," Latortue said.
"And if there is one weak spot today in Haiti, it is truly the justice
system as well as the professionalization of the national police."
     Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince was ravaged by kidnappings and crime
before the election, despite the presence of Brazilian-led U.N. troops.
     Valdes was asked repeatedly by reporters whether former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now in South Africa, should return home. He refused
to give a direct answer
     However, he said he did not think Haitians or the international
community wanted a return to the past where the government did not respect
the opposition and the opposition blocked government action.
     "It is something for Haitians to discuss but it is important for
everyone to look to the future and not to the past," he said.
     Aristide, who won two presidential elections only to be driven from
power both times, was accused of despotism and allowing gangs who supported
him to run free. Preval won the support of Aristide's legions of supporters
in the slums.

----- End forwarded message -----