28815: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-UN (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MYRNA DOMIT

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 3 (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, making
his first trip to Haiti, called Thursday for strengthening the national
police force to stem an upsurge in kidnapping and lawlessness.
   Annan, who was embraced by President Rene Preval at the airport, said
the challenges facing the troubled Caribbean country remained vast, but
"great strides" had been made in recent months.
   "We have achieved a lot but much, much more needs to be done," Annan
said in a speech at the National Palace.
   Annan said the U.N Security Council should extend the current security
operation, led by a U.N.-led Brazilian peacekeeping force, for another 12
months instead of the standard six months.
   "I am challenging the member states to accept this longer-term
proposition," he said.
   Haiti experienced relative calm after Preval's February election victory
but since May, dozens of foreigners and Haitians have been kidnapped and
gang fighting has forced hundreds of people to flee their homes in the
capital, Port-au-Prince.
   "These criminals should be ashamed to call themselves Haitians when the
nation is at a critical stage of rebuilding itself," Annan said.
   Annan toured a Haitian police academy and met with two Brazilian
peacekeepers who were wounded by gang gunfire in July.
   An 8,800-strong force of U.N. troops and international police provides
the only real security in a country plagued with well-armed gangs and a
local police force that Annan has said is "inadequately trained" and
"infiltrated by criminal elements."
   The peacekeepers were dispatched to Haiti to help restore order
following the 2004 revolt that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
who is in exile in South Africa.
   Annan has called for elite police tactical teams and advisers to bolster
the U.N. force to help counter a renewed surge in kidnappings and gang
violence.
   Annan is in Haiti for a two-day official visit that will also take him
to the neighboring Dominican Republic, where he will hold talks with that
countrys President Leonel Fernandez on Friday.