30230: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti to use debt relief payment for security (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Mica Rosenberg

     GUATEMALA CITY, March 19 (Reuters) - Gang-ravaged Haiti plans to spend
a debt relief windfall on security improvements, despite pressure to use it
to reduce poverty, the country's government said on Monday.
     Haitian Finance Minister Daniel Dorsainvil told Reuters the presence
of gangs that rape and kidnap citizens and battle United Nations
peacekeepers meant the country needed to modernize its police force, build
prisons and train judges.
     "One of the key priorities of this year's budget will be security and
strengthening the justice system," Dorsainvil said in an interview at the
Inter-American Development Bank's annual meeting in Guatemala.
     The Washington-based lender has agreed to write off about $525 million
of the country's debt by 2009, citing Haiti's position as the poorest
country in the Americas.
     Haiti, which is part of a broader global debt relief program being
managed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, will receive
interim debt relief of $20 million over the next two years.
     Lobbying groups, many gathered in Guatemala, are pressuring the
Haitian government to make sure the relief helps the poorest people in the
country who do not have access to clean water, medicines and proper food.
     Dorsainvil defended the security plans, saying the government would
need to fund police training from its annual budget whether it had the debt
relief or not.
     "The debt relief is budget support," he said.
     The government of President Rene Preval, elected just over a year ago
amid widespread hopes that he could bridge the divide between the poor and
a wealthy elite -- and also end crime -- has made ending violence a primary
goal.
     Dorsainvil said Haiti plans to double the size of its police force to
14,000 to tackle the gangs that have moved from the cities to rural areas,
terrifying small towns and villages.
     Doctors and aid workers estimate that more than 800 women were raped
between February 2006 and February 2007 in Haiti's capital.