30836: Durban (pub): Washington Times Article on Better Security (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com> posts this article from the
Washington Times of Aug 1, 2007

                 Haitians say violence decreasing

By Carmen Gentile - PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ? More than three years after
the arrival of a U.N. peacekeeping force, residents of the capital's
Cite Soleil slum say the foreign soldiers finally are making headway
against Haiti's ubiquitous violence.

"Things are beginning to improve here. I don't hear nearly as many
gunshots as I used to," Edith Destiny said while deep-frying a batch of
Haitian "marinade" along a busy thoroughfare.

The 38-year-old mother of two said fewer gunshots means better business
for her and the other merchants along 19th Street, where tin shacks and
open sewers line a street freshly paved with funding from international
donors.

More than 500 gang members have been arrested already this year by the
nearly 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers, who have made up the country's only
effective law enforcement agency since the spring of 2004. U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Haiti for a visit with the troops
today.

Led by Brazilian troops, the force relieved an interim force of U.S.
Marines who arrived in February 2004 to quell an armed uprising that
prompted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to leave the country.

Despite the presence of the peacekeepers, gunmen loyal to the departed
ex-president remained a daunting presence in the slums until a
crackdown this year by U.N. forces led to the arrest or death of
numerous gang leaders.

Known by the French acronym MINUSTAH, the peacekeepers in April
arrested reputed Cite Soleil gang leader Belony Pierre, who was found
some 60 miles north of the capital, apparently hiding from the campaign
to track down known gang members.

Though the U.N. forces have been accused repeatedly of using
heavy-handed tactics, many residents of Cite Soleil say they welcome
the tough approach.

"You can tell they are serious people and committed to helping us,"
49-year-old Samuel Saint Louis said while standing next to a squad of
Brazilian soldiers.

Indeed, most residents appear at ease around the heavily armed
Brazilian troops, particularly the slum"s small children, who surround
the soldiers, practicing the few words of Portuguese they have picked
up from the visitors.

"Before [the crackdown] things here were really bad," said one
Brazilian soldier, who recalled that gunmen regularly would open fire
on the peacekeepers when they patrolled the streets. "But now it seems
like things are getting better."

The Brazilian soldier said U.N. forces still come under occasional
gunfire. ?We apprehended a lot of the leaders, and the neighborhood is
safer for it, but we still have a lot of work to do.?

Some soldiers say they worry that the gangs will return to power as
soon as the peacekeepers leave. Their U.N. mandate is set to expire in
October, although many expect it will be extended, as it has been
several times already.

"I don"t think that Haiti is ready to see the U.N. troops leave," said
Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis in an interview. He said the
country must first increase the ranks of its own national police before
assuming responsibility for its own security.