30856: Lally (NEWS): Economist article :Security is improving (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Reynald Lally <concordehaiti@yahoo.com>

Haiti

A small success for the UN

Aug 2nd 2007 | PORT-AU-PRINCE From The Economist print edition


AFP




Security is improving in what was a Caribbean failed state. Poverty and 
policing are harder to tackle

Get article background
A PAIR of boats are anchored just past the edge of a dock that juts out from 
Cité Soleil, a vast slum in Haiti's capital. Their masts are tree trunks 
winding crookedly towards the sky. On a late July day, the air stagnant with 
the smell of garbage, there is no wind to fill their sails. On the dock men 
sit, some idle, some mending nets, while naked boys swim around them in the 
dirty water. It is a scene of desperate poverty, but also of uncertain peace.
The United Nations has been charged with keeping the peace in Haiti since the 
ousting of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004. But, until recently, there 
was very little peace to be kept, particularly in the capital. Gang violence 
and kidnapping ravaged Port-au-Prince; Cité Soleil, in the hands of local 
gangs, was its focal point. Last December, under a new Brazilian general, the 
UN force moved into Cité Soleil, setting up bases and shooting it out with the 
gangs. As the UN took charge, local residents turned against the criminals, 
nearly all of whose leaders have now been killed or captured. In February, UN 
troops would enter Cité Soleil only in armoured vehicles. Now they patrol on 
foot.
Some streets in Cité Soleil have been paved with stones and cement; some 
rubbish is being picked up. Street markets are back, though there is little to 
sell, and few buyers—78% of Haitians live on less than $2 a day, according to 
the World Bank. Ask almost any resident of Cité Soleil whether life has changed 
in the past six months and he will tell you, yes—before he used to be poor and 
shot at, and now he is just poor.
Nevertheless, a start has been made. Foreign leaders are dropping in to see it. 
Last month Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, whose government has given 
much aid to Haiti, visited Cité Soleil—something that would have been 
unthinkable only months ago. This week the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, 
was in Port-au-Prince. Though there are some complaints of misconduct by 
troops, most Haitians want the UN to stay. Canada apart, most of the money for 
the mission comes from the United States and France, and most of the troops 
from Latin America. Mr Ban said he will recommend that the mission's mandate be 
extended for at least another year when it expires in October. The UN can 
declare victory only if it leaves behind an effective police force. That is 
still a long way off. Edmond Mulet, the mission's head, reckons that at least 
22,000 police are needed, but a new force has just 8,000 members. Some 500 new 
recruits are being added every six months—though recent vetting saw a similar 
number fired. In Cité Soleil, the police only patrol in tandem with UN forces. 
Police stations have not been rebuilt. Their crumbling walls carry the 
ubiquitous pockmarks of bullets and are surrounded by garbage. But Haiti's 
police are a model of efficiency compared with the courts and the overcrowded 
prisons. Three attempts to reform the judiciary have stalled in parliament.
This weak law-enforcement machinery faces a powerful drug-trafficking industry. 
Haiti is a busy transhipment point for Colombian cocaine bound for the United 
States. Drug money has long since infiltrated politics. Last month American 
helicopters from Guantánamo Bay narrowly missed capturing Guy Philippe, who led 
a rebel band which helped to topple Mr Aristide and whom the United States 
regards as a drug kingpin. Having evaded the helicopters, he went on the radio 
to proclaim his innocence. Under an agreement dating from 1997, the United 
States captures drug suspects in Haiti without formal extradition proceedings. 
René Préval, who was elected as Haiti's president last year, is widely seen as 
competent, as are some of his senior officials. Though the country lacks a 
civil service, there are a few faint signs of economic revival. It helps that 
kidnappings are down, from a peak of 80 in August 2006 to just six in June, 
according to the UN. In the biggest single foreign investment of recent times 
Digicel, a Bermudan mobile-phone operator, has spent $260m since entering the 
country in May 2006. It already claims 1.4m customers, or one Haitian in six. 
Ghada Gebara of Digicel says she has managed to find qualified local staff, 
though with difficulty. Hopes of creating more jobs turn mainly on a revival of 
the export clothing industry, which was substantial until Haiti's descent into 
chaos in the 1990s. The United States has granted sweeping tariff-free access 
to Haitian apparel exports, giving the country an edge over the preferences 
enjoyed by the neighbouring Dominican Republic and by Central America. But to 
take advantage of this, roads, ports and airports all need upgrading.
Debate is starting over whether to privatise not just the ports and airports 
but the state-owned electricity and telecoms companies as well. Most of those 
Haitians who have electricity obtain it from their own generators or from 
batteries, since blackouts are the norm. In recent months the telecoms company, 
which operates landlines, has halved its workforce. In a rare press conference 
during Mr Harper's visit, Mr Préval likened his country to a “small sailboat” 
which is “likely to be damaged by a wind that is not too strong.” Like the 
fishing vessels at Cité Soleil, Haiti's economy and administration remain 
underpowered and rudimentary. But the country is starting to move again, 
however hesitantly.




Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights 
reserved.



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