Tuesday, May 16, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, (AFP): The UN Security Council on Monday urged Haiti's executive and legislative branches to work together in a constructive manner following the swearing-in of President Rene Preval.

The 15-member body also stressed that "the timely holding of municipal, local and remaining parliamentary elections is fundamental to democratic governance."

In a statement read by its president for May, Congolese Ambassador Basile Ikouebe, the council highlighted the other challenges facing Haiti, "including the need to ensure a secure and stable environment, strengthen its democratic institutions, foster national reconciliation and political dialogue and protect human rights and the rule of law."

It also stressed the need to reform and strengthen the country's police, judiciary and correctional systems and to implement "highly visible and labor intensive projects that help create jobs and deliver basic social services."

Preval, a 63-year-old agronomist seen as a champion of the poor, was sworn in as president on Sunday, two years after his predecessor Jean Bertrand Aristide fled the impoverished Caribbean nation.

The mild-mannered moderate leftist took the oath of office for a five-year term at a ceremony in Port-au-Prince attended by foreign dignitaries and members of Haiti's newly elected parliament.

Preval, who was elected president on February 7 with 51 percent of the vote, enjoys wide support among the poor in the nation of eight million. He served as prime minister under Aristide and as president from 1996 to 2001.

A one-time ally of Aristide, Preval has distanced himself from the former president who resigned in the face of an armed rebellion and a loss of international support.

Aristide currently lives in exile in South Africa.

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