Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

More police needed, says Haitian PM

Saturday, December 2, 2006

by: Jane Barrett

MADRID, Spain (Reuters): Security is improving in Haiti but Latin America's poorest country needs more police and training rather than foreign soldiers trying to establish peace, Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said on Thursday.

Gangs and guerrillas are plaguing Haiti's fight for development after a bloody rebellion ousted then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Feb. 2004.

"Security has improved since this government came in but we still need to work to reach the level of satisfaction we want," Alexis told reporters after meeting donors in Madrid.

In August, the United Nations renewed the mandate of 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti for six months, despite Secretary General Kofi Annan calling for troops to stay another year.

Alexis said Haiti only had 4,000 police for a country of more than 8 million people.

"Do the maths. We need more police than soldiers. This is the biggest priority for our country now," Alexis said.

"We want to regain our sovereignty and security so that there is a more stable environment for businesses to open, jobs to be created, wealth to be shared more equally," he added.

In a communique, donors welcomed the work Haiti had done with U.N. troops to stabilise the country but added that foreign soldiers and police were needed to disarm and break-up gangs.

They said they were satisfied with Haiti's economic policy and the results it was yielding, urging the country to keep working for more transparency and reform.

In a separate statement, the European Commission said it had decided to add 60 million euros in aid to the 233 million it had already pledged to give Haiti in 2008-13.

"We have gone from emergency plans to stabilisation plans, from confrontation to setting up democratic institutions," said Stefano Manservisi, head of development for the Commission.

In July, donors topped up and extended a two-year-old aid fund with $750 million for 13 months after the original $1.1 billion package expired.

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