Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Haiti contact group endorses extension of UN peacekeeping force
02-02-2007

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): The international contact group for Haiti endorsed on Thursday a 12-month extension of the UN military mission which has led the battle against rampant gang violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The United States meanwhile announced a 20 million dollar grant to fund job creation programs in the worst-hit Port-au-Prince slum, Cite Soleil.

"We agreed that all of us should support a renewal of the United Nations military mission (MINUSTAH) for a period of 12 months at current force levels," said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.

Some UN members have been pressing for only a six-month extension for the 9,150-strong peacekeeping mission, but Burns said Thursday's meeting grouping 15 countries and seven international organizations - including a representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - unanimously backed leaving the force in place for a year.

"The presence of that mission is essential for stability and peace and to deter crime in Haiti," Burns said at a joint press conference with Haitian Foreign Minister Jean-Raynald Clerisme.

"To renew it for anything less than 12 months would not be right," he said.

Clerisme welcomed the decision, saying the UN force had already achieved significant success in clearing gangs out of a number of Port-au-Prince areas that had been virtual no-go zones in recent years.

"With the support of MINUSTAH, now all those places people can go and come," he said.

"We still continue to have some gangs, but the number has been reduced drastically," he said.

"I think that very shortly we will have a peaceful Port-au-Prince," he said.

The UN force last month carried out a series of raids targeting gangs in Cite Soleil, sparking gun battles that left 17 people dead in the sprawling slum.

Burns meanwhile announced the 20 million dollar job creation plan for Cite Soleil.

"This program will give direct assistance to one of the poorest and one of the most troubled areas of Port-au-Prince," Burns said, adding that the aim was to provide "encouragement through employment to help stabilize" the slum.

The United States has delivered some 640 million dollars in aid to Haiti since 2004, when then-president Jean Bertrand Aristide was forced out of the country amid a popular uprising.

More than half of the Caribbean island's 8.4 million people live below the extreme poverty line of one dollar a day, according to UN officials.