HAITI: U.S. announces half-billion in aid to Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - (AP) -- The United States on Friday announced a $492 million aid package aimed at putting Haiti on a path to stability and lifting its stagnant economy.
The funds, to be disbursed over three years, will address the Caribbean nation's ''enormous economic challenges'' by creating jobs, increasing access to healthcare and education and fighting HIV/AIDS, said U.S. Ambassador Janet A. Sanderson.
''Haiti is special. It is starting with a very high unemployment rate. It is starting with a new democratic process that is extremely important and we are here to support all of that,'' Sanderson said in a news conference with Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis.
Current President René Préval took power in May and has pledged to restore order, but a surge in kidnappings and other violence blamed on street gangs has raised fears that the shaky stability could crumble again.
In a report released this week, the World Bank included Haiti on a list of 26 ''fragile states'' at risk of collapsing because of conflict, poverty and bad governance. The report said international donors failed to help provide basic security in Haiti and had poorly timed aid disbursements.
Alexis said the assistance from the United States, Haiti's largest foreign donor, would help the government continue ``efforts to have a functioning [democratic] system and good governance.''
The aid package also will pay for initiatives to reform Haiti's justice system and boost agribusiness. It does not include funds to buy weapons for ill-equipped police forces in Haiti, which remains under a 15-year-old U.S. arms embargo.