Security situation improving in Haiti, says UN
Saturday, July 14, 2007
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Security conditions in Haiti are improving, although more work remains to be done, a UN peacekeepers' spokeswoman said Friday.
"Security is improving in Haiti but we have to continue to bolster Haitian police's capacities," said Sophie Boutaud de la Combe, spokeswoman for the UN Stabilization Force for Haiti.
The UN force, set up in Haiti in June 2004, has 7,200 military troops and 1,500 police from around the world.
The spokeswoman said that when the mission is up for renewal in October, staffing would have to be reevaluated. But she allowed that while "arrests have declined, that does not mean that stabilization has been concolidated completely."
UN peacekeepers were deployed to Haiti after then-President Jean Bertrand Aristide fled an uprising in February 2004.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas.