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Haiti in better shape because of UN: Canadian diplomat

Last Updated: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | 5:13 PM ET

The UN has helped to increase political stability and personal security in Haiti but the country continues to be in a fragile state, with daunting economic challenges, Canada's ambassador to the UN said Wednesday.

John McNee, who led an advisory group from the UN Economic and Social Council on a four-day trip to Haiti last week, told reporters at UN headquarters in New York that the situation in the country is more hopeful than even a few months ago.

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, along with the help of international aid, has been able to achieve a "measure of political stability" and a "considerable increase in security" in Haiti, McNee said.

But McNee said Haiti needs to find long-term answers to its deep economic problems.

"We were all struck by the developmental challenges in Haiti," he said. "The situation remains fragile. In fairness, we should stress the fragility of it."

The real challenge, he said, is increasing employment in Haiti, and if the economic situation could be improved, then people could be persuaded not to get involved in criminal activity.

McNee said tourism and agriculture are two sectors that, if developed, could help to pull Haiti out of poverty.

There are already signs that tourism may be making a small comeback and the country once produced a high grade of coffee and could do so again, he said.

A crackdown by UN forces and Haitian police on armed criminal gangs has helped to improve security, particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, McNee said.

400 gang leaders arrested

Since the start of this year, more than 400 gang leaders have been arrested.

This week, UN peacekeepers and Haitian national police arrested a reputed gang leader, Belony Pierre, who had been on the run since February. He faces charges of murder and kidnapping.

The advisory group went to Haiti to assess economic and social development strategies for the country as well as the work of the UN mission and international assistance. It met the president, prime minister and many members of the Haitian cabinet.

McNee said it was able to visit Cité Soleil, a notorious slum area in the capital recently made safer by the arrests of gang leaders. A visit to the slum by foreign observers would have been unthinkable even four months ago, he said.

McNee said there is no question that the UN mission is making a difference in Haiti.

"It's clear that MINUSTAH is playing an essential role at the present time. It would be premature to start thinking of winding it up," he said.

The UN mission in Haiti was established in October 2004 after an insurgency forced then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to go into exile. The advisory group, which also visited Haiti in 2005, was tracking progress since its last visit.

According to the Foreign Affairs department, Canada is contributing up to 100 civilian police officers to the stabilization mission in Haiti.

"Haiti is now Canada's most important long-term development assistance beneficiary in the Americas, and the second largest in the world [after Afghanistan]," according to the department's website.