Haiti Report for September 3, 2007

The Haiti Report is a summary compilation of events as described in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY. It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization. This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation. To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930 or visit our website: www.konpay.org 

IN THIS REPORT:

- Chinese Riot Police Train for Haiti

- Navy's Comfort Ship in Haiti for One Week

- Hurricane Dean Kills Nine in Haiti

- Bahamas Human Rights Network Calls for Debt Relief for Haiti

- Swiss Government Extends Freeze on Bank Accounts of "Baby Doc"

- International Organization for Migration Investigating Child Traffickers in Haiti

- Former Insurgent Leader Guy Philippe in Spotlight Again

- Miami-Dade County Commissioners Propose Haiti "Marshall Plan"

- Former Haitian Leaders Begin to Stir

- Charcoal Briquettes Made from Sugar Cane Refuse

- Haitian Parliament Tries to Question the Prime Minister, State Prosecutor RE: Summons Issued to Businessmen in Corruption/Drug Trafficking Investigation

- Father Jean-Juste Returns to Haiti

- The Economist Country Briefing - Notes Improving Security in Haiti

Chinese Riot Police Train for Haiti:

 China is training 125 riot police who will be sent to Haiti in early December as China's sixth peacekeeping squad to join the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission there. The riot police, all from southwest China's Yunnan Province and mostly anti-drug trafficking police officers, will be offered a string of specialized training programs, such as peacekeeping knowledge, language, driving, shooting, and tactics, in the coming three months, according to the Ministry of Public Security. The 125 police officers were picked from 1,100 candidates, and they have gone through a two-month basic training program in the Yunnan provincial capital of Kunming before they went to Langfang, said a spokesman with the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Border Defense Unit. Approved by the UN, they will depart for Haiti in early December to replace China's fifth peacekeeping squad of 125 riot police there, who went to Haiti in April this year, the spokesman said. China has participated in the UN peace-keeping missions in Haiti since October 2004. (Xinhua, 9/4)

Navy's Comfort Ship in Haiti for One Week:

A welcoming ceremony commemorating the arrival of hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) was celebrated in Port-au-Prince, Sept. 1. The ceremony, held at the estate of the U.S. Embassy, began with U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Janet A. Sanderson, who welcomed the Comfort team to the country, followed by a speech by Capt. Bob Kapcio, Comfort’s mission commander. “President Bush sent the Comfort to the Caribbean and Latin America to strengthen the close ties between our neighbors to provide assistance to the United States friends and neighbors of the region,” Kapcio said. Capt. Claire Pagliara, Comfort’s medical operations officer, was part of a medical staff team who went to Haiti in April before the Comfort deployment to select treatment sites. She recounts a change for the better in the country since her visit in April. “Haiti really is one of the most impoverished countries we’ve been to so far,” Pagliara said. “Seeing the progress over time has really been rewarding. This country has leaned forward and wanted to know how we can help them. The host nation is very eager to have us here – they’ve welcomed us with open arms.” Comfort will remain in Haiti for about a week, conducting humanitarian medical operations and community projects in downtown Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Pétion-Ville and Croix de Bouquets. Comfort is on a four-month humanitarian deployment to Latin America and the Caribbean providing medical assistance to patients in a dozen countries. (Navy News Stand, 9/2)

Hurricane Dean Kills Nine in Haiti:

Hurricane Dean has now left 9 people dead, 25 injured and one missing in Haiti, Haitian authorities said on Wednesday. The storm has also destroyed 1,167 homes, left 8,244 homeless and caused serious damage to the nation's agriculture, the authorities said. The worst hit area in Haiti was Chardonieres in the south, where three people were killed, the biggest death toll in any single region. Dean also killed six people in the Dominican Republic, two in Dominica, two in Jamaica and one in St. Lucia.  (Xinhua, 8/22)

Bahamas Human Rights Network Calls for Debt Relief for Haiti:

The Bahamas Human Rights Network is calling on the new Bahamas government to lend its influence to the international community to help eradicate Haiti’s debt. Before the May 2 general election, the group called for international monetary agencies to "immediately" forgive all of Haiti’s debts, and called for the Bahamas government to encourage the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank to make this happen. Head of the BHRN, Elsworth Johnson, said the same message he had to the former administration remains the same for the new one. "We want to congratulate them [the FNM] on their victory at the polls, but what we want to say is that it would be in the interest of The Bahamas to lobby internationally for technical assistance for Haiti for medical assistance and where there can be some debt reduction," Mr. Johnson said. "The first two countries that are really hit by the migration of Haitian immigrants would be The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos a little and the U.S. We have very few persons in the international community who are coming forth to lend us assistance." Haiti continues to fund its debts per year, which could be used to help develop health and educational systems in that country, Mr. Johnson has said. He acknowledged that the IMF approved Haiti’s participation in its heavily indebted poor countries initiative (HIPC), which would apply to its World Bank debt. But it would take until 2009 for Haiti’s compliance to be completed. Several months ago, the Board of Governors of the IDB approved 100% debt relief for Haiti, which also hangs upon Haiti’s compliance with the HIPC. Even though these efforts are a step in the right direction, Mr. Johnson said, the BHRN is concerned about Haiti’s ability to wait for two more years for its compliance to be completed and to receive 100% debt cancellation. Mr. Johnson said one can not calculate the contribution that the Haitian revolution made to black people in the Western Hemisphere. "Haiti started it – hence the abolition of slavery. Now all of us can be around here dancing and carrying on – free. They did a significant thing and they’ve never been forgiven for that. We need to get up as persons in this hemisphere and say to the international community, to countries like France, the U.S., and Britain – give them a break," he said. He said that he is encouraged by the move of the IMF "but there can always be improvement. Anything that you do you can improve on it if you want to."

When The Journal spoke to former Minister of State for Finance James Smith on this issue, he made it clear that The Bahamas supported the move by the IDB, but also beckoned to the international community for assistance to The Bahamas in dealing with this problem. The BHRN believes that without proper funding to address the issues in Haiti,  countries like The Bahamas would continue to have an influx of Haitian migrants to their shores. "It would only help us [should The Bahamas use its influence to get support for Haiti]," Mr. Johnson said. "And we have to help ourselves because if Bahamians weren’t giving out the jobs, weren’t seeing Haitians as ‘my Haitians’, weren’t working them on construction sites as cheap labour, they would not come because there would be nothing here for them and that’s the reality." He added, "That’s why they go to Abaco because somebody is working them. That’s why we see a new community now in Exuma. Somebody is benefiting and we don’t want to be real about this. That is why the communities spring around here in New Providence. Somebody is benefiting." (The Bahamas Journal, 8/29)

Swiss Government Extends Freeze on Bank Accounts of "Baby Doc":

The Swiss government has extended a freeze on bank accounts linked to former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, an official said Wednesday. The accounts, which were due to be released to Duvalier's family at the end of August, will remain blocked for a further year, government spokesman Oswald Sigg said after a meeting of the seven-member Cabinet in Bern. They contain 7.6 million Swiss francs (US$6.3 million; €4.7 million) that many in Haiti consider to have been stolen from public funds before Duvalier was ousted in 1986 — something he has always denied. Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Philippe Jeannerat said the extension followed assurances by Haiti that the Caribbean nation would initiate proceedings against Duvalier "in the near future" — a necessary step for Switzerland to confiscate the funds. Lawyers for victims of the Duvalier regime are trying to prevent his family from gaining access to the money, arguing it should instead be returned to the Haitian people. A Geneva lawyer acting on behalf of two Haitians awarded US$1.75 million in damages against Duvalier by a U.S. court in 1988 welcomed the Swiss government's decision. Marc Henzelin said his firm also was informed Wednesday that a separate freeze of one of the accounts — imposed by a Geneva cantonal (state) court in May — had been confirmed by the local tribunal. The court ruling affects only one of the accounts, "but almost all the assets are in this account," he said. The Swiss government agreed in June to a limited, three-month extension of the freeze first imposed in 2002 to allow for further negotiations with the Duvalier family and to prevent any of the funds being returned to the former dictator — now living in exile in France — via a complicated chain of offshore trusts and companies controlled by his relatives. Switzerland's supreme court ruled last year that an indefinite freeze on privately owned funds was unconstitutional. The case involved 8 million francs (US$6.6 million; €4.9 million) deposited in Swiss banks by the former Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko. (AP, 8/22)

International Organization for Migration Investigating Child Traffickers in Haiti:

Some 100 children in urgent need of medical help remained in the hands of traffickers in Haiti who were seeking to sell them for adoption, one week after 48 kids were rescued from the same place, an intergovernmental organization said Friday. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said initial estimates by Haitian authorities put the number of children still awaiting rescue at more than 40. But "officials now believe there are about 100 children there in urgent need of medical assistance", it said, adding that Haiti's social well-being agency was in need of financing to rescue them. The IOM said the 48 children rescued last week "were found in conditions of extreme neglect". "Most were suffering from malnutrition, severe diarrhea, dehydration, and skin diseases," the Geneva-based organisation said. "Many parents had difficulties recognizing their children upon their return home."

According to the IOM, the 48 children from the impoverished Grande Anse region had been "given away" by their parents to traffickers who had promised to help them and taken to an adoption centre in Port-au-Prince. "One government official revealed that during an unannounced visit made a few days before the rescue, the children were hidden in the basement, frightened and filthy," the IOM said. "Neighbours have confirmed that they often heard children crying." In a statement to a local radio station, one of the presumed traffickers said that when the imminent rescue of the children was announced, those working at the creche restricted the amount of food and other basic care normally given to the children, the IOM said. Ten of the children remain hospitalised. The IOM was seeking financing for Haitian authorities both for rescue efforts and assistance to child victims of trafficking. Money must also be spent to raise awareness about human trafficking in impoverished areas of Haiti, it said.

According to the IOM, families in areas such as Jeremie, a poor and isolated district in the southwest, are unable to provide needs for their children, including food, health care and education. "If urgent sensitisation measures are not carried out in the region, there is a risk that destitute parents will continue to give their children away and these ruthless traffickers will continue to thrive in Haiti's more destitute areas," Geslet Bordes, manager of IOM's child trafficking programme in Haiti, said in a statement. An IOM official explained at the time of last week's rescue that parents approached a local non-governmental organisation for help after they found out their children were being kept at the centre. With the help of other NGOs, the parents filed a complaint against the owner of the centre in 2006 and campaigned for the return of their children, the official said. "IOM is also providing financial support for the immediate medical and psychological care of the children as well as reintegration assistance for both the children and their parents," the organisation said. IOM has assisted with the return and re-integration of 121 children victims of trafficking in Haiti since 2005 with financing from the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. (AFP, 8/17)

Former Insurgent Leader Guy Philippe in Spotlight Again:

Three years ago, Guy Philippe, a pistol bulging from his waist, was riding high. He'd led a rebellion that ousted Haiti's elected president and declared that "the country is in my hands." These days, Philippe is riding so low that no one can find him -- not Haitian police or the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which last month raided his house. In an audio message distributed to radio stations from hiding, Philippe denied involvement in drug trafficking and accused the United States of trying to silence him for political reasons. "Before, when they wanted to eliminate someone, they called him a communist. Now there are no more communists so you're either a terrorist or into drugs," said the 39-year-old who unsuccessfully ran for president last year. The drug-trafficking accusations against Philippe are as murky as some of the chapters in his past. Last year, he ran for president but came in a distant ninth, receiving less than 2 percent of the vote. Philippe's supporters have suggested the United States is trying to silence him, perhaps because he knows secrets about the 2004 revolt.

Months ago, Philippe went on local radio and denounced several powerful Haitians who he said helped finance the rebellion. Some Haitians have speculated that those well-connected people are now using their influence to get him arrested. On July 16, heavily armed U.S. and Haitian anti-drug agents raided Philippe's yellow, two-story home in Haiti's remote southern peninsula, but found only his family and a maid. Neither Haitian nor U.S. officials will publicly acknowledge that they're looking for him. "I know nothing about Guy Philippe or any case file relating to him," said national police spokesman Frantz Lerebours. The DEA and U.S. attorney's office in Miami, Florida, have declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation. The secrecy has fueled speculation about possible underlying motives to catch Philippe. But officials also are cracking down generally on reputed local drug kingpins, and there may be no ulterior motive. DEA and Haitian anti-drug agents have arrested a hotel owner who is believed to have helped finance the 2004 revolt, and the president of a local soccer club. No charges have been announced. The arrests marked the first major crackdown against suspected traffickers since President Rene Preval was elected last year. In his message from hiding, Philippe insisted that he lived a quiet life in the country after the 2004 rebellion, spending time with his family and playing pingpong, not trafficking drugs. "If they have proof, let them bring it on," said Philippe, adding that he plans eventually to return to his rural home and "live like a simple peasant."  (AP, 8/16)

Miami-Dade County Commissioners Propose Haiti "Marshall Plan":

Miami-Dade County Commissioners Dennis Moss and Rebeca Sosa want the federal government to spend money and manpower to rebuild Haiti. Call it the Caribbean Marshall Plan. The two are cosponsors of a resolution that will be proposed at today's County Commission meeting. The resolution urges the federal government to "adopt a plan to rebuild Haiti similar to the Marshall Plan.'' That plan, created in 1947 and engineered by then-Secretary of State George Marshall, led to four years and $13 billion worth of reconstruction in Europe to repair war damage. The resolution cites Haiti's status as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and notes that a quarter of the country's economy is money that islanders receive from overseas.

A Marshall Plan, the resolution says, could result in a massive infusion of food, infrastructure, aid, technical help and trade preferences. ''A Marshall Plan for Haiti could serve to jump-start Haiti's economy just as the Marshall Plan did in many regions of Europe, leading to several decades of growth and prosperity following World War II,'' the proposal states. It directs the county's federal lobbyists to advocate its passage and asks the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to include it in the 2007 and 2008 federal legislative packages. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, accompanied Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a trip to Haiti in 2005, just before the country's elections. She said that despite the rampant crime and corruption that has hurt previous U.S. investment in the island nation, she's willing to make another go of it. ''The concept of a Marshall Plan for Haiti proposed by some of our local officials could serve as an instrument of growth and sustainable development,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. (Miami Herald, 9/3)

Former Haitian Leaders Begin to Stir:

Out of sight, out of mind and now out of money, former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has been quietly sounding out the possibility of returning home after 21 years in exile in France. Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, still visible and sufficiently flush to fuel his promotional machinery from South Africa, nurtures the hopes of his supporters that he will one day come back to lead this country. Closer to home, three coup leaders and an ex-president live in the shadows,

aging and ostracized but not to be counted out in the seemingly boundless potential for political disruptions in Haiti. Even as Haitians enjoy a respite from violence for the first time in decades, political forces given up for dead are showing faint stirrings of life. Some analysts dismiss the phenomenon as irrelevant musings of yesterday's men, but others point out that history here tends to repeat itself.

Nostalgia for the Duvalier era has made itself apparent in recent months with the establishment of the Francois Duvalier Foundation preserving the memory of the exiled Duvalier's late father, a celebration of what would have been the elder tyrant's 100th birthday in April and a sellout memoir of the president-for-life titled "The Misunderstood." "More and more people are talking about the Duvalier period with positive memories," said Daniel Supplice, a teacher and historian who was a childhood friend of and political aide to the younger Duvalier, who fled to France in 1986 as pro-democracy forces fanned international condemnation of his human rights abuses. "When Jean-Claude left, the population expected changes for the better," Supplice said. "On the contrary, things have only gotten worse." Rural Haitians were removed from much of the repression trained on dissidents in the cities, so they felt little benefit from Baby Doc's departure and "couldn't care less about so-called democracy," he said.

"I've heard that Jean-Claude wants to return, maybe not as president but as a citizen," said Rony Gilot, who was Baby Doc's information minister and wrote the recent biography of the father. "The Misunderstood" sold out its initial 1,000 copies within days of its February release, and a larger second printing is due out soon. Gilot, who still talks to the 56-year-old Duvalier in Paris by phone every few months, attributes the unanticipated interest in the late dictator's story to a nostalgia for a lost sense of order and national pride, but not for the stifling of personal and political freedoms.

Aristide openly aspires to returning and reigniting his following. "He is in good spirits because he knows he will come back and that we are fighting for that," said Maryse Narcisse, one of five directors of the Aristide Foundation, which bankrolls student stipends, aid for activists with his Lavalas Movement and political agitation for his repatriation. Nearly 1,000 supporters marched on Aristide's 54th birthday in July to demand his return -- a shadow of the throngs that once backed the

charismatic populist, but still a force for the fragile government of President Rene Preval to reckon with. When pressed by Aristide supporters to invite him back, Preval has pointed out that there are no impediments to his predecessor and onetime mentor's return -- except the former president's own concern about pending charges of criminal drug trafficking and misuse of government funds while in office. (LATimes, September 2)

Charcoal Briquettes Made from Sugar Cane Refuse:

Jules Walter unzipped his backpack and removed a plastic bag of charcoal briquettes made from sugar cane refuse in an MIT lab. He weighed it  in his left hand before placing it on the table at the Miracle of Science Bar and Grill, which sits a few blocks from the school where the first International Development Design Summit was winding down. Walter, 21, played a key role in organizing the dozens of participants from 20 countries who gathered for a month to collaborate on and showcase affordable technologies for developing nations. That work served as an apt prelude to a more personal cause. Within days Walter would board a plane for his native Haiti, where he will lay the foundation for the country's first clean-burning charcoal factory. "I always thought I'd return to Haiti," said Walter, who arrived in the United States as a college freshman three years ago. "I just didn't think it would be so soon, and so often. I knew I wanted to help in some  way, but I couldn't have guessed the circumstances."

The circumstances begin with Amy Smith, the MacArthur Fellowship-winning lecturer whose popular Introduction to Development Course (or "D-Lab") created the alternative charcoal to help alleviate Haiti's deforestation, lack of affordable fuel, and respiratory illnesses created by existing charcoal. Smith, 44, of Beverly, soon teamed up with Gerthy Lahens, a leading activist in Boston's Haitian community whose daughter was a student in D-Lab. The duo has been traveling to Haiti over the past four years, attempting to provide impoverished rural villages with the tools and techniques for producing their own charcoal. Smith will join Walter and Lahens in Haiti this week. In addition to refining the charcoal press, she wants to check on the water purification devices she introduced on a previous trip, as well as field-test vetiver, a fragrant grass used in perfume production, as another potential charcoal source. "I want to meet with individual farmers and see what works well and what doesn't," Smith said. 

Meanwhile, Lahens and Walter will attempt to launch Bagazo, the first commercial version of the alternative charcoal project. Lahens, 56, who always envisioned the charcoal as the basis for a business that would empower communities throughout Haiti, found a kindred  spirit in the entrepreneurial Walter. The two, along with MIT graduate students Amy Banzaert and Kendra Leith, recently won $30,000 from the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. Traveling together throughout Haiti, Lahens and Walter are surveying factory sites, meeting with local investors and government officials, interviewing potential workers, and plotting paths for distributing the charcoal. "The lack of infrastructure in Haiti makes it difficult to get any sort of project off the ground," said Walter, eyeing the bag of charcoal. "We  have specific goals and motivation. The problems we're trying to solve affect people's daily lives. It's not abstract. There's an immediate need for affordable, safe fuel. When you make less than $2 a day, every cent  counts. When respiratory problems are on the rise, something has to be done.  But I realize it will take some time." (Boston Globe, 8/26)

Haitian Parliament Tries to Question the Prime Minister, State Prosecutor RE: Summons Issued to Businessmen in Corruption/Drug Trafficking Investigation:

The meeting scheduled for this Wednesday August 22 at the Haitian Parliament between Justice Minister  René Magloire and the members of the Senate Justice Commission did not take place despite the presence of the Justice Minister. The members of the Commission refused to hold the session due to the absence of the prosecutor,  Claudy Gassant, whom they wished to question about the summonses or invitations to appear that were issued by the prosecutor to some business men as part of the anti-corruption campaign. Claudy Gassant reportedly said that he is not obligated to comply with any summons issued by the Senate as the Constitution in his view does not give this prerogative to the members of Parliament. A former member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti,  Réginald Boulos was in fact invited to appear at the prosecutor's office Thursday to offer explanations concerning cases that needed clarification.  

The refusal by Mr.  Gassant to appear at the Senate the day before Mr. Boulos was due to appear in his office irritated the president of the Senate Justice and Public Security Commission,  Youri Latortue who accused Prosecutor Gassant of placing the authority of the State in danger.  "Claudy Gassant as a subordinate must appear before the Parliament", said Senator  Latortue, adding that part of the Senate's role is to bring about respect for the authority of the State. For his part, Senator  Yvon Buissereth said that Judge  Gassant is doing an admirable job and that he has full authority to invite any Haitian to appear before him in the fulfillment of his mission.    

He said however that he would be pleased if  Claudy Gassant were to appear before the Parliament to provide an explanation regarding the summons issued to  Réginald Boulos. (AHP, 8/22)

Edmond Mulet, whose term for the past 14 months as head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is coming to an end, appealed Thursday to Haitian Parliamentarians to be extremely careful not to align themselves with smugglers and drug traffickers.  Commenting the day following an extraordinary session of the Haitian Senate which considered the possibility of questioning Prime Minister  Jacques Edouard Alexis in the event senior Port-au-Prince Prosecutor Claudy Gassant is not fired from his position, Mr. Mulet said there is a group of Senators and Deputies who are trying to endanger the stabilization process in Haiti by attempting to block Haitian government action to combat smuggling and drug trafficking. Prosecutor Gassant had refused to respond to an invitation to appear issued by the Senate Justice Commission, which wished to question him about the invitations to appear he issued against business men suspected of involvement in smuggling and corruption. "If I were standing in the shoes of this group of politicians and legislators, I would be very careful not to be perceived as defenders of the drug traffickers", said Edmond Mulet, emphasizing the need for political stability in Haiti. A distinction must be made for the general public between  those who are on the right side and those who are on the wrong side, he added.  Edmond Mulet will leave Haiti on Sunday August 26 to return to UN headquarters in New York where he will take up a position as Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.  (AHP 8/23)

Father Jean-Juste Returns to Haiti:

A prominent Roman Catholic priest who was released from prison to seek medical treatment in the United States returned to Haiti on Friday and urged his countrymen to put aside differences and work to uplift the impoverished country. About 200 supporters gathered at Port-au-Prince's airport to greet the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, who made his first visit to Haiti since leaving the country in January 2006 to seek treatment for leukemia. "I just have to give all glory to God for allowing me to be alive so I could come back to my country," a healthy looking Jean-Juste told reporters after arriving from Miami. The 61-year-old priest is an influential advocate for Haiti's poor and a prominent supporter of ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  In 2005, the U.S.-backed interim government jailed Jean-Juste on suspicion of involvement in the killing of prominent Haitian journalist and poet Jacques Roche. A judge cleared him of homicide but indicted him on weapons possession and criminal conspiracy -- charges that Jean-Juste denies and that international human rights have alleged were politically motivated. Jean-Juste did not address his imprisonment but called for several jailed supporters to be freed and for Aristide to be allowed to return to Haiti, steps he said were needed to heal the deeply divided country. "I want to call for a change of heart and so we can find ways to move forward together," Jean-Juste said after addressing supporters at his St. Claire Church. (AP, 8/17)

The Economist Country Briefing - Notes Improving Security in Haiti:

Haiti has been plagued for several years by violent crime and armed gangs, and the problem has persisted even after the inauguration of the current president, Rene Preval, in May 2006. However, the more rigorous approach adopted late last year by troops of the Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haiti (Minustah, the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti) and the Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH, Haitian National Police) has resulted in improvements in the security situation, in particular in the capital, Port-au-Prince. After the anxieties created by several years of politically motivated and criminal violence, the population is enjoying a welcome period of relative calm. The incidence of crime, including kidnapping for ransom, have greatly decreased and residents of many parts of the capital, who had for months endured a de facto curfew at dusk because of the fear of violence, have now largely resumed normal social and commercial activities in the early evening. When he marked one year in office on May 13th, Mr Preval, during a press conference on May 13th, expressed satisfaction with the improved security climate, noting that the establishment of security was an indispensable, condition for his government's objective of increasing investment and creating jobs.

More than 500 alleged gang members were arrested by Minustah forces in the first six months of 2007, and hundreds more have been detained by the PNH. During July alone, the PNH announced it had arrested a further 171 people, 108 on charges of criminal conspiracy, 48 for murder, and 15 for involvement in kidnapping. The majority of alleged gang leaders are thought to be among those either arrested or killed while resisting arrest. Earlier in the year, the Minustah and PNH made a concerted effort to break up the larger gangs based in the sprawling Cite Soleil slum to the north of the capital, and the area has remained relatively free of serious crime, confounding expectations that gang activity would resume once the spotlight shifted elsewhere. (Full report available on The Economist website.)