ARTICLE - CLINTON - HAITI NEEDS TRANSPARENCY

BILL CLINTON SAYS HAITI'S 'MIRACLE' CHANGE NEEDS TRANSPARENCY
(AFP)

UNITED NATIONS — UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, said Wednesday the country's new government would have to prove it is spending billions of dollars of international money transparently.

But Haiti's outgoing president said the United Nations had to replace the tanks and peacekeepers in the stricken nation with bulldozers and engineers.

Clinton told the UN Security Council that Haiti's election and peaceful transfer of power after the devastating January 2010 earthquake are "small miracles."

The co-chairman of the Haiti reconstruction commission, who is to meet president-elect Michel Martelly in the capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday, said progress was being made rebuilding the stricken country where more than 225,000 people died in the quake in January last year.

But "transparency" was crucial "so that the donors have real confidence and the people of Haiti can see the houses going up, the Haitians being hired, the Haitian businesses being brought into partnership."

UN leader Ban Ki-moon said changing Haiti's "deeply dysfunctional" judicial system must be a priority for Martelly.

"The people of Haiti are looking to the next government and parliament to deliver," Ban added, calling for the parliament to show its "commitment to change" by completing constitutional changes before Martelly is inaugurated next month.

Clinton and Ban said other nations must hand over more of the money that was promised at a major UN conference in March last year. About 5.3 billion dollars to be spent over the initial two years was pledged, and Clinton said 3.2 billion had already been earmarked.

"Now that we have had this election and the international community has accepted the results and verified and participated in the oversight of it, I think greater donor disbursements are important," the former US leader said.

Haiti's outgoing president Rene Preval said the United Nations had to drastically change its mission in Haiti.

UN peacekeepers were sent because of military coups and internal fighting among armed groups in the 1990s. But there are still 12,000 troops and police and Preval said there has been a military presence for 11 years in a country with no war.

"Peacekeeping operations did not quickly enough adapt to the new situation," he said, adding that Haiti's main problem is under-development.

"Tanks, armored vehicles and soldiers should have given way to bulldozers, engineers, more police instructors, experts in support to justice and to the penitentiary system."

Though there was bitter wrangling over the result of Haiti's presidential election, the country has been praised for getting through the disputes peacefully, helping to bury its past of dictatorship and violence.

Preval highlighted how he was the first president in 25 years to have completed two constitutional terms "and also, unfortunately, I am the only one in 25 years who was never jailed or exiled."