The Hindu : Help resolve Haiti crisis, Annan tells Canada

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 09, 2004

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International

Help resolve Haiti crisis, Annan tells Canada

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

TORONTO, MARCH 8. The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, who begins a two-day official visit, has called for greater Canadian participation in Haiti, stressing that Ottawa must do more than sending peacekeepers. Mr. Annan said today in an interview that "I will encourage him (the Canadian Prime Minister, Paul Martin) to spend more...not just on peacekeeping troops."

Mr. Annan said Haiti needed long-term help from Ottawa for institution building. He called upon Canada to get back to where it used to be in the world stage saying the country produced "very good peacekeepers". "We want to see more Canadians participating," in United Nations operations".

Last week, Mr. Martin announced that Canada would send about 450 troops to Haiti for a specific period. The first of the peacekeepers — about 50 — arrived in Haiti over the weekend only to be `greeted' with violence. The developments in Haiti over the last two days are expected to set off yet another round of political discussion among the Opposition parties here. Independent analysts and some in the Opposition have been questioning if Ottawa did the right thing in signing on to the mission.

The National Post has reported that the Canadian International Development Agency gave $270 millions worth of aid to Haiti between 1994 and 2002 but the assistance was "un-coordinated, inefficient and ineffective, making long term results illusory".

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