The United States is currently reassessing several aspects of its
relationship with Haiti, based on concerns about how votes were counted
in Haiti's May 2000 parliamentary and local elections. The International
Criminal Investigative and Training Assistance Program terminated its
assistance to the Haitian police because of congressional concerns related
to events surrounding the May 2000 Haitian parliamentary and local
elections. The Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance
and Training stopped its assistance to the judicial sector because the
United States and Haiti had not been able to negotiate an agreement for
continuing this assistance effort.
U.S. Assistance Helped
To help institutionalize democracy in Haiti, the United States provided
to Improve Police and
about $97 million in assistance from fiscal years 1995 through 2000 to help
Haiti build its first civilian controlled police force, enhance some aspects of
Judicial Sector, but
the judicial sector, and improve the access of the population to justice.
Major Shortcomings
Despite some initial achievements, the Haitian police and judicial sector
still suffer from major organizational problems.
Persist
Assistance Helped to Build
U.S. assistance sought to help Haiti create and strengthen a civilian
Police Force
controlled police force that would be professional and respect the rights of
the population. The United States provided about $70 million in fiscal
years 1995 99 for equipment for the police, construction of the police
academy, and police training. The Department of Justice's International
Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program provided most of
this assistance over $65 million.
The U.S. assistance helped Haiti
recruit an interim police force of about 4,000 police officers and U.N.
police monitors to work with this force;
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GAO 01 24 Foreign Assistance
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