I'm going to share my time with some of my colleagues, if you don't mind.
Merci, monsieur MacKay. Thank you very much for being here in front of us today.
Mr. MacKay, in your opening remarks you talked about security, democratic process and governance, human rights, reconstruction, political momentum, Haitian ownership, high-level political engagement as the next steps. That's a lot. You mentioned at the end:
We have learned from the failings of past international efforts in Haiti. We know that sustained international engagement, Haitian ownership and commitment, and broad, coordinated development cooperation are key ingredients for any success.
I've been to Haiti three times in the last three years, there is a persistent climate of insecurity over there. Recently, Rights and Democracy in Montreal and a coalition of Quebec NGOs released a letter that they sent to Kofi Annan concerning Haiti, and they said:
In the domain of human security, it is evident that MINUSTAH is obtaining very poor results.
And they go on to say:
we find it difficult to understand how MINUSTAH, which has been on the ground for nearly two years with a force of thousands of soldiers, hundreds of police and a strong infrastructure, seem unable to fulfil their mandate of re-establishing order and security in the country as well as moving towards disarmament.
My question is, knowing that the mandate of MINUSTAH, the United Nations stabilization force in Haiti, needs to be renewed next August, August 15 of this year, what can be done in the short term and longer term to improve the operational effectiveness of MINUSTAH notably in regard to human rights, disarming armed gangs, and the reform of a national police force?