Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Minister MacKay. Kofi Annan said that the international community should be in Haiti for 10 years, but he should have also added the words “at least”.
I would like to briefly come back to the issue of security. Following Aristide's departure, this committee met with NGOs that submitted recommendations on how to restore security. Aside from what has already been said on the need for cooperation with the MINUSTAH and the national police, the NGOs said that the disarmament process should begin.
In 1994, following Clinton's intervention, the deployment of 24,000 soldiers, there has been no disarmament. Haiti continued to be invaded, to be the transit point of arms and drugs coming from the United States. Political gangs at all levels were able to obtain these supplies easily.
Many times, I asked questions in the House of Commons and I was told that MINUSTAH did not have a mandate to disarm. Will you commit to obtaining information and do what is necessary, out of respect for Prime Minister Préval's decisions, to disarm the country? Otherwise, we would be fooling ourselves when we talk about security.
Secondly, does your government have the intention of helping Haitians pick themselves up, rather than trying to do things for them? I know that the answer seems obvious, however, the tendency of those who intervene in Haiti has been to replace rather than help.
Will you commit to helping them? Those are my two points of principle.