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Chilean
President Michelle Bachelet pledges support for
Haiti
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AP
Sunday, June 11, 2006 |
PORT-AU-PRINCE,
Haiti (AP) - Chilean President Michelle Bachelet visited
sick children at a poorly equipped hospital yesterday
and pledged continued support for Haiti's health care,
education and housing.
Bachelet arrived
late Friday on a one-day visit to evaluate
Chilean-assisted security and development efforts in the
deeply impoverished Caribbean nation, which is slowly
recovering from a crippling February 2004 revolt.
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| PORT-AU-PRINCE,
Haiti - Chilean President Michelle Bachelet,
wearing white, meets with young Haitian patients
during a visit to Port-au-Prince's general
hospital, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, yesterday.
Chile is among the contributors of troops to the
United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Haiti.
(Photo: AP) |
Amid heavy security
by UN troops, Bachelet visited the children's ward of
the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where she met
with doctors and donated a heart monitor and a supply of
anaesthesia.
"We know your needs are much greater,"
Bachelet told workers at the public hospital, which
sorely lacks equipment and medicine.
She pledged Chile
and its international partners would "continue
offering support so that every Haitian has a better
chance to have health care, education and housing."
Bachelet met Friday night with Haitian President Rene
Preval, whom she congratulated on his February electoral
victory and the installation of a new Cabinet.
Preval thanked
Bachelet for Chile's involvement in a Brazil-led UN
peacekeeping force sent to restore order after the
revolt toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
and threw the nation into chaos.
Chile's Senate last
month authorised a six-month extension of the country's
more than 600 army and police troops in the UN force.
Bachelet, the first head of state to visit Haiti since
Preval took power last month, said she would discuss
with Preval the possibility of keeping Chilean forces in
the country longer if needed, saying a stable Haiti was
vital to regional security.
"Latin America
and the Caribbean share many of the same challenges and
dilemmas, and we have to work together to find
solutions," she said. "This shows that when
there are important tasks, that we're capable of uniting
for a common cause."
Bachelet was later
scheduled to visit a contingent of Chilean peacekeepers
in Haiti's north before travelling to the neighbouring
Dominican Republic.
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