Although the total number of abductions is down from previous years, Haiti has suffered a spate of kidnappings in the run-up to the holiday season. At least 41 people have been kidnapped since Nov. 1 as criminals seek money for Christmas gifts. Many of the victims are children, seized by gangs or abducted by relatives. The country is still reeling from the case of a 7-year-old boy who was killed and mutilated last month after his parents could not pay a $680 ransom. (AP)

18 December - An international medical aid group is ending its operations in the once-impassable Cité Soleil slum because security there has improved, the chief of mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres said Monday. The group also known as Doctors Without Borders began operations in the seaside shanty district of the Haitian capital two years ago when rampant gang violence and clashes with UN peacekeepers injured thousands without access to health care, said Belgian mission chief Jessica Neerkorn. With the arrests and deaths of major gang leaders and the imposing presence of a UN troop base, safety and mobility in the slum have improved enough to turn over operations to the Haitian health ministry at the end of the year. Some resources will be transferred to other parts of Port-au-Prince including newer projects in Martissant, an impoverished neighborhood with no health infrastructure that continues to be plagued by violence, Neerkorn said.

The organization, which will leave behind a three-month supply of medicine and equipment, will also issue a call on Tuesday for other organizations to step in and continue funding treatment in the slum, known as the largest in the Western Hemisphere. "We still think (Cité Soleil) is a priority, if not an emergency," Neerkorn said. Since setting up shop at the slum's St. Catherine Hosptial and a medical center, the organization treated more than 100,000 cases and delivered more than 1,500 babies, she said. (AP)

12 December - Two men have been convicted for the December 2001 murder of journalist Brignol Lindor. A court in the western town of Petit-Goâve sentenced to life in prison Jean Rémy Démosthène and Joubert Saint Juste, members of the local political organisation “Domi Nan Bwa,” which had ties to former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Famni Lavalas party, according to reports in the Haitian press. A third defendant, Simon Cétouté, was acquitted because of mistaken identity, while a new investigation was opened for the fourth defendant, Fritzner Doudoute, because of a technicality, said Guyler Delva, president of the local press freedom group S.O.S. Journalistes and head of an independent committee of Haitian journalists that reviews the progress of official investigations into the unsolved murders of journalists in Haiti.

Five other “Domi Nan Bwa” members have been accused of involvement in Lindor’s murder but are currently at large, said Delva. On Wednesday, the court issued arrest warrants for them, and gave them 10 days to turn themselves in or be tried in absentia, Delva told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The court also instructed a new investigation to be conducted, which would allow possible masterminds to be prosecuted, including former government officials. According to Delva, the investigation would allow testimony that has not been heard before to be presented. (CPJ)

12 December - Police superintendent Daniel Ulysse was arrested in Port-au-Prince on 10 December in connection with the investigation into the April 2000 murder of Radio Haïti Inter director Jean Dominique and the radio station’s caretaker, Jean-Claude Louissaint. The former head of the judicial police, Ulysse was arrested when he unexpectedly went to the office of Fritzner Fils-Aimé, the judge in charge of the Dominique murder investigation, who had issued an order for him to present himself for questioning. Ulysse, who had previously ignored all the summonses issued by Fils-Aime, is alleged to have obstructed the investigation. He is being held in the national penitentiary pending further questioning by the judge. (Kiskeya)

4 December - Cuba’s assistance to Haiti in the field of renewable energy is making a big contribution, says Maxime Roumer, Senator for the Grand’Anse department. As in his previous visit to the eastern Cuban province of Guanatamo, Roumer toured several projects carried out on semi-arid zones, including those with experimental plantings of Jatropa curcas (Piñón Botija) and Nim trees. The Haitian legislator expressed his most sincere thanks to the Center for the Application of Technologies for Sustainable Development (CATEDES) and the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (CUBASOLAR) for their cooperation with his country. Roumer noted that CUBASOLAR donated photovoltaic solar panels to improve the standard of living at Grand’Anse - one of Haiti’s 10 Departments, the capital of which is Jeremie. CUBASOLAR is also cooperating with the hydroelectric development of that area, particularly in the installation of small generators for water pumping stations. It is also analyzing the possibility of expanding its cooperation in the field of solar energy. With that possibility in mind, Dr. Luis Berriz, president of CUBASOLAR’s Board of Directors, and Jose Sotolongo, CATEDES director and head of CUBASOLAR’s subsidiary in Guantanamo, travelled to Haiti with Roumer on Sunday, where they will stay until December 9. (Cuban News Agency (ACN)

1 December - The United Nations Children's Fund expressed concern on Friday at the growing number of child kidnappings and killings in Haiti over the past two months. In November alone, 11 child kidnappings were reported with the children's age ranging between three and 17, UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau told journalists. Most of the kidnappings took place around the capital Port-au-Prince but some cases were also reported in other regions of the country, she said. In one incident, the "horribly mutilated" body of a seven-year-old child was found, after the parents were unable to pay the ransom of 680 dollars, she said. (AFP)

NOVEMBER
28 November - Guyler Delva, the president of an independent commission investigating the murders of journalists who was forced by repeated death threats to leave the country, returned to Port-au-Prince on 25 November 2007. Delva, who presides over the Independent Commission for Supporting Investigations into Murders of Journalists (CIAPEAJ) fled on 9 November after being chased by a gang of unidentified men in the Pétionville district of the capital. He went first to the Dominican Republic and from there to Florida.

He was greeted on his return to Haiti by Claudy Gassant, public prosecutor in Port-au-Prince, from whom Delva said he had obtained "a formal promise from the President of the Republic, René Préval, to protect his safety". The journalist stated at a press conference on 26 November that Senator Rudolph Boulos was the man behind the threats made against him. He added that Boulos was the holder of a US passport, despite the fact that the 1987 Haitian Constitution bans dual-nationality. Delva also suspects the senator and the police commissioner Daniel Ulysse of "blocking" the investigation into the 3 April 2000 murder of Jean Dominique, head of Radio Haiti Inter, a case that is being probed by the CIAPEAJ. Delva said the examining magistrate, Fritzner Fils-Aimé had issued a summons which had never been acted upon against Daniel Ulysse, and that Boulos refuses to respond to any judicial summons. (RSF)

12 November - Two Jamaican men, believed to be major players in the illegal drugs for guns trade between Jamaica and Haiti were nabbed by police in the western parish of Hanover, Jamaica, on Saturday. Three Haitians were also held in the operation. Inspector Steve Brown, the spokesman for the anti-crime and narcotics taskforce, Operation Kingfish, said the Jamaicans, whose names have not been released were held during an operation in the community of Hopewell in the parish.

According to Brown, one of Jamaicans is a mastermind behind the illegal smuggling activities. "One of the Jamaicans who were picked up, we have special interest in that individual. We know for a fact that he is the mastermind between the illegal gun trade between Jamaica and Haiti. In recent times we have tried to plug the gap," he said, noting that the arrest was a major blow against rampant crime here. "We have targeted the ganja (marijuana) fields and those involved. It's not something that we will win overnight but we know for a fact that we will win this war". Up to late Saturday, Immigration and Passport Division officials were questioning the Haitians who were caught in the police operation. Police said the two women and a man arrived in Jamaica by boat sometime last week. (CMC)

8 November - UN police officers announced that newly trained Haitian national police officers will target troubled neighbourhoods. UNPOL announced 627 recruits have been inducted into the Haitian National Police (HNP) force, and officials say almost all of the new officers will be assigned to form a new motorized brigade in an effort to diminish the role of armed gangs in the capital.

The UNPOL officers trained the recruits on how to maintain order in troubled areas, work effectively as community police officers and use heavy weapons such as M4 rifles along with human-rights protection and upholding civil and penal rights. The unit will be assigned to Port-au-Prince’s most difficult districts, including Cité Soleil and Martissant, the UN peacekeeping mission to Haiti reported. Officials say 200 motorcycles and 40 vehicles from the United States have been delivered to the new unit with more assistance expected.

"The mission is trying to support the national police academy to train and build up the capacity of the police force," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a recent report. Some 30 UNPOL instructors work at the academy and, after this intake, there are now nearly 9,000 police agents in the force. According to the UN, "The proportion of women in the HNP is also increasing. Women currently comprise about 6 percent of the total force, but in this intake they represent nearly 14 percent." (UPI)

5 November - Protesters blocked roads and burned tires on the outskirts of the Cité Soleil slum to demand the government clean up after Tropical Storm Noel, whose heavy rains and flooding killed 148 people in the Caribbean and left tens of thousands homeless. Evacuees who spent four days in the overcrowded National School under UN protection said international troops abandoned the school Friday, leaving them defenseless against outside criminals who robbed them in the dead of night. UN spokesmen said the shelter was turned over to Haitian authorities shortly after sundown, and that Friday's incident was a fight over food by evacuees who had not been fed until that evening. Evacuees said Haitian authorities never arrived, that attackers came from outside the shelter when they were left alone in the dark without a generator. (AP)

OCTOBER
31 October - Rescuers in Haiti spent part of Tuesday plucking people from their rooftops. Emergency workers counted seven dead there, and another 30 in the Dominican Republic. And in Cuba, people braced for the menacing consequences of up to a foot of rain on soil already soaked by weeks of record-breaking downpours. Tropical Storm Noel's deadly path was most evident on the island of Hispaniola, where rivers swelled beyond their banks, sending currents of raging water down village streets in both Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic.

Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis visited the Cité Soleil neighborhood, much of it covered with inches of rainwater. Officials spent much of the day trying to rescue people stranded on rooftops south of the capital of Port-au-Prince in the towns of Jacmel, Leogane and remote areas where torrential downpours caused severe flooding. Officials from the United Nations reported that a child was killed by flooding in the northern Port-au-Prince community of Biagrate, Cazeau. Haitian officials also reported two deaths in Ganthier, near the border with the Dominican Republic. Authorities were still checking into reports of other deaths Tuesday night, as they surveyed the damage to scores of ramshackle homes. Nearly 3,000 people had to be evacuated from nine different communities, including the seaside town of Jacmel, southeast of Port-au-Prince. (Miami Herald)

30 October - A US citizen of Arab decent, who has been elected to Haiti ’s Senate, now faces dismissal and possible arrest after Haitian officials found he had fraudulently obtained a Haitian passport and allegedly made false statements before election authorities. Senator Rudolph Boulos, who is part of one of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful families, was born on April 28, 1951, in Manhattan , New York, USA, according to official documents of which copies have been obtained by CMC. Those documents have shown that Boulos had lately been using a US passport, confirming that he has US citizenship – which disqualifies him from occupying a seat at the Haitian senate. But he continues to claim he is Haitian. “I have never renounced my Haitian nationality,” Boulos told reporters. “I have been targeted for political reasons, because I stand against a plan uttered by certain authorities to restore a dictatorship in the country,” he said. But Haitian officials maintained Boulos – who is part of a family with a long tradition of doing business in Haiti – is a US citizen and should leave Parliament. “We have documented evidence that Mr. Boulos is a US citizen. Therefore he is not allowed to sit at the Haitian senate,” said a high-ranking government official who spoke to CMC on condition of anonymity.“

"If Mr. Boulos does not give up the Senate seat he has obtained fraudulently, he runs the risk of being arrested and prosecuted,” the same authorized source told CMC. “He still has time to choose”.

The Haitian constitution provides that any Haitian citizen who has obtained a foreign citizenship loses the Haitian nationality and therefore is banned from running for parliament offices and for president. In a document signed by Boulos before immigration authorities, he admitted that the Haitian passport he obtained in August 31, 2005, was his very first Haitian passport. But Boulos had been living in Washington for years and has gone on numerous foreign trips during the past years.

The president of the Senate, Joseph Lambert, said he was expecting official notification of the fact from judicial and government authorities before acting and has announced the Senate would launch its own investigation. “If it is confirmed that senator Boulos possess a US passport, he will be simply dismissed,” said Lambert, inviting Boulos to voluntarily resign if he really holds a US passport. (CMC)

29 October - Haitian police are investigating the kidnapping of a high-ranking member of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family Party. Maryse Narcisse, who served as spokeswoman for Aristide shortly after his February 2004 ouster amid an armed uprising, was kidnapped by gunmen Saturday night, according to police and Aristide supporters. Narcisse is the second high-profile Lavalas Family Party member to be abducted in the last two months in Haiti. In August, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine also disappeared after leaving his home just after midnight, according to Aristide supporters. ''Up until now we have no information,'' on that report, said police spokesman Frantz Lerebours.

According to an e-mail sent out by Aristide followers, Narcisse was ``seized by a group of armed men as she reached her home after leaving a meeting with . . . and others of Lavalas Family, and driven off in a car with her abductors.'' The e-mail also said kidnappers were demanding $300,000 for Narcisse's release, but Lerebours said he had no information about the negotiations. (Miami Herald)

26 October - Haiti's top law enforcement official pledged Friday to increase police patrols after two officers were shot and killed in the capital this week. National police chief Mario Andresol, who blamed the killings on gangs from a seaside slum, spoke to legislators concerned that recent murders and kidnappings may signal that gang activity has returned after months of calm. One police officer was shot in the head as he returned home on Thursday, two days after a local police commissioner was gunned down. Two private security guards were also killed Tuesday in a separate incident, police said. UN peacekeepers, whose anti-gang operations have helped reduce violence, report no increase in criminal activity this month — and in fact point to a decline in kidnappings. (AP)

18 October - President Rene Preval's proposal for constitution reform has received support from one member of the country's electoral commission. Mr Preval wants presidents to be allowed to serve consecutive terms. He said this would bring more stability to the country which has been frequently mired in political chaos. Patrick Fequiere, who serves on the elections commission, also supported the proposal for senate elections to be held every five, rather than two years. He told BBC Caribbean that those elections were costing the country too much. "We don't have the resources," he said.

Mr Preval proposed overhauling the country's entire constitution to give the government more flexibility to promote development and fight corruption. But Mr. Fequiere noted that constitutional reform should not focus only on term limits. "I think this will point the way towards a larger debate that should include structural problems, and those problems can be reflected in constitutional changes," he said.

One of Mr Preval's most far reaching proposals is that the president should have the power to dismiss the prime minister. Haitian prime ministers are now appointed by the executive but can only be removed by the parliament.

Current rules limit Haitian presidents to two terms, with at least a five-year break in between. Mr Preval's initial proposal, which spokesmen said he would refine before submitting to parliament, would allow future presidents to serve those terms back-to-back. He won his second non-consecutive term last year, and assured legislators he could not, and would not, seek office again. In an apparent move to dampen speculation that he might renege on that promise, the Haitian president set out to make it clear that he had no intention to continue after his current term ends in 2011. "I repeat once again for everyone: My tenure comes to end on Feb. 7, 2011, period," he asserted.

Legislators praised the speech, saying reform was needed to create a functioning government and ensure peaceful transitions of power. Haiti's current constitution was signed in 1987 after 29 years of dictatorship - first under Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, then his son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. It was intended to impede any return to authoritarian rule. Mr Preval urged lawmakers to work with him to overhaul the document, which he called the single greatest threat to Haiti's long-term stability. (BBC Caribbean)

18 October - A southeastern region of Haiti is about to be declared free of illiteracy, according to the nation's Secretary of State for Literacy Jacmel Valley, with an illiteracy rate of 15 percent could soon be free from that blight, said Carol Joseph. The literacy campaign in Haiti based on the Cuban method, 'Yes I Can' began last September 8 shortly after the arrival of specialists of the Cuban Education Ministry. (Prensa Latina)

16 October - Haitian-born hip-hop star Wyclef Jean became Haiti's newest ambassador Thursday in New York. Jean, named goodwill ambassador by President René Préval, was issued a red diplomatic passport before hundreds of fans and well-wishers including music mogul Russell Simmons, and Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. Jean received the official honors from his uncle Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the United States. Jean promised to represent Haiti well. ''I promise never to make you ashamed,'' he said after joking that New York police should now take notice: he's officially a diplomat. ''Life has changed for the rapper,'' he said, paying respect to the genre that has made him a household name in Haitian communities around the globe. ``If it were not for hip hop I would not be standing here tonight.''

The party didn't end after the ceremony. With a new album coming out Dec. 4, Jean gave the crowd a sample of Wyclef Jean Carnival Vol. II Memoirs of an Immigrant. (Miami Herald)

15 October - The Security Council renewed the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti for another year on Monday but reconfigured it to try to strengthen the country's borders against arms and drugs smuggling. A unanimously passed resolution noted "significant improvements" in the security of the turbulent Caribbean state but said "international illicit trafficking of drugs and arms continues to affect the stability of Haiti." U.N. troops and police were dispatched to Haiti in 2004 after a revolt that toppled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They have only recently brought relative calm to the poorest country in the Americas, rife with violent gangs, killings sparked by turf wars in teeming slums and a rash of kidnappings.

The resolution took up a recommendation by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who visited Haiti in August, to reduce the number of troops by 140 to a maximum of 7,060, decreasing infantry and reorganizing the remainder. Ban's Aug. 22 report said soldiers should be taken from calmer areas and redeployed to establish patrols along the coast and Haiti's land border with the Dominican Republic. The report said that, with its 1,600 miles (2,560 km) of unprotected coastline, unguarded seaports and numerous clandestine airstrips, Haiti was wide open for arms and drugs smugglers. The police component of the U.N. force will be increased by 140, to a maximum of 2,091, to help Haitian police in urban areas, compensate for the shift of troops and help with border monitoring. Ban's report said the Haitian National Police, "despite marginal improvements ... remains unable to undertake crucial security tasks unaided." Monday's resolution welcomed "continuing achievements in Haiti's political process," including peaceful local elections in April, but said the situation "continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security. (Reuters)

12 October - At least 23 people have died near Haiti's capital following heavy rains that triggered floods, Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime told AFP Friday. Bien-Aime said 23 bodies were found Thursday in Cabaret, north of the capital, after floodwaters hit their hillside homes, sweeping them away in the current. "It is still a preliminary toll. There are about 12 people still missing," he added. More than 6,000 people have had to leave their completely flooded homes in Cabaret, authorities said. (AFP)

9 October - Haiti's president appointed a commission of academics and ex-military officers Tuesday to study the creation of a security force to one day replace UN troops in the restive Caribbean country. The new seven-member panel named by President René Préval will decide whether to create a unit to supplement the impoverished nation's overwhelmed and outgunned police forces, or to restore the army, which orchestrated several coups throughout Haiti's history. Préval said last month during a visit to UN headquarters in New York that he saw no reason to restore the army -- a position that commission president Patrick Elie appeared to support Tuesday.

''All I've seen professional armies do is either repress their own people or conquer other people's territory,'' Elie, a former undersecretary of defense under Aristide, told The Associated Press. Elie said Haiti must find a way to defend its borders and restore national sovereignty after three years security provided by U.N. troops, but cautioned that ``we have to make sure that this force is not a threat to stability and to democracy. [Safeguards have] to be built in.''

Other members of the new commission, including academic Georges Michel, have advocated reconstituting the military. Several influential legislators in Haiti's Parliament also back a revival of the armed forces. He said the panel is scheduled to convene Thursday, and will consult with Préval, legislators, UN officials and others before making recommendations. The study is expected to take months. (AP)

7 October - A newly formed Dominican border patrol has repatriated some 3,600 undocumented Haitians in its first days monitoring the porous border on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The immigrants were arrested over the last couple of days and placed on buses headed back to Haiti, local newspapers reported, citing border patrol leader General Adriano Silverio Rodriguez. In late September, the Dominican government announced the deployment of a 500-member force to target the illegal trafficking of people and drugs. The US military contributed around US$350,000 (euro 247,595) in scanning equipment, and an additional 1,500 Dominican officers are expected to join the Specialized Border Security Corps. Previously, the Dominican army was charged with protecting the 225-mile (362-kilometer) border. (AP)

SEPTEMBER
27 September - President René Préval has pledged support for an independent committee evaluating stalled investigations into a series of unsolved journalist murders this decade and said that all political obstacles to justice have now been removed. Meeting with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on September 26, Préval expressed his "full support" for the committee and said that the Haitian government "wants justice to prevail." Préval is in New York to participate in the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

"Haitian politicians and investigators had not been interested in pursuing justice in cases of murdered journalists because some of them were implicated in these crimes," Préval told CPJ through an interpreter. "But now the situation has changed; there is political will and this will allow us to make progress." Préval acknowledged that there will be difficulties in bringing justice, especially in the oldest cases. But the president said that the independent committee is a "signal that will permit us to resolve some crimes." Préval said that "freedom of the press is essential for the development of a democracy."

The Haitian president noted that the climate of violence that had plagued Haiti since 2000 has eased. "There is a different atmosphere now, and the press can work in a relatively free environment," Préval said.

The independent committee was a joint initiative between Préval and the local press freedom group S.O.S. Journalistes. The committee has access to official police and court documents on the murders of at least 10 journalists. It is studying the case files one by one in order to determine where and why they have stalled.

The committee has sought to identify concrete problems in the investigations and expedite solutions. In one case, for example, the committee discovered a vital "missing" courthouse file in the 2001 slaying of Brignol Lindor and forwarded it to the investigators actually handling the case. (CPJ)

19 September - Two Haitian nationals being held at the government Detention Centre on Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands died on Monday night. Six other Haitian nationals being held at the Centre were taken to a clinic to be treated for dehydration. Two of these were in critical condition and one of them subsequently died in the course of the day. The cause of death will be established by a pathologist who will be arriving in the Turks and Caicos Islands shortly to conduct autopsies. The others remain at the clinic.

At the time of these deaths, the Detention Centre was accommodating an unusually high number of Haitian nationals, due to the arrival on Providenciales of two sloops from Haiti in quick succession: one on Friday 14 September carrying 74 persons and another on Sunday 16 September carrying 176 persons. All were detained on the grounds of attempting to enter the Turks and Caicos Islands illegally. (Caribbean Net News)

8 September - The Haitian government initiated today - the International Day Against Illiteracy - a massive campaign against illiteracy, according to a statement issued by Carol Joseph, the cabinet secretary in charge of literacy. The campaign's kick-off will take place today at the Champs de Mars, the main park in Port-au-Prince. The campaign will target three million illiterates over a period of three years. It will cost US$186 million and will be modelled on the Cuban method "Yo si puedo" or "Wi mwen kapab" ("Yes I can") in Creole. Cuba will give Haiti 10,000 TV sets, 10,000 videos and 3 million books to help it implement the programme, which will be carried out in Creole, the language spoken by all Haitians. 75,000 literacy centers will open throughout the country and will host 40 students daily. The campaign will create 100,000 jobs. During the last 60 years several literacy drives were carried out in the country. They did not, however, succeed in reducing the illiteracy rate significantly. (Alterpresse)

4 September - Nine Latin American nations with UN peacekeepers deployed in Haiti voiced support for extending the mission for another year but declined to say when they would remove their troops. The UN Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the 8,800-strong, Brazilian-led force on Oct. 14. On Tuesday, defense ministers from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay traveled to Haiti to show their support for Haitian President Rene Preval, who last year authorized the UN force to take a firmer hand against street gangs blamed for violence. Chilean Defense Minister Jose Goni said the countries agreed to support a 12-month extension of the UN mission, which arrived in 2004 to restore order after a violent uprising ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "Our work (in the UN mission) has helped achieve a notable level of public security and that allows to begin thinking about ways to expand our work," Goni told reporters after meeting privately with Preval and his Cabinet. The officials did not address how long their troops would remain in Haiti. UN officials have said peacekeepers should stay at least until the end of Preval's term in 2011. It was the first time Latin American countries have gathered in Haiti to discuss the future of the peacekeeping force, which consists mostly of South and Central American soldiers and police. The force's current mandate covers mainly Haiti's security needs, but Preval's government has been pressuring the world body to funnel more resources into urgently needed development projects for new schools, hospitals, roads and sanitation and clean water. (AP)