UN team in Haiti winding up its preliminary work

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Adviser on Haiti, Reginald Dumas, will leave post-conflict Haiti tomorrow to attend a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in the eastern Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Mr. Annan's spokesman said today.

The 15-member CARICOM, of which Haiti is a member, played an important role in trying to work out a compromise between then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his opponents earlier this year. Mr. Aristide eventually left Haiti for the Central African Republic and is now in Jamaica, which currently holds CARICOM's presidency.

Meanwhile, a UN multi-disciplinary team assessing requirements for a UN peacekeeping mission has been wrapping up its work. Led by Hocine Medili, that team's members are beginning to return to New York, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said 80 per cent of the schools in the provinces and in the capital, Port-au-Prince, are now open. UNICEF workers are scheduled to distribute school supplies in the towns of Cap Haitien and St. Marc this week in preparation for a countrywide "Back to School" campaign, targeting more than 1.5 million students and 50,000 teachers.

UNICEF is also training midwives and distributing obstetric health kits. Fear, however, has been keeping attendance at health clinics low, Mr. Eckhard said.