Report calls for Haitian consensus

BRUSSELS, March 3 (UPI) -- The instability in Haiti will likely continue without the establishment of a broad political consensus, a report from the International Crisis Group said.

The Belgium-based non-governmental organization said in a report released Tuesday that leaders of Haiti's executive and legislative branches need to come together and form a working political coalition to move the country forward or face ongoing violence and instability, the group reported.

The report, titled "Haiti 2009: Stability at Risk," said the current situation in the impoverished Caribbean nation is worse than during the Jacques-Edouard Alexis government when food riots broke out in 2008. Crisis Group officials said Haiti is in need of a political consensus to strengthen democratic institutions.

The report calls on Haitian leaders to tackle job creation and food shortages, securing the borders from transnational criminal groups and improving government transparency to avoid further violence in the country.

"The socioeconomic situation is worse than at the time of the April 2008 riots and the fall of the Alexis government," Bernice Robertson, Crisis Group senior Haiti analyst, said in a statement.

"President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis need to secure the support of donors and Parliament to swiftly implement a wide-ranging stabilization strategy or risk renewed political instability and violence."