Awwal 02, 1432 H/April 6, 2011, SPA -- Haiti has achieved a "small miracle" since the January 2010 earthquake in rebuilding the Caribbean nation, but the challenge of long-term success depends on the incoming government in Port-au-Prince, dpa cited former US President Bill Clinton as saying Wednesday. Clinton, UN special envoy to Haiti, said in an address to the UN Security Council that the peaceful transition of power after last month's presidential election is a "cause of celebration." President-elect Michel Martelly will be inaugurated next month, succeeding President Rene Preval, who will be the first Haitian leader to finish the presidency without having to go into exile like his predecessors. Preval attended Wednesday's Security Council meeting in New York. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos chaired the meeting because his country holds the rotating council presidency for April. The foreign ministers of Chile and Argentina also attended, as Latin America provided the bulk of peacekeepers to the UN mission in Haiti. "Haiti is a small miracle of human nature," Clinton said. He praised Preval for helping the "remarkable" progress since the 8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 230,000 people and left more than 1 million people homeless. Clinton said the rebuilding of Haiti's health system in the last year has been set back by the cholera epidemic that has killed more than 5,000 people since autumn and hospitalized tens of thousands of people. He urged Martelly to continue the reconstruction efforts and coordinate with the international community and donors in the post- quake programmes.
