US-financed police station opens in Haiti slum

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- U.S. officials have inaugurated a $1 million police station in a Haitian slum once dominated by gangs.

The walled Cite Soleil commissariat will house 32 Haitian police.

U.N. peacekeepers led by Brazil have provided the only real security in the sprawling oceanside neighborhood since the 2004 ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The U.S. Embassy says the expansion of the former U.N. base is part of the Pentagon's $20 million Haiti Stabilization Initiative to strengthen government institutions in Cite Soleil.

U.S. Ambassador Janet Sanderson praised efforts to rebuild Haiti's police force at the station's inauguration Wednesday.

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