Haiti
Haiti Report for March 10, 2009
The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described
in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the
situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide
a variety of perspectives on the situation.
To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall
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IN THIS REPORT:
UN Secretary General and Former President Clinton Visit Haiti
Clinton Global Initiative boosts health programs in Haiti
NYT Editorial: Haiti?s Despair, Continued
Carnival Sum-Up
University Students Protest and Clash with Police
Tennis Star Kournikova Visits Haiti with PSI
New International Crisis Group Report on Haiti Warns of Renewed
Violence and Instability
Haiti visit by U.N. Security Council members aims to bolster support
World Bank Granting $5 Million to Rebuild 15 Schools
Bus Crash Near Cabaret
Haitians Being Deported Despite Desperation in Haiti
Congresswoman Waters and 71 Others Urge Debt Cancellation
Rebuilding Haiti
Workers' Union in Free Trade Zone Urges New Minimum Wage
UN Secretary General and Former President Clinton Visit Haiti:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill
Clinton visited Haiti on Monday and urged the Caribbean state to use
international backing to haul itself out of grinding poverty. Ban and
Clinton are on a mission to promote an anti-poverty action plan for
the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Speaking to students at
an educational center, the U.N. chief said Haiti had a "window of
opportunity" because of the presence of a U.N. peacekeeping mission on
its soil and because of the country's tariff-free access to the U.S.
market. "This window of opportunity is not unlimited. It is very
limited. You must seize this opportunity," said Ban, who was due to
meet later with President Rene Preval. "That is why President Clinton
and I are here personally to first of all demonstrate our solidarity
and send a very strong message to the international community that we
need Haiti to be able to emerge as a very stable, democratic and
prosperous country in the region," he added.
The United Nations has some 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti, which has
long been afflicted by political instability and violence and was
heavily damaged by hurricanes last year. U.N. officials say the anti-
poverty plan focuses on job creation, food security, reforestation of
the almost treeless country and provision of basic services such as
healthcare. Clinton told the students that 200 years ago Haiti had
been the richest part of the region because of its natural resources.
"You can be again because of the resources in your mind and your
heart," he said. Clinton and Ban were visiting just over a month
before Senate elections in Haiti, already controversial after the
nation's biggest party, The Lavalas Family Party associated with
exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was barred on a
technicality.
As they visited, several thousand supporters of the Lavalas Family
Party staged a demonstration to protest against its barring from the
Senate polls and to demand that U.S. President Barack Obama arrange
Aristide's return to Haiti. They waved banners which read "Ask Obama
to return Aristide" and "There can be no election without Lavalas,"
but there were no serious incidents. Aides to Ban said he had been
encouraged to visit Haiti by a report he had received from Paul
Collier, an academic at Britain's Oxford University. The report said
that despite its problems Haiti was well placed to recover because of
the U.S. trade concessions it enjoyed, its proximity to the U.S.
market and its low labor costs. It recommended focusing on developing
the garment industry and in growing mangoes as an export crop and to
help reforest the nation, which suffers flash-floods and erosion.
Accompanying Clinton was Wyclef Jean, a Haitian-born hip-hop star who
heads a charitable foundation that seeks to help the impoverished
state. A U.N. statement said Ban had asked Clinton to accompany him
because of his attention to Haiti during his 1993-2001 presidency and
a "call to action" on Haiti at a session of his Clinton Global
Initiative foundation last September. The hurricanes that hit Haiti in
August and September were estimated to have killed some 800 people and
caused $1 billion worth of damage. The United Nations launched an
appeal last September for $108 million for hurricane relief, but less
than half of that amount had been pledged as of December. A high-level
donor conference is scheduled for next month in Washington.
Immediately after Ban's visit, the U.N. Security Council will stage a
three-day trip of its own to assess progress in Haiti and how the U.N.
mission is fulfilling its mandate. (Reuters, 3/9)
Not since Haiti plunged into anarchy that led to the ouster of its
democratically elected president five years ago has it received such
targeted attention on the world stage. But with today's arrival of
former US president Bill Clinton and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon
comes a measure of hope that the nation's fortunes will begin to turn
for the better. Armed with star power and global influence, the two
dignitaries are scheduled to arrive in Haiti's capital for an
overnight visit that will include working meetings with Haitian
president Rene Preval and prime minister Michele Pierre-Louis.
Clinton, traveling with a delegation of business leaders, will also
sit down with key Haitian business figures before touring the
country's lingering devastation - and its best prospects for hope.
It is an unprecedented diplomatic assault, launched by the United
Nations and followed a day later with a rare visit by the
international organisation's most powerful body, the UN Security
Council. The hope is the series of high-profile visits will provide
Haiti with the kind of global and humanitarian support it needs as it
struggles with deepening poverty, donor fatigue and the worst
humanitarian disaster in 100 years. "We have made a lot of progress in
Haiti," said UN special representative for Haiti Hedi Annabi. "We have
suffered some setbacks in 2008, especially in the wake of the
hurricanes. But we think success is possible in Haiti."
"Haiti has been for many years a weak state, and certainly not the
international community nor the Latin American group of nations would
like to see Haiti as a failed state," said ambassador Jorge Urbina,
permanent representative of Costa Rica, which is leading the three-day
UN Security Council mission to Haiti. "The international community has
to find ways to promote development and make it a sustainable
process." Adding to the sense of urgency are lingering concerns over
next month's Haiti donors conference in Washington. The Preval-Pierre-
Louis government is seeking a total of $3bn to finance a World Bank-
approved poverty-reduction plan. It also needs $125m to cover
expenditures to control inflation and higher prices for basic
commodities.
"The global environment makes it challenging," Yvonne Tsikata, World
Bank director for the Caribbean, said. "On the other hand doing
nothing is not an option." The International Crisis Group, an
independent watchdog group that monitors conflicts around the world,
agrees. In a recently released 16-page report on Haiti, it warns: "The
continued inability to provide adequate, visible responses to the
deteriorating situation of the poor makes it easy for spoilers to
exploit desperation and often appalling living conditions for both
personal and political gain."
Given this reality, UN officials are doing their best to fuel hope in
the midst of despair. Enter Clinton and his humanitarian foundation.
He is considered a hero by many for returning democracy to the country
in 1994 after he ordered a US military-led intervention to restore
then-exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. "He feels a
deep sense of responsibility and affection for Haiti," said Dr Paul
Farmer, a world renown infectious disease specialist who works in
Haiti and will join Clinton on the trip. Farmer was among the first to
reach out to Clinton soon after Gonaives, Haiti's third largest city,
was buried by mudslides and storm waters. Weeks earlier the two were
in Rwanda, where the Clinton Global Initiative has been teaming up
with Farmer since 2005.
"Clinton, who helped raised tens of millions on behalf of the tsunami
and Hurricane Katrina victims along with former president George HW
Bush through his Clinton Global Foundation, is a natural choice, say
Haiti supporters. He was only the second sitting US president -
Franklin D Roosevelt was the first in 1934 - to have visited Haiti
when he traveled there in 1995. After the final of four storms -
Hurricane Ike - hammered Haiti, Clinton called Preval and offered
assistance. Weeks later, he hosted a forum on Haiti during the
gathering of his Clinton Global Initiative while Preval was attending
the UN General Assembly in New York.
"Bill Clinton has a matchless talent for bringing people together and
inspiring them to work for a higher purpose," said Luis Alberto
Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, which is
helping to host the donors conference. "It's a boon for Haiti that
he's embracing their struggle against poverty." (The Guardian UK, 3/9)
Clinton Global Initiative boosts health programs in Haiti:
Former President Bill Clinton established the Clinton Global
Initiative in 2005 to help make changes in the lives of the world's
poor and destitute by partnering governments and nonprofit
humanitarian organizations with those who can help. In Haiti, CGI has
teamed up with Partners In Health, which works with AIDS patients and
supports health programs in Haiti's Central Plateau region. Its
founding director is Harvard University medical educator and
infectious disease specialist Dr. Paul Farmer. Among what CGI has
helped facilitate on behalf of PIH, and the people living in the
Central Plateau:
? The enrollment of 8,573 students this year, and daily school lunches
for 9,793 students. The $3.4 million over three years is being also
supported by Digicel, a cellphone company on the ground in Haiti.
? A review of the solar market in Haiti with support from Good
Energies, and assessments of 10 of the public health facilities PIH
runs in Haiti. Phase two will be installation of a major system at one
PIH site. Estimated value: $150,000 over two years.
? The shipment of 20,000 pairs of rubber ankle boots from TOMS. They
will go to patients in PIH clinics and members of the community who
are at risk of getting the skin disease tungiasis. Shoes will also go
to outfit community health workers who make daily visits to patients
receiving HIV or Tuberculosis treatment. Another 30,000 pairs of shoes/
boots from TOMS will be distributed by PIH later in the year.
? The distribution of 500,000 Pur water treatment sachets, donated by
Proctor & Gamble, to families without access to clean water as a
result of the hurricanes.
? The construction of a bridge. With support from Digicel and in
cooperation with the U.N. Stabilization mission, MINUSTAH, PIH is
moving ahead with plans to build a bridge to link the town of Boucan
Carre, where PIH runs a public hospital and where there are two large
schools, to the rest of the Central Plateau.
? The building 'back better' of the health infrastructure in
Mirebalais with support from Humanity United. PIH has purchased an
ambulance and has solicited designs for a new public hospital in
Mirebalais. Ministry of Health staff in Mirebalais is being
supplemented by PIH. Source: Clinton Global Initiative (Miami Herald,
3/9)
NYT Editorial: Haiti?s Despair, Continued
The Department of Homeland Security has decided to continue an ill-
advised Bush administration policy of deporting illegal Haitian
immigrants. Haiti, already desperately poor, was devastated by storms
last year. It is hard to see how an influx of up to 30,000 homeless,
jobless people ? the number of Haitians facing deportation from the
United States ? would do anything but further destabilize the country
as it struggles to recover from what has been called its worst natural
disaster in a century.
American advocates for Haitians have joined the Haitian government in
pleading for an end to the deportations, arguing that all interests
are better served by giving the detainees temporary protected status.
When a political crisis or natural disaster makes repatriation a bad
idea, it is far wiser to allow people to stay put rather than be
forced home where they will place further strains on local supplies of
food, clean water and housing ? all of which are perilously scarce in
Haiti. The Haitian diaspora can do a lot more for its stricken
homeland by sending home what is really needed: money.
Ending deportations of Haitians would also be consistent. Tens of
thousands of Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and others whose
countries have been hit by war, earthquakes and hurricanes have
routinely been granted protected status in 18-month increments. The
strongest argument against doing so is the fear that boatloads of
Haitians will take to sea in a deadly gamble to win sanctuary for
themselves. That is a legitimate concern. But the best way to address
it is by helping to lessen Haiti?s misery with aid, trade and
investment. Haitians living in this country can help ? but not if they
are deported home to a country that is in no condition to accept them.
(The New York Times, 3/10/09)
Carnival Sum-Up:
At least 259 people were reported injured in the concluding hours of
Haiti's Carnival 2009,bringing the total casualties in the festivity
to one death and 540 injuries, local police said on Thursday. The
sole fatality was identified as 15-year-old Sandra Pierre, who
suffered several fractures in the skull after a gigantic carriage
rolled over upon her during a street concert in Port-au-Prince, a
police spokesman said on Thursday. According to official statistics,
around one million local residents participated in this year's
Carnival, which began on Sunday. In order to guarantee social order
and security, Haitian police had sought the cooperation of the Red
Cross and UN peacekeeping forces, Gary Desrosiers, Haitian police
spokesman, told Xinhua.
Olsen Jan Julien, Haitian minister of culture and communication,
said that Carnival celebrations help create employment and consumption
in sectors like tourism and transportation, which implies considerable
economic profitability to the Caribbean country. He deemed the
cultural-social event to be positive despite the casualties, and said
that a permanent committee is to be established for the conservation
and promotion of the Carnival, which he called a cultural-material
heritage of Haiti. (Xinhua, 2/26)
University Students Protest and Clash with Police:
University students in Haiti barricaded themselves inside an
administration building Tuesday and clashed with police and U.N.
peacekeepers during protests to demand an improved curriculum. Police
responded by firing at least two rounds of tear gas at the State
University of Haiti building in the hills above Port-au-Prince. At
least one student was arrested, Radio Vision 2000 reported. No
injuries were reported. Several car windows were smashed near the
building and a thrown rock smashed through the windshield of a U.N.
vehicle that was passing by. The students have protested several times
in recent weeks to demand that administrators better prepare them to
teach math and science. Several of the previous protests also involved
tear gas, rocks and burning tires. (AP, 3/4)
Tennis Star Kournikova Visits Haiti with PSI:
Tennis star, Anna Kournikova, says her recent trip to Haiti was
"completely and devastatingly humbling." The star just returned from
her first visit to Haiti, where she witnessed firsthand the combined
effects of years of poverty, violence and natural disasters on the
health of the local population, courtesy of PSI, a leading global
health organization. The visit was part of an awareness-raising
mission organized by PSI -and was focused on drawing attention to the
innovative solutions available to some of the world's most complex
health problems.
"What shocked me about Haiti, where 70 percent of the population lives
on less than $2 a day, was just the complete lack of basic human
needs, and the amazing amount of disease and sickness that is so
prevalent within the population," blogs the tennis star. "Diarrhea is
rampant and is a major cause of infant deaths, simply due to the lack
of clean drinking water. I?ve never seen so much trash and waste, on
every street, on every single road. They don?t have the systems to get
rid of the waste in a proper way, not to mention recycling, so they
have to burn it in the streets. There?s no infrastructure or programs
of any kind, whether it?s plumbing, waste control, sewers, clean
water, etc. It was so difficult to see those conditions with my own
eyes."
Kournikova said she was especially touched by her meeting with group
of young girls who had been sold into domestic servitude by their
parents, for a modest profit. "One little 'restavek' girl was telling
us about how her family had sold her to another family when she was 8
years old and that she does everything for that family," recounted
Kournikova. "She gets them water from the well each day, walks their
kids to school, washes the clothes, cleans the house. She's not
allowed to attend school, not allowed to have any kind of life of her
own and she's being abused sexually and physically." Current estimates
suggest that more than 300,000 restaveks are living in Haiti and that
more than 75 percent of them are young girls. The World Bank reports
that 1 in every 2 girls has been sexually abused, with the abuse often
resulting in HIV infections or other sexually transmitted diseases.
In addition to meeting with restaveks, Kournikova also visited the
hurricane-ravaged town of Cabaret. There, she said she could `see the
hair of the children turning yellow due to malnutrition` and she noted
the high rates of disease among children due to a lack of clean
drinking water. With a donation from H&M's Fashion Against AIDS
campaign, PSI is building a youth center to provide children living in
domestic servitude and on the streets with vocational training,
clinical services and health education. (CaribWorldNews, 3/5)
New International Crisis Group Report on Haiti Warns of Renewed
Violence and Instability:
Deepening poverty and ineffective governance have left Haiti at risk
for renewed violence and political instability, a conflict watchdog
warned on Tuesday. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group urged
international donors scheduled to meet next month in Washington to
provide the struggling Caribbean country with $3 billion over the next
several years. "Between now and the summer Haiti faces a series of
challenges, and if the population doesn't see progress it could well
result in significant instability," ICG senior vice president Mark
Schneider told The Associated Press by phone. A 16-page report by the
conflict watchdog comes ahead of a March 9 visit by U.N. Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton to promote
international aid and economic security in the impoverished country.
The U.N. Security Council will visit immediately afterward.
Haiti is enjoying a period of relative stability, but the report says
economic and social conditions are even worse than last April, when
political riots over high food prices overthrew the prime minister.
Months later the country was socked by four storms that left nearly
800 people dead, caused $1 billion in damage and halted economic growth.
Tuesday's report says poor cooperation between President Rene Preval,
new Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis and parliament is also
deadlocking legislation and preventing passage of a proposed $256.4
million, mostly donor-financed budget.
That in turn could leave the door open for "spoilers" ? drug
traffickers, corrupt politicians, gangs and business owners who prefer
a weak government ? to create new problems. Illegal flights carrying
South American cocaine through Haiti and on to the United States and
Europe increased over the past year, the U.S. State Department said in
its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released
this week. Reminders of how quickly any tension can boil over into
violence in Haiti were on display Tuesday in Port-au-Prince when
university students threw rocks at U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian
police, who responded by firing tear gas. The students were protesting
a curriculum change.
Observers worry far more violent demonstrations could erupt ahead of a
long-delayed April 19 election to fill 12 vacant Senate seats, with
concern centering on electoral officials' decision to block all
candidates from former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's divided
Famni Lavalas party. The ICG report called for inclusive elections.
(AP, 3/4)
Help Haiti keep drugs out of the country, BY MARK SCHNEIDER
www.crisisgroup.org
A 10th of all the cocaine smuggled into the United States passes
through the island of Hispaniola, and a new State Department report
says most of it now is hitting Haiti first. With Haiti's skeletal
police force too stretched to pursue them, drug traffickers from
Colombia and Venezuela easily 'air smuggle' the drug through Haiti.
Over the last two years, the practice has increased by 53 percent. For
the same two years, Haiti's President Ren? Pr?val has been asking the
U.S. government to send helicopters to Haiti to intercept those drug
flights. The Bush administration refused.
Drug smugglers corrupt Haiti's underpaid police force, judges and
politicians, which in turn undermines the efforts of the United
Nations, Latin American peacekeepers and the United States to bring
security and stability to the hemisphere's poorest nation. Some $2
billion in U.S. aid has been funneled to the reconstruction effort in
the past five years alone. But each time there is progress in
recruiting, training, equipping and deploying new Haitian police, drug
traffickers derail the process. Air smuggling increased 38 percent in
2007 and another 15 percent in 2008, including more frequent and bold
daylight air drops, according to the new State Department report.
Two years ago, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, in cooperation with
the Haitian National Police and MINUSTAH, sent two interdiction
helicopters to Haiti to see if they could replenish the region's
diminished fleet of naval and air forces that had been rerouted to
Iraq. The two helicopters and beefed-up interdiction effort turned out
to be so successful that for almost the entire eight weeks they were
in Haiti, air smuggling ended. But when they left, the smuggling re-
turned. Crisis Report reported that even the former head of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy admitted that the extra
effort should have continued longer.
Drug smuggling also infects Haiti's politics. Drug smugglers
reportedly not only are financing some candidates for April's already-
delayed senatorial elections, but a few candidates themselves are
reportedly involved in drug smuggling. They know that if elected, they
will have senatorial immunity from prosecution.
Haiti's drug-related problems compound a litany of challenges:
? The April elections became even more complicated when the
provisional electoral council decided to exclude the Lavalas Party
candidates because two factions had sent duplicate candidates.
Unfortunately, the end result is to punish the Lavalas supporters who
may lose their chance for any representation in the Senate vote -- a
result that also threatens the legitimacy of the elections themselves.
? Last April, food price riots allegedly were instigated in part by
drug trafficking-linked groups unhappy about recent arrests. The riots
ended with the fall of one government and the postponement of a
donors' conference that had brought the promise of vital new
development assistance.
? In August and September, the island was hit by four hurricanes. The
country is still staggering from their aftermath. The hurricanes wiped
out one harvest season, destroyed much of the country's agricultural
infrastructure and left nearly a third of the population dependent on
food aid.
Haiti is desperate for the long-delayed donors' conference that
promises to provide international support for ambitious reconstruction
and recovery plans. But before donors open wide their wallets, they
want to see stability and security, which is once again threatened by
aerial drug smuggling. During his visit to Washington a few weeks ago,
Pr?val made to President Barack Obama the same plea that fell on deaf
ears with his predecessor: Please help us keep drugs out of our
country. The Obama administration should send a permanent helicopter
interdiction force to Haiti well before the April elections, or rotate
them in and out on an unannounced and regular basis. It's an easy fix
that will go far in making Haitian skies a no-fly zone for drug
traffickers. (Mark Schneider is senior vice president at the
International Crisis Group.) (Miami Herald, 3/7)
Haiti visit by U.N. Security Council members aims to bolster support:
Members of the U.N. Security Council will visit storm-ravaged Haiti
next week in a bid to raise global awareness of its desperate
situation, and convey 'a strong message' of support for its
continued progress. The visit also is aimed at mobilizing support for
next month's donors conference on Haiti in Washington, D.C., following
the 'cold attitude' the United Nations received from the world
community after Haiti was hammered by four back-to-back storms last
summer.
'We certainly have noticed a cold attitude for any funding not only
to Haiti but in general financing for development,' said Ambassador
Jorge Urbina, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica. 'We are trying
to raise awareness of the situation in Haiti.' Led by Costa Rica,
nine permanent representatives of the Security Council will arrive on
Wednesday, the day after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former
President Bill Clinton leave Haiti after a similar mission. The
representatives will leave the Caribbean nation on Saturday following
a series of meetings with a number of key players, including President
Ren? Pr?val and Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis, government,
parliament and political party leaders, as well as electoral officials.
Council members will also evaluate the progress of the United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Urbina said some members will visit
Gonaives, the city hardest hit during last summer's storms, to
evaluate the humanitarian challenges. Another group will travel
farther north to Fort Liberte to explore the development of free zones
near the border, and border security. 'Haiti faces challenges that
are well known by the international community, the most important of
them being development,' Urbina said during a news conference. ``The
international community has to find ways to promote development and
make it a sustainable process. It is not the fact of promoting some
economical activity, but it's very important to keep in mind that we
need a sustainable process.'
Urbina said while security remains an important component of the U.N.
Security Council's mandate in Haiti, he stopped short of saying
whether the mandate should be expanded to include more development.
Pr?val has repeatedly asked for the expansion but has been met with
resistance to by some members of the council. 'Haiti has been for
many years been a weak state, and certainly not the international
community nor the Latin American group of nations would like to see
Haiti as a failed state,' Urbina said. ``We want to really go much
further in this partnership, in this mutual commitments that we have.
I think President Pr?val and Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis will
have the possibility of informing the council of their efforts and
after that we will come to New York and I am sure we will evaluate
what we have learned and see what we can do in the future.'
(Miami Herald, 3/6)
World Bank Granting $5 Million to Rebuild 15 Schools:
The World Bank is giving Haiti $5 million to rebuild 15 public primary
schools damaged last year in four hurricanes and tropical storms. The
Washington-based bank's grant will also help the Caribbean country
develop a safe schools action plan and train school officials to
enforce new building codes. Most Haitian students attend underfunded
private schools that are often poorly constructed. The World Bank's
announcement Thursday said 964 schools that served 200,000 students
were damaged in storms last August and September. Nearly 100 people
were killed when a school near Port-au-Prince collapsed during a party
in November. (AP, 3/6)
Bus Crash Near Cabaret:
Haitian news media say two buses have slammed head-on into a truck-
taxi on a highway north of Port-au-Prince, killing at least nine
people and injuring 40. Radio Vision 2000 says the collision happened
Friday morning near the coastal town of Cabaret. The radio and local
journalists say many of those hospitalized were in serious condition.
Most of the victims were riding in a northbound truck that served as a
taxi. The southbound vehicles were repurposed school buses that Haiti
uses for long-distance public (AP, 3/6)
Haitians Being Deported Despite Desperation in Haiti:
Vialine Jean Paul has noticed a change when she drops her 7-year-old
daughter off at school each morning in recent weeks. Her daughter,
Angela, is not sure that her mother will be back to pick her up. ?She
tells me, ?Mommy, good luck,? ? Mrs. Jean Paul said, choking back
tears. ?She asks me, ?Mommy, if you go to Haiti, what will happen to
me?? ? Though Angela does not know it, the hopes of tens of thousands
of Haitian immigrants and their relatives have become fixed on her
mother?s fate. Mrs. Jean Paul is one of more than 30,000 Haitian
citizens who have been ordered deported from the United States. Her
case could be an early test of whether the Obama administration will
break with the strictimmigration enforcement policies of the Bush
administration.
After an estimated 1,000 people were killed in mudslides in Haiti last
year, the government asked the United States to grant temporary
protected status to Haitian immigrants ? relief that was extended when
Honduras and El Salvador were hit by similar disasters. The
designation is intended for countries in such dire trouble that
receiving deportees would undermine their stability. Deportations of
Haitians were temporarily suspended last September, while the Bush
administration considered the request. In December, the request was
denied and the deportations resumed.
Lawyers say hundreds of people were detained, pushing detention
centers across Florida beyond capacity. Hundreds of other i mmigrants
were forced to wear electronic monitoring devices. Advocates for
immigrants said the arrests and deportations have taken a toll on
Haitian communities, tearing immigrants ? whose only crime was
entering the United States illegally ? from their American spouses and
children and condemning them to lives of poverty and violence in a
country devastated by political instability and natural disaster.
?They told us they were going after criminal aliens,? said her lawyer,
Cheryl Little, referring to the immigration policies of the Bush
administration. ?Would we be any safer if Vialine were deported? I
think not. We are devoting a lot of resources going after the wrong
people.?
Aides to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she was
reviewing the matter of Haitian deportations. Meanwhile, the Haitian
government has refused to issue travel documents to deportees, and the
United States authorities said they were worried that confusion in
Haiti over American policy was causing a surge in the numbers of
Haitians trying to flee their country. The Coast Guard intercepted 624
Haitians at sea in January, compared with none in November. Another
214 were intercepted on an overloaded freighter last weekend.
A State Department official, who asked not to be named because
temporary protected status is a Homeland Security matter, said the
United States was aware of the hardship caused in Haiti by last year?s
storms. He noted that the United States responded with humanitarian
assistance, including medical services provided aboard the amphibious
assault ship Kearsarge. But, he said, the United States determined
that a strong international presence in Haiti, led by some 10,000
United Nationspeacekeepers, gave that country sufficient support to
accommodate deportees.
?This is a controversial position,? the official said, acknowledging a
flood of letters from Haitian advocates and members of Congress, along
with newspaper editorials calling on President Obama to stop the
deportations. ?But we believed Haiti had=2 0the structures on the
ground that it needed to solve its problems.?
Haiti?s ambassador to the United States, Ray Joseph, disagreed with
that assessment. Haiti?s existence has largely been defined by chaos.
But the storms, he said, deepened the crisis, fueling runaway
inflation and food shortages. He said tens of thousands of storm
victims have been left without proper shelter, and the country is
plagued by violent crime. ?Haiti had a very, very bad year in 2008,?
Mr. Joseph said. ?Why send these people back, when we have no place to
put them?? (New York Times, 2/27)
Storm-battered Haiti will continue stalling most deportations of its
citizens until the Obama administration decides whether to grant it
protected status that will allow Haitians to stay in the U.S.
temporarily, the Haitian ambassador said this week. Temporary
protected status allows immigrants from countries experiencing armed
conflict or environmental disasters to stay and work in the U.S. for a
limited time. Haitian President Rene Preval twice last year formally
requested the status that has been granted to a handful of Central
American and African countries, but former Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff denied those requests in December.
"Everybody is saying Haiti is still reeling from those four
hurricanes, the food riots of last year, the price of fuel. Haiti had
a very, very bad year in 2008," Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph said
in a phone interview. "Why should we compound the problems of the
country by sending all those deportees at this time if we don't do it
for Nicaragua or El Salvador?" Since September, when the Haitian
government stopped issuing the travel documents needed to send its
residents home, most deportations from the U.S. have stalled. From
October through January, just 69 Haitians were returned, compared with
666 in the same four months last year.
Joseph wants Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain
why deportations to Haiti are continuing at all and say whether the
country will get protected status. "We want that clear before we
decide what we want to do," Joseph said in a telephone interview from
Washington. Napolitano will respond to Preval "in due course,"
Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said Friday. "The department,
specifically U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, is in
continual discussions with Haiti on the removal of its nationals,"
Kudwa said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has abided by the Haitian
government's request in September to stop federally managed
deportation flights for six months, said ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas.
However, individual removals of Haitians with valid passports aboard
commercial flights have continued. Travel documents from the Haitian
government aren't needed in those cases. The U.S. Coast Guard also has
repatriated hundreds of Haitians caught at sea - 624 in January alone,
and another 214 aboard an overloaded sail freighter Monday.
About 30,000 Haitians nationwide had received final orders of
deportation - 95 percent for non-criminal violations - as of early
February, but immigration attorneys say many have lived with those
orders for years while their appeals chug through the system. About
600 were in detention and another 240 were electronically monitored,
according to ICE. Haiti's claim that the deportees are an added burden
among so many troubles sets it apart from other countries that have
refused to accept removals, experts say. "They're basically saying,
'We don't have the resources,'" said David Leopold, national vice
president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Other
countries' refusals have reflected Cold War rivalries, unfinished war
business or terrorism concerns.
During the Reagan administration, Cuba refused take back thousands of
refugees with serious criminal records or mental health issues.
Cambodia refused throughout the 1990s, questioning whether deportees
were in fact Cambodian citizens. Jordan temporarily stopped accepting
deportees for security reasons. Generally, no country accepts
stateless Palestinians. If Preval is trying to stave off civil
disorder, withholding the documents is the only weapon he has, said
Jean-Germain Gros, who specializes in Haitian politics at the
University of Missouri, St. Louis. In a country where more than two-
thirds of the labor force is unemployed, the mass return of deportees
could overwhelm social services. Also, deportees in Haiti are often
associated with kidnappings and other crimes.
But other countries in the region are accepting burdensome deportees,
even those with criminal records who are contributing to political
instability, said University of Miami immigration law professor David
Abraham. "Guatemala and El Salvador are now facing the return of gang
criminals who have brought the major league drug and gang problems
back home," Abraham said. "They are really ravaged by these returning
gang members, but they haven't refused to take them back." (2/27)
Congresswoman Waters and 71 Others Urge Debt Cancellation:
Today, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) sent a letter to World Bank President
Robert B. Zoellick, urging him to grant
complete debt cancellation to Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western
Hemisphere. The letter was signed by 72 members of the House of
Representatives, including Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the
Financial Services Committee; Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Ranking Member of
the Financial Services Committee; Howard Berman (D-CA), Chairman of
the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking
Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Copies of the letter were
sent to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of the
Treasury Timothy Geithner. The text of the letter follows:
We are deeply concerned about the urgent humanitarian needs of the
people of Haiti and the difficulties Haiti has faced in qualifying for
the cancellation of its debts. We urge you to suspend immediately all
further debt service payments from Haiti and grant complete debt
cancellation to this impoverished nation. We were disappointed to
learn that Haiti's progress through the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries) Initiative has been delayed as a result of recent natural
disasters, economic shocks, and political developments - together with
a number of conditions from the IMF. At this time last year, it was
expected that Haiti would reach the "completion point" for the HIPC
program and receive complete debt cancellation in the last quarter of
2008. Now, however, Haiti's expected "completion point" date has been
pushed back to as late as July of 2009. We understand that Haiti is
scheduled to send approximately $20 million to the World Bank in
2009. Clearly, this money would be better spent on basic
infrastructure and poverty reduction for the Haitian people.
As you recognized when you traveled to Haiti last October, the loss of
life and the destruction of infrastructure in Haiti after last year's
string of hurricanes and tropical storms has been devastating. Sharp
increases in food and energy prices have also led to an escalation of
hunger among the poorest sectors of the population. Moreover, Haiti
can expect to be severely and negatively affected by the recent
downturn in the economy of the United States. Not only does the
United States serve as a valuable market for Haiti's exports, Haiti is
also heavily dependent on remittances from Haitians living in the
United States.
Given these circumstances, we feel that the people of Haiti would be
better served if the government was freed to use its limited resources
to improve Haiti's democratic institutions, environmental conditions,
basic infrastructure, healthcare, education, and justice system.
Haiti's government has already acknowledged that the savings from debt
relief would contribute significantly to its efforts towards these
purposes.
We therefore urge you to grant Haiti complete debt cancellation as
soon as possible. In the interim, before such cancellation takes
place, we urge you to suspend immediately Haiti's debt service
payments and allow the Haitian government to focus its attention on
the needs of its people. We appreciate your continuing support for
debt cancellation and we look forward to your response. (Office of
Congresswoman Waters, 2/26)
Rebuilding Haiti:
THERE is a new lake outside Gona?ves, a town of 300,000 people and the
fourth-largest in Haiti. It blocks the road south to the capital, Port-
au-Prince. It formed last autumn when four storms, three of them
hurricanes, swept over the poorest country in the Americas in the
space of a month. The rain-a metre's worth on one night alone-fell on
saturated mountains, long since denuded of their forest cover, and
swept down on to the coastal plain. It seemed a modest victory that
only 793 people died, compared with 3,000 killed by Hurricane Jeanne
in 2004. Five months later, bulldozers have cleared the mud from the
main streets of Gona?ves. Away from them, on countless side streets,
pedestrians look down on rooftops on either side. The houses have been
dug out by hand, and the dirt piled in mounds on the roadway.
Only 20% of the town has been cleaned up, estimates Olivier Le
Guillou of Action Contre la Faim, a French charity, which has paid
1,800 residents to help do the job. The damage was not confined to
Gona?ves. Haiti's agriculture minister reckons that 60% of the harvest
was lost and 160,000 goats were killed, along with 60,000 pigs and
25,000 cows. In all, the storms have cost the country $900m, or 14.6%
of GDP, according to a donor-funded government study. That is
equivalent to 12 times the damage of Hurricane Katrina in the United
States, and comes just four years after Jeanne wiped out 7% of Haiti's
GDP.
Nature is not the only force knocking Haiti back. Since Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, a left-wing former Catholic priest, was overthrown by a
rebellion in 2004, the country has been in the care of the United
Nations. Some 7,000 UN soldiers and 2,000 police, mainly from Latin
America, keep the peace. The UN mission has brought greater security:
reported kidnappings fell from 722 in 2006 to 258 last year. A new UN-
trained Haitian police force now has 9,000 officers. The streets of
Port-au-Prince are visibly cleaner. But this has not stimulated
economic progress. Three-quarters of Haitians still live on less than
$2 a day. Two in five children don't go to school. A quarter of
districts lack schools; where these exist, there are 78 pupils per
teacher. In 2005, the maternal death rate rose to 630 for every
100,000 births, up from 457 in 1990. Though more than half of Haitians
work in farming, they produce less than half the country's food needs.
Haiti's agriculture is the least productive in the world, says Joel
Boutroue of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A hectare
of rice paddy in Vietnam will produce 20 tonnes of rice a year,
whereas a Haitian hectare yields just one tonne.
Trends in the outside world have added to Haiti's home-grown woes.
Last April the rise in food prices brought riots that toppled Jacques-
Edouard Alexis, the prime minister. In January it was almost
impossible to find a litre of petrol (though diesel was available).
Rumour holds that Venezuela halted delivery of subsidised oil under
Petrocaribe, a scheme which saved Haiti's government alone at least
$200m last year. Any boost that might have come from a law approved
last year which grants Haiti's textiles duty-free access to the United
States has been more than nullified by the slowdown in remittances
(down 20%) and exports because of the American recession According to
the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister organisation, the economy
will contract by 0.5% this year.
But some of the problems are the fault of Haiti's politicians. Ren?
Preval, who was elected president in 2006 to widespread acclaim among
Haitians and outsiders alike, now seems indecisive. It took him five
months to form a new government after Mr Alexis went, and then many
aid projects had to be renegotiated from scratch. Mr Preval has warned
Haitians of a difficult year ahead. "People want to see more than
pessimism from a leader, they want to see proposals," says Kesner
Pharel, an economist and political analyst. The president is not the
only one to blame. Hedi Annabi, the UN's official in Haiti, recently
criticised the country's politicians for wasting time in "infinite
debates" instead of "working for the essential needs of destitute
Haitians".
Corruption is deeply rooted. The family and friends of politicians
and civil servants expect "to benefit from privilege", says Gary
Victor, a novelist. Money that was supposed to build better drains in
Gona?ves after Hurricane Jeanne was siphoned off, says a UN official.
There are plans to terrace the hills above the town, to plant shrubs
and dig canals. But political lassitude means that this will not get
done before the next hurricane season. The prisons remain an
overcrowded horror, with four-fifths of the inmates yet to face trial.
The only business that seems to thrive is drug trafficking. The
police chief in Port-de-Paix, in the north-west, was poisoned in
January after several million dollars of cash seized from the uncle of
a prominent drug-smuggler went missing. Guy Philippe, a former soldier
who led the rebellion against Mr Aristide and whom the Americans
accuse of drug-trafficking, says he will run for the Senate. Next
month aid donors will convene for a conference on Haiti, the first
since the autumn of 2006. In response to the hurricanes they have
doubled aid to $800m a year (half of this comes from the United
States). That is on top of the UN mission's $600m annual budget, and
Venezuela's fuel subsidy.
Some things have been achieved in Haiti since 2004, but more should
have been. "We spend a lot of money doing capacity building, but it is
not clear that this has an impact," says Mr Boutroue of UNDP. "Maybe
we are just buying social peace-instability has just as much to do
with the well-being of members of parliament as with a deepening of
poverty." It is surely time for outsiders to hold Mr Preval and the
politicians to account. (The Economist, 2/12)
Workers' Union in Free Trade Zone Urges New Minimum Wage:
The CODEVI Free Trade Zone Workers' Union (Sokowa) in Ouanaminthe (on
the Dominican border) is urging the Senate to vote for the new minimum
wage law in order to help Haiti's disadvantaged sectors cope with the
rising cost of living. In a letter to the Haitian Senate, the SOKOWA
states, "We would like to see the Senators follow the example of the
Deputies (members of parliament in the lower house) by supporting the
proposed law to help us face the increasing cost of living."
"With an inflation rate of around 19% at the end of 2008, no worker in
Haiti can get enough to eat or drink or meet other needs", stated the
SOKOWA union. "The proposed new minimum wage of 200 gourdes a day will
not meet our needs, but, taking into account the country's situation,
we can still accept it." (The current rate of exchange is 40 gourdes
to one US dollar) The SOKOWA denounced the pressures that are being
exerted on senators to reduce the minimum daily wage from the 200
gourdes already agreed by the Deputies.
"We call on the Senators to vote for a minimum wage that is in the
interests of workers. This is the minimum requirement if they want to
serve the interests of the constituency of the workers of Haiti." The
union's leaders invited the Senators to fulfill their responsibilities
on this issue in order to provide some help to the country's poor,
especially workers and labourers who sell their labour in the assembly
factories. The upper house (the Senate) is currently considering the
minimum wage legislation already passed by the Deputies in the lower
house. The legislation introduced by the Deputy for P?tionville,
Steven Beno?t, sets the new minimum daily wage at 200 gourdes,
compared the current rate of 70 gourdes that was introduced in 2003.
(translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)
(Alterpress, 2/19)
The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described
in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the
situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide
a variety of perspectives on the situation.
To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall
Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.
IN THIS REPORT:
UN Secretary General and Former President Clinton Visit Haiti
Clinton Global Initiative boosts health programs in Haiti
NYT Editorial: Haiti?s Despair, Continued
Carnival Sum-Up
University Students Protest and Clash with Police
Tennis Star Kournikova Visits Haiti with PSI
New International Crisis Group Report on Haiti Warns of Renewed
Violence and Instability
Haiti visit by U.N. Security Council members aims to bolster support
World Bank Granting $5 Million to Rebuild 15 Schools
Bus Crash Near Cabaret
Haitians Being Deported Despite Desperation in Haiti
Congresswoman Waters and 71 Others Urge Debt Cancellation
Rebuilding Haiti
Workers' Union in Free Trade Zone Urges New Minimum Wage
UN Secretary General and Former President Clinton Visit Haiti:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill
Clinton visited Haiti on Monday and urged the Caribbean state to use
international backing to haul itself out of grinding poverty. Ban and
Clinton are on a mission to promote an anti-poverty action plan for
the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Speaking to students at
an educational center, the U.N. chief said Haiti had a "window of
opportunity" because of the presence of a U.N. peacekeeping mission on
its soil and because of the country's tariff-free access to the U.S.
market. "This window of opportunity is not unlimited. It is very
limited. You must seize this opportunity," said Ban, who was due to
meet later with President Rene Preval. "That is why President Clinton
and I are here personally to first of all demonstrate our solidarity
and send a very strong message to the international community that we
need Haiti to be able to emerge as a very stable, democratic and
prosperous country in the region," he added.
The United Nations has some 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti, which has
long been afflicted by political instability and violence and was
heavily damaged by hurricanes last year. U.N. officials say the anti-
poverty plan focuses on job creation, food security, reforestation of
the almost treeless country and provision of basic services such as
healthcare. Clinton told the students that 200 years ago Haiti had
been the richest part of the region because of its natural resources.
"You can be again because of the resources in your mind and your
heart," he said. Clinton and Ban were visiting just over a month
before Senate elections in Haiti, already controversial after the
nation's biggest party, The Lavalas Family Party associated with
exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was barred on a
technicality.
As they visited, several thousand supporters of the Lavalas Family
Party staged a demonstration to protest against its barring from the
Senate polls and to demand that U.S. President Barack Obama arrange
Aristide's return to Haiti. They waved banners which read "Ask Obama
to return Aristide" and "There can be no election without Lavalas,"
but there were no serious incidents. Aides to Ban said he had been
encouraged to visit Haiti by a report he had received from Paul
Collier, an academic at Britain's Oxford University. The report said
that despite its problems Haiti was well placed to recover because of
the U.S. trade concessions it enjoyed, its proximity to the U.S.
market and its low labor costs. It recommended focusing on developing
the garment industry and in growing mangoes as an export crop and to
help reforest the nation, which suffers flash-floods and erosion.
Accompanying Clinton was Wyclef Jean, a Haitian-born hip-hop star who
heads a charitable foundation that seeks to help the impoverished
state. A U.N. statement said Ban had asked Clinton to accompany him
because of his attention to Haiti during his 1993-2001 presidency and
a "call to action" on Haiti at a session of his Clinton Global
Initiative foundation last September. The hurricanes that hit Haiti in
August and September were estimated to have killed some 800 people and
caused $1 billion worth of damage. The United Nations launched an
appeal last September for $108 million for hurricane relief, but less
than half of that amount had been pledged as of December. A high-level
donor conference is scheduled for next month in Washington.
Immediately after Ban's visit, the U.N. Security Council will stage a
three-day trip of its own to assess progress in Haiti and how the U.N.
mission is fulfilling its mandate. (Reuters, 3/9)
Not since Haiti plunged into anarchy that led to the ouster of its
democratically elected president five years ago has it received such
targeted attention on the world stage. But with today's arrival of
former US president Bill Clinton and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon
comes a measure of hope that the nation's fortunes will begin to turn
for the better. Armed with star power and global influence, the two
dignitaries are scheduled to arrive in Haiti's capital for an
overnight visit that will include working meetings with Haitian
president Rene Preval and prime minister Michele Pierre-Louis.
Clinton, traveling with a delegation of business leaders, will also
sit down with key Haitian business figures before touring the
country's lingering devastation - and its best prospects for hope.
It is an unprecedented diplomatic assault, launched by the United
Nations and followed a day later with a rare visit by the
international organisation's most powerful body, the UN Security
Council. The hope is the series of high-profile visits will provide
Haiti with the kind of global and humanitarian support it needs as it
struggles with deepening poverty, donor fatigue and the worst
humanitarian disaster in 100 years. "We have made a lot of progress in
Haiti," said UN special representative for Haiti Hedi Annabi. "We have
suffered some setbacks in 2008, especially in the wake of the
hurricanes. But we think success is possible in Haiti."
"Haiti has been for many years a weak state, and certainly not the
international community nor the Latin American group of nations would
like to see Haiti as a failed state," said ambassador Jorge Urbina,
permanent representative of Costa Rica, which is leading the three-day
UN Security Council mission to Haiti. "The international community has
to find ways to promote development and make it a sustainable
process." Adding to the sense of urgency are lingering concerns over
next month's Haiti donors conference in Washington. The Preval-Pierre-
Louis government is seeking a total of $3bn to finance a World Bank-
approved poverty-reduction plan. It also needs $125m to cover
expenditures to control inflation and higher prices for basic
commodities.
"The global environment makes it challenging," Yvonne Tsikata, World
Bank director for the Caribbean, said. "On the other hand doing
nothing is not an option." The International Crisis Group, an
independent watchdog group that monitors conflicts around the world,
agrees. In a recently released 16-page report on Haiti, it warns: "The
continued inability to provide adequate, visible responses to the
deteriorating situation of the poor makes it easy for spoilers to
exploit desperation and often appalling living conditions for both
personal and political gain."
Given this reality, UN officials are doing their best to fuel hope in
the midst of despair. Enter Clinton and his humanitarian foundation.
He is considered a hero by many for returning democracy to the country
in 1994 after he ordered a US military-led intervention to restore
then-exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. "He feels a
deep sense of responsibility and affection for Haiti," said Dr Paul
Farmer, a world renown infectious disease specialist who works in
Haiti and will join Clinton on the trip. Farmer was among the first to
reach out to Clinton soon after Gonaives, Haiti's third largest city,
was buried by mudslides and storm waters. Weeks earlier the two were
in Rwanda, where the Clinton Global Initiative has been teaming up
with Farmer since 2005.
"Clinton, who helped raised tens of millions on behalf of the tsunami
and Hurricane Katrina victims along with former president George HW
Bush through his Clinton Global Foundation, is a natural choice, say
Haiti supporters. He was only the second sitting US president -
Franklin D Roosevelt was the first in 1934 - to have visited Haiti
when he traveled there in 1995. After the final of four storms -
Hurricane Ike - hammered Haiti, Clinton called Preval and offered
assistance. Weeks later, he hosted a forum on Haiti during the
gathering of his Clinton Global Initiative while Preval was attending
the UN General Assembly in New York.
"Bill Clinton has a matchless talent for bringing people together and
inspiring them to work for a higher purpose," said Luis Alberto
Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, which is
helping to host the donors conference. "It's a boon for Haiti that
he's embracing their struggle against poverty." (The Guardian UK, 3/9)
Clinton Global Initiative boosts health programs in Haiti:
Former President Bill Clinton established the Clinton Global
Initiative in 2005 to help make changes in the lives of the world's
poor and destitute by partnering governments and nonprofit
humanitarian organizations with those who can help. In Haiti, CGI has
teamed up with Partners In Health, which works with AIDS patients and
supports health programs in Haiti's Central Plateau region. Its
founding director is Harvard University medical educator and
infectious disease specialist Dr. Paul Farmer. Among what CGI has
helped facilitate on behalf of PIH, and the people living in the
Central Plateau:
? The enrollment of 8,573 students this year, and daily school lunches
for 9,793 students. The $3.4 million over three years is being also
supported by Digicel, a cellphone company on the ground in Haiti.
? A review of the solar market in Haiti with support from Good
Energies, and assessments of 10 of the public health facilities PIH
runs in Haiti. Phase two will be installation of a major system at one
PIH site. Estimated value: $150,000 over two years.
? The shipment of 20,000 pairs of rubber ankle boots from TOMS. They
will go to patients in PIH clinics and members of the community who
are at risk of getting the skin disease tungiasis. Shoes will also go
to outfit community health workers who make daily visits to patients
receiving HIV or Tuberculosis treatment. Another 30,000 pairs of shoes/
boots from TOMS will be distributed by PIH later in the year.
? The distribution of 500,000 Pur water treatment sachets, donated by
Proctor & Gamble, to families without access to clean water as a
result of the hurricanes.
? The construction of a bridge. With support from Digicel and in
cooperation with the U.N. Stabilization mission, MINUSTAH, PIH is
moving ahead with plans to build a bridge to link the town of Boucan
Carre, where PIH runs a public hospital and where there are two large
schools, to the rest of the Central Plateau.
? The building 'back better' of the health infrastructure in
Mirebalais with support from Humanity United. PIH has purchased an
ambulance and has solicited designs for a new public hospital in
Mirebalais. Ministry of Health staff in Mirebalais is being
supplemented by PIH. Source: Clinton Global Initiative (Miami Herald,
3/9)
NYT Editorial: Haiti?s Despair, Continued
The Department of Homeland Security has decided to continue an ill-
advised Bush administration policy of deporting illegal Haitian
immigrants. Haiti, already desperately poor, was devastated by storms
last year. It is hard to see how an influx of up to 30,000 homeless,
jobless people ? the number of Haitians facing deportation from the
United States ? would do anything but further destabilize the country
as it struggles to recover from what has been called its worst natural
disaster in a century.
American advocates for Haitians have joined the Haitian government in
pleading for an end to the deportations, arguing that all interests
are better served by giving the detainees temporary protected status.
When a political crisis or natural disaster makes repatriation a bad
idea, it is far wiser to allow people to stay put rather than be
forced home where they will place further strains on local supplies of
food, clean water and housing ? all of which are perilously scarce in
Haiti. The Haitian diaspora can do a lot more for its stricken
homeland by sending home what is really needed: money.
Ending deportations of Haitians would also be consistent. Tens of
thousands of Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and others whose
countries have been hit by war, earthquakes and hurricanes have
routinely been granted protected status in 18-month increments. The
strongest argument against doing so is the fear that boatloads of
Haitians will take to sea in a deadly gamble to win sanctuary for
themselves. That is a legitimate concern. But the best way to address
it is by helping to lessen Haiti?s misery with aid, trade and
investment. Haitians living in this country can help ? but not if they
are deported home to a country that is in no condition to accept them.
(The New York Times, 3/10/09)
Carnival Sum-Up:
At least 259 people were reported injured in the concluding hours of
Haiti's Carnival 2009,bringing the total casualties in the festivity
to one death and 540 injuries, local police said on Thursday. The
sole fatality was identified as 15-year-old Sandra Pierre, who
suffered several fractures in the skull after a gigantic carriage
rolled over upon her during a street concert in Port-au-Prince, a
police spokesman said on Thursday. According to official statistics,
around one million local residents participated in this year's
Carnival, which began on Sunday. In order to guarantee social order
and security, Haitian police had sought the cooperation of the Red
Cross and UN peacekeeping forces, Gary Desrosiers, Haitian police
spokesman, told Xinhua.
Olsen Jan Julien, Haitian minister of culture and communication,
said that Carnival celebrations help create employment and consumption
in sectors like tourism and transportation, which implies considerable
economic profitability to the Caribbean country. He deemed the
cultural-social event to be positive despite the casualties, and said
that a permanent committee is to be established for the conservation
and promotion of the Carnival, which he called a cultural-material
heritage of Haiti. (Xinhua, 2/26)
University Students Protest and Clash with Police:
University students in Haiti barricaded themselves inside an
administration building Tuesday and clashed with police and U.N.
peacekeepers during protests to demand an improved curriculum. Police
responded by firing at least two rounds of tear gas at the State
University of Haiti building in the hills above Port-au-Prince. At
least one student was arrested, Radio Vision 2000 reported. No
injuries were reported. Several car windows were smashed near the
building and a thrown rock smashed through the windshield of a U.N.
vehicle that was passing by. The students have protested several times
in recent weeks to demand that administrators better prepare them to
teach math and science. Several of the previous protests also involved
tear gas, rocks and burning tires. (AP, 3/4)
Tennis Star Kournikova Visits Haiti with PSI:
Tennis star, Anna Kournikova, says her recent trip to Haiti was
"completely and devastatingly humbling." The star just returned from
her first visit to Haiti, where she witnessed firsthand the combined
effects of years of poverty, violence and natural disasters on the
health of the local population, courtesy of PSI, a leading global
health organization. The visit was part of an awareness-raising
mission organized by PSI -and was focused on drawing attention to the
innovative solutions available to some of the world's most complex
health problems.
"What shocked me about Haiti, where 70 percent of the population lives
on less than $2 a day, was just the complete lack of basic human
needs, and the amazing amount of disease and sickness that is so
prevalent within the population," blogs the tennis star. "Diarrhea is
rampant and is a major cause of infant deaths, simply due to the lack
of clean drinking water. I?ve never seen so much trash and waste, on
every street, on every single road. They don?t have the systems to get
rid of the waste in a proper way, not to mention recycling, so they
have to burn it in the streets. There?s no infrastructure or programs
of any kind, whether it?s plumbing, waste control, sewers, clean
water, etc. It was so difficult to see those conditions with my own
eyes."
Kournikova said she was especially touched by her meeting with group
of young girls who had been sold into domestic servitude by their
parents, for a modest profit. "One little 'restavek' girl was telling
us about how her family had sold her to another family when she was 8
years old and that she does everything for that family," recounted
Kournikova. "She gets them water from the well each day, walks their
kids to school, washes the clothes, cleans the house. She's not
allowed to attend school, not allowed to have any kind of life of her
own and she's being abused sexually and physically." Current estimates
suggest that more than 300,000 restaveks are living in Haiti and that
more than 75 percent of them are young girls. The World Bank reports
that 1 in every 2 girls has been sexually abused, with the abuse often
resulting in HIV infections or other sexually transmitted diseases.
In addition to meeting with restaveks, Kournikova also visited the
hurricane-ravaged town of Cabaret. There, she said she could `see the
hair of the children turning yellow due to malnutrition` and she noted
the high rates of disease among children due to a lack of clean
drinking water. With a donation from H&M's Fashion Against AIDS
campaign, PSI is building a youth center to provide children living in
domestic servitude and on the streets with vocational training,
clinical services and health education. (CaribWorldNews, 3/5)
New International Crisis Group Report on Haiti Warns of Renewed
Violence and Instability:
Deepening poverty and ineffective governance have left Haiti at risk
for renewed violence and political instability, a conflict watchdog
warned on Tuesday. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group urged
international donors scheduled to meet next month in Washington to
provide the struggling Caribbean country with $3 billion over the next
several years. "Between now and the summer Haiti faces a series of
challenges, and if the population doesn't see progress it could well
result in significant instability," ICG senior vice president Mark
Schneider told The Associated Press by phone. A 16-page report by the
conflict watchdog comes ahead of a March 9 visit by U.N. Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton to promote
international aid and economic security in the impoverished country.
The U.N. Security Council will visit immediately afterward.
Haiti is enjoying a period of relative stability, but the report says
economic and social conditions are even worse than last April, when
political riots over high food prices overthrew the prime minister.
Months later the country was socked by four storms that left nearly
800 people dead, caused $1 billion in damage and halted economic growth.
Tuesday's report says poor cooperation between President Rene Preval,
new Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis and parliament is also
deadlocking legislation and preventing passage of a proposed $256.4
million, mostly donor-financed budget.
That in turn could leave the door open for "spoilers" ? drug
traffickers, corrupt politicians, gangs and business owners who prefer
a weak government ? to create new problems. Illegal flights carrying
South American cocaine through Haiti and on to the United States and
Europe increased over the past year, the U.S. State Department said in
its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released
this week. Reminders of how quickly any tension can boil over into
violence in Haiti were on display Tuesday in Port-au-Prince when
university students threw rocks at U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian
police, who responded by firing tear gas. The students were protesting
a curriculum change.
Observers worry far more violent demonstrations could erupt ahead of a
long-delayed April 19 election to fill 12 vacant Senate seats, with
concern centering on electoral officials' decision to block all
candidates from former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's divided
Famni Lavalas party. The ICG report called for inclusive elections.
(AP, 3/4)
Help Haiti keep drugs out of the country, BY MARK SCHNEIDER
www.crisisgroup.org
A 10th of all the cocaine smuggled into the United States passes
through the island of Hispaniola, and a new State Department report
says most of it now is hitting Haiti first. With Haiti's skeletal
police force too stretched to pursue them, drug traffickers from
Colombia and Venezuela easily 'air smuggle' the drug through Haiti.
Over the last two years, the practice has increased by 53 percent. For
the same two years, Haiti's President Ren? Pr?val has been asking the
U.S. government to send helicopters to Haiti to intercept those drug
flights. The Bush administration refused.
Drug smugglers corrupt Haiti's underpaid police force, judges and
politicians, which in turn undermines the efforts of the United
Nations, Latin American peacekeepers and the United States to bring
security and stability to the hemisphere's poorest nation. Some $2
billion in U.S. aid has been funneled to the reconstruction effort in
the past five years alone. But each time there is progress in
recruiting, training, equipping and deploying new Haitian police, drug
traffickers derail the process. Air smuggling increased 38 percent in
2007 and another 15 percent in 2008, including more frequent and bold
daylight air drops, according to the new State Department report.
Two years ago, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, in cooperation with
the Haitian National Police and MINUSTAH, sent two interdiction
helicopters to Haiti to see if they could replenish the region's
diminished fleet of naval and air forces that had been rerouted to
Iraq. The two helicopters and beefed-up interdiction effort turned out
to be so successful that for almost the entire eight weeks they were
in Haiti, air smuggling ended. But when they left, the smuggling re-
turned. Crisis Report reported that even the former head of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy admitted that the extra
effort should have continued longer.
Drug smuggling also infects Haiti's politics. Drug smugglers
reportedly not only are financing some candidates for April's already-
delayed senatorial elections, but a few candidates themselves are
reportedly involved in drug smuggling. They know that if elected, they
will have senatorial immunity from prosecution.
Haiti's drug-related problems compound a litany of challenges:
? The April elections became even more complicated when the
provisional electoral council decided to exclude the Lavalas Party
candidates because two factions had sent duplicate candidates.
Unfortunately, the end result is to punish the Lavalas supporters who
may lose their chance for any representation in the Senate vote -- a
result that also threatens the legitimacy of the elections themselves.
? Last April, food price riots allegedly were instigated in part by
drug trafficking-linked groups unhappy about recent arrests. The riots
ended with the fall of one government and the postponement of a
donors' conference that had brought the promise of vital new
development assistance.
? In August and September, the island was hit by four hurricanes. The
country is still staggering from their aftermath. The hurricanes wiped
out one harvest season, destroyed much of the country's agricultural
infrastructure and left nearly a third of the population dependent on
food aid.
Haiti is desperate for the long-delayed donors' conference that
promises to provide international support for ambitious reconstruction
and recovery plans. But before donors open wide their wallets, they
want to see stability and security, which is once again threatened by
aerial drug smuggling. During his visit to Washington a few weeks ago,
Pr?val made to President Barack Obama the same plea that fell on deaf
ears with his predecessor: Please help us keep drugs out of our
country. The Obama administration should send a permanent helicopter
interdiction force to Haiti well before the April elections, or rotate
them in and out on an unannounced and regular basis. It's an easy fix
that will go far in making Haitian skies a no-fly zone for drug
traffickers. (Mark Schneider is senior vice president at the
International Crisis Group.) (Miami Herald, 3/7)
Haiti visit by U.N. Security Council members aims to bolster support:
Members of the U.N. Security Council will visit storm-ravaged Haiti
next week in a bid to raise global awareness of its desperate
situation, and convey 'a strong message' of support for its
continued progress. The visit also is aimed at mobilizing support for
next month's donors conference on Haiti in Washington, D.C., following
the 'cold attitude' the United Nations received from the world
community after Haiti was hammered by four back-to-back storms last
summer.
'We certainly have noticed a cold attitude for any funding not only
to Haiti but in general financing for development,' said Ambassador
Jorge Urbina, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica. 'We are trying
to raise awareness of the situation in Haiti.' Led by Costa Rica,
nine permanent representatives of the Security Council will arrive on
Wednesday, the day after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former
President Bill Clinton leave Haiti after a similar mission. The
representatives will leave the Caribbean nation on Saturday following
a series of meetings with a number of key players, including President
Ren? Pr?val and Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis, government,
parliament and political party leaders, as well as electoral officials.
Council members will also evaluate the progress of the United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Urbina said some members will visit
Gonaives, the city hardest hit during last summer's storms, to
evaluate the humanitarian challenges. Another group will travel
farther north to Fort Liberte to explore the development of free zones
near the border, and border security. 'Haiti faces challenges that
are well known by the international community, the most important of
them being development,' Urbina said during a news conference. ``The
international community has to find ways to promote development and
make it a sustainable process. It is not the fact of promoting some
economical activity, but it's very important to keep in mind that we
need a sustainable process.'
Urbina said while security remains an important component of the U.N.
Security Council's mandate in Haiti, he stopped short of saying
whether the mandate should be expanded to include more development.
Pr?val has repeatedly asked for the expansion but has been met with
resistance to by some members of the council. 'Haiti has been for
many years been a weak state, and certainly not the international
community nor the Latin American group of nations would like to see
Haiti as a failed state,' Urbina said. ``We want to really go much
further in this partnership, in this mutual commitments that we have.
I think President Pr?val and Prime Minister Mich?le Pierre-Louis will
have the possibility of informing the council of their efforts and
after that we will come to New York and I am sure we will evaluate
what we have learned and see what we can do in the future.'
(Miami Herald, 3/6)
World Bank Granting $5 Million to Rebuild 15 Schools:
The World Bank is giving Haiti $5 million to rebuild 15 public primary
schools damaged last year in four hurricanes and tropical storms. The
Washington-based bank's grant will also help the Caribbean country
develop a safe schools action plan and train school officials to
enforce new building codes. Most Haitian students attend underfunded
private schools that are often poorly constructed. The World Bank's
announcement Thursday said 964 schools that served 200,000 students
were damaged in storms last August and September. Nearly 100 people
were killed when a school near Port-au-Prince collapsed during a party
in November. (AP, 3/6)
Bus Crash Near Cabaret:
Haitian news media say two buses have slammed head-on into a truck-
taxi on a highway north of Port-au-Prince, killing at least nine
people and injuring 40. Radio Vision 2000 says the collision happened
Friday morning near the coastal town of Cabaret. The radio and local
journalists say many of those hospitalized were in serious condition.
Most of the victims were riding in a northbound truck that served as a
taxi. The southbound vehicles were repurposed school buses that Haiti
uses for long-distance public (AP, 3/6)
Haitians Being Deported Despite Desperation in Haiti:
Vialine Jean Paul has noticed a change when she drops her 7-year-old
daughter off at school each morning in recent weeks. Her daughter,
Angela, is not sure that her mother will be back to pick her up. ?She
tells me, ?Mommy, good luck,? ? Mrs. Jean Paul said, choking back
tears. ?She asks me, ?Mommy, if you go to Haiti, what will happen to
me?? ? Though Angela does not know it, the hopes of tens of thousands
of Haitian immigrants and their relatives have become fixed on her
mother?s fate. Mrs. Jean Paul is one of more than 30,000 Haitian
citizens who have been ordered deported from the United States. Her
case could be an early test of whether the Obama administration will
break with the strictimmigration enforcement policies of the Bush
administration.
After an estimated 1,000 people were killed in mudslides in Haiti last
year, the government asked the United States to grant temporary
protected status to Haitian immigrants ? relief that was extended when
Honduras and El Salvador were hit by similar disasters. The
designation is intended for countries in such dire trouble that
receiving deportees would undermine their stability. Deportations of
Haitians were temporarily suspended last September, while the Bush
administration considered the request. In December, the request was
denied and the deportations resumed.
Lawyers say hundreds of people were detained, pushing detention
centers across Florida beyond capacity. Hundreds of other i mmigrants
were forced to wear electronic monitoring devices. Advocates for
immigrants said the arrests and deportations have taken a toll on
Haitian communities, tearing immigrants ? whose only crime was
entering the United States illegally ? from their American spouses and
children and condemning them to lives of poverty and violence in a
country devastated by political instability and natural disaster.
?They told us they were going after criminal aliens,? said her lawyer,
Cheryl Little, referring to the immigration policies of the Bush
administration. ?Would we be any safer if Vialine were deported? I
think not. We are devoting a lot of resources going after the wrong
people.?
Aides to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she was
reviewing the matter of Haitian deportations. Meanwhile, the Haitian
government has refused to issue travel documents to deportees, and the
United States authorities said they were worried that confusion in
Haiti over American policy was causing a surge in the numbers of
Haitians trying to flee their country. The Coast Guard intercepted 624
Haitians at sea in January, compared with none in November. Another
214 were intercepted on an overloaded freighter last weekend.
A State Department official, who asked not to be named because
temporary protected status is a Homeland Security matter, said the
United States was aware of the hardship caused in Haiti by last year?s
storms. He noted that the United States responded with humanitarian
assistance, including medical services provided aboard the amphibious
assault ship Kearsarge. But, he said, the United States determined
that a strong international presence in Haiti, led by some 10,000
United Nationspeacekeepers, gave that country sufficient support to
accommodate deportees.
?This is a controversial position,? the official said, acknowledging a
flood of letters from Haitian advocates and members of Congress, along
with newspaper editorials calling on President Obama to stop the
deportations. ?But we believed Haiti had=2 0the structures on the
ground that it needed to solve its problems.?
Haiti?s ambassador to the United States, Ray Joseph, disagreed with
that assessment. Haiti?s existence has largely been defined by chaos.
But the storms, he said, deepened the crisis, fueling runaway
inflation and food shortages. He said tens of thousands of storm
victims have been left without proper shelter, and the country is
plagued by violent crime. ?Haiti had a very, very bad year in 2008,?
Mr. Joseph said. ?Why send these people back, when we have no place to
put them?? (New York Times, 2/27)
Storm-battered Haiti will continue stalling most deportations of its
citizens until the Obama administration decides whether to grant it
protected status that will allow Haitians to stay in the U.S.
temporarily, the Haitian ambassador said this week. Temporary
protected status allows immigrants from countries experiencing armed
conflict or environmental disasters to stay and work in the U.S. for a
limited time. Haitian President Rene Preval twice last year formally
requested the status that has been granted to a handful of Central
American and African countries, but former Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff denied those requests in December.
"Everybody is saying Haiti is still reeling from those four
hurricanes, the food riots of last year, the price of fuel. Haiti had
a very, very bad year in 2008," Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph said
in a phone interview. "Why should we compound the problems of the
country by sending all those deportees at this time if we don't do it
for Nicaragua or El Salvador?" Since September, when the Haitian
government stopped issuing the travel documents needed to send its
residents home, most deportations from the U.S. have stalled. From
October through January, just 69 Haitians were returned, compared with
666 in the same four months last year.
Joseph wants Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain
why deportations to Haiti are continuing at all and say whether the
country will get protected status. "We want that clear before we
decide what we want to do," Joseph said in a telephone interview from
Washington. Napolitano will respond to Preval "in due course,"
Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said Friday. "The department,
specifically U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, is in
continual discussions with Haiti on the removal of its nationals,"
Kudwa said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has abided by the Haitian
government's request in September to stop federally managed
deportation flights for six months, said ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas.
However, individual removals of Haitians with valid passports aboard
commercial flights have continued. Travel documents from the Haitian
government aren't needed in those cases. The U.S. Coast Guard also has
repatriated hundreds of Haitians caught at sea - 624 in January alone,
and another 214 aboard an overloaded sail freighter Monday.
About 30,000 Haitians nationwide had received final orders of
deportation - 95 percent for non-criminal violations - as of early
February, but immigration attorneys say many have lived with those
orders for years while their appeals chug through the system. About
600 were in detention and another 240 were electronically monitored,
according to ICE. Haiti's claim that the deportees are an added burden
among so many troubles sets it apart from other countries that have
refused to accept removals, experts say. "They're basically saying,
'We don't have the resources,'" said David Leopold, national vice
president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Other
countries' refusals have reflected Cold War rivalries, unfinished war
business or terrorism concerns.
During the Reagan administration, Cuba refused take back thousands of
refugees with serious criminal records or mental health issues.
Cambodia refused throughout the 1990s, questioning whether deportees
were in fact Cambodian citizens. Jordan temporarily stopped accepting
deportees for security reasons. Generally, no country accepts
stateless Palestinians. If Preval is trying to stave off civil
disorder, withholding the documents is the only weapon he has, said
Jean-Germain Gros, who specializes in Haitian politics at the
University of Missouri, St. Louis. In a country where more than two-
thirds of the labor force is unemployed, the mass return of deportees
could overwhelm social services. Also, deportees in Haiti are often
associated with kidnappings and other crimes.
But other countries in the region are accepting burdensome deportees,
even those with criminal records who are contributing to political
instability, said University of Miami immigration law professor David
Abraham. "Guatemala and El Salvador are now facing the return of gang
criminals who have brought the major league drug and gang problems
back home," Abraham said. "They are really ravaged by these returning
gang members, but they haven't refused to take them back." (2/27)
Congresswoman Waters and 71 Others Urge Debt Cancellation:
Today, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) sent a letter to World Bank President
Robert B. Zoellick, urging him to grant
complete debt cancellation to Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western
Hemisphere. The letter was signed by 72 members of the House of
Representatives, including Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the
Financial Services Committee; Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Ranking Member of
the Financial Services Committee; Howard Berman (D-CA), Chairman of
the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking
Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Copies of the letter were
sent to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of the
Treasury Timothy Geithner. The text of the letter follows:
We are deeply concerned about the urgent humanitarian needs of the
people of Haiti and the difficulties Haiti has faced in qualifying for
the cancellation of its debts. We urge you to suspend immediately all
further debt service payments from Haiti and grant complete debt
cancellation to this impoverished nation. We were disappointed to
learn that Haiti's progress through the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries) Initiative has been delayed as a result of recent natural
disasters, economic shocks, and political developments - together with
a number of conditions from the IMF. At this time last year, it was
expected that Haiti would reach the "completion point" for the HIPC
program and receive complete debt cancellation in the last quarter of
2008. Now, however, Haiti's expected "completion point" date has been
pushed back to as late as July of 2009. We understand that Haiti is
scheduled to send approximately $20 million to the World Bank in
2009. Clearly, this money would be better spent on basic
infrastructure and poverty reduction for the Haitian people.
As you recognized when you traveled to Haiti last October, the loss of
life and the destruction of infrastructure in Haiti after last year's
string of hurricanes and tropical storms has been devastating. Sharp
increases in food and energy prices have also led to an escalation of
hunger among the poorest sectors of the population. Moreover, Haiti
can expect to be severely and negatively affected by the recent
downturn in the economy of the United States. Not only does the
United States serve as a valuable market for Haiti's exports, Haiti is
also heavily dependent on remittances from Haitians living in the
United States.
Given these circumstances, we feel that the people of Haiti would be
better served if the government was freed to use its limited resources
to improve Haiti's democratic institutions, environmental conditions,
basic infrastructure, healthcare, education, and justice system.
Haiti's government has already acknowledged that the savings from debt
relief would contribute significantly to its efforts towards these
purposes.
We therefore urge you to grant Haiti complete debt cancellation as
soon as possible. In the interim, before such cancellation takes
place, we urge you to suspend immediately Haiti's debt service
payments and allow the Haitian government to focus its attention on
the needs of its people. We appreciate your continuing support for
debt cancellation and we look forward to your response. (Office of
Congresswoman Waters, 2/26)
Rebuilding Haiti:
THERE is a new lake outside Gona?ves, a town of 300,000 people and the
fourth-largest in Haiti. It blocks the road south to the capital, Port-
au-Prince. It formed last autumn when four storms, three of them
hurricanes, swept over the poorest country in the Americas in the
space of a month. The rain-a metre's worth on one night alone-fell on
saturated mountains, long since denuded of their forest cover, and
swept down on to the coastal plain. It seemed a modest victory that
only 793 people died, compared with 3,000 killed by Hurricane Jeanne
in 2004. Five months later, bulldozers have cleared the mud from the
main streets of Gona?ves. Away from them, on countless side streets,
pedestrians look down on rooftops on either side. The houses have been
dug out by hand, and the dirt piled in mounds on the roadway.
Only 20% of the town has been cleaned up, estimates Olivier Le
Guillou of Action Contre la Faim, a French charity, which has paid
1,800 residents to help do the job. The damage was not confined to
Gona?ves. Haiti's agriculture minister reckons that 60% of the harvest
was lost and 160,000 goats were killed, along with 60,000 pigs and
25,000 cows. In all, the storms have cost the country $900m, or 14.6%
of GDP, according to a donor-funded government study. That is
equivalent to 12 times the damage of Hurricane Katrina in the United
States, and comes just four years after Jeanne wiped out 7% of Haiti's
GDP.
Nature is not the only force knocking Haiti back. Since Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, a left-wing former Catholic priest, was overthrown by a
rebellion in 2004, the country has been in the care of the United
Nations. Some 7,000 UN soldiers and 2,000 police, mainly from Latin
America, keep the peace. The UN mission has brought greater security:
reported kidnappings fell from 722 in 2006 to 258 last year. A new UN-
trained Haitian police force now has 9,000 officers. The streets of
Port-au-Prince are visibly cleaner. But this has not stimulated
economic progress. Three-quarters of Haitians still live on less than
$2 a day. Two in five children don't go to school. A quarter of
districts lack schools; where these exist, there are 78 pupils per
teacher. In 2005, the maternal death rate rose to 630 for every
100,000 births, up from 457 in 1990. Though more than half of Haitians
work in farming, they produce less than half the country's food needs.
Haiti's agriculture is the least productive in the world, says Joel
Boutroue of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A hectare
of rice paddy in Vietnam will produce 20 tonnes of rice a year,
whereas a Haitian hectare yields just one tonne.
Trends in the outside world have added to Haiti's home-grown woes.
Last April the rise in food prices brought riots that toppled Jacques-
Edouard Alexis, the prime minister. In January it was almost
impossible to find a litre of petrol (though diesel was available).
Rumour holds that Venezuela halted delivery of subsidised oil under
Petrocaribe, a scheme which saved Haiti's government alone at least
$200m last year. Any boost that might have come from a law approved
last year which grants Haiti's textiles duty-free access to the United
States has been more than nullified by the slowdown in remittances
(down 20%) and exports because of the American recession According to
the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister organisation, the economy
will contract by 0.5% this year.
But some of the problems are the fault of Haiti's politicians. Ren?
Preval, who was elected president in 2006 to widespread acclaim among
Haitians and outsiders alike, now seems indecisive. It took him five
months to form a new government after Mr Alexis went, and then many
aid projects had to be renegotiated from scratch. Mr Preval has warned
Haitians of a difficult year ahead. "People want to see more than
pessimism from a leader, they want to see proposals," says Kesner
Pharel, an economist and political analyst. The president is not the
only one to blame. Hedi Annabi, the UN's official in Haiti, recently
criticised the country's politicians for wasting time in "infinite
debates" instead of "working for the essential needs of destitute
Haitians".
Corruption is deeply rooted. The family and friends of politicians
and civil servants expect "to benefit from privilege", says Gary
Victor, a novelist. Money that was supposed to build better drains in
Gona?ves after Hurricane Jeanne was siphoned off, says a UN official.
There are plans to terrace the hills above the town, to plant shrubs
and dig canals. But political lassitude means that this will not get
done before the next hurricane season. The prisons remain an
overcrowded horror, with four-fifths of the inmates yet to face trial.
The only business that seems to thrive is drug trafficking. The
police chief in Port-de-Paix, in the north-west, was poisoned in
January after several million dollars of cash seized from the uncle of
a prominent drug-smuggler went missing. Guy Philippe, a former soldier
who led the rebellion against Mr Aristide and whom the Americans
accuse of drug-trafficking, says he will run for the Senate. Next
month aid donors will convene for a conference on Haiti, the first
since the autumn of 2006. In response to the hurricanes they have
doubled aid to $800m a year (half of this comes from the United
States). That is on top of the UN mission's $600m annual budget, and
Venezuela's fuel subsidy.
Some things have been achieved in Haiti since 2004, but more should
have been. "We spend a lot of money doing capacity building, but it is
not clear that this has an impact," says Mr Boutroue of UNDP. "Maybe
we are just buying social peace-instability has just as much to do
with the well-being of members of parliament as with a deepening of
poverty." It is surely time for outsiders to hold Mr Preval and the
politicians to account. (The Economist, 2/12)
Workers' Union in Free Trade Zone Urges New Minimum Wage:
The CODEVI Free Trade Zone Workers' Union (Sokowa) in Ouanaminthe (on
the Dominican border) is urging the Senate to vote for the new minimum
wage law in order to help Haiti's disadvantaged sectors cope with the
rising cost of living. In a letter to the Haitian Senate, the SOKOWA
states, "We would like to see the Senators follow the example of the
Deputies (members of parliament in the lower house) by supporting the
proposed law to help us face the increasing cost of living."
"With an inflation rate of around 19% at the end of 2008, no worker in
Haiti can get enough to eat or drink or meet other needs", stated the
SOKOWA union. "The proposed new minimum wage of 200 gourdes a day will
not meet our needs, but, taking into account the country's situation,
we can still accept it." (The current rate of exchange is 40 gourdes
to one US dollar) The SOKOWA denounced the pressures that are being
exerted on senators to reduce the minimum daily wage from the 200
gourdes already agreed by the Deputies.
"We call on the Senators to vote for a minimum wage that is in the
interests of workers. This is the minimum requirement if they want to
serve the interests of the constituency of the workers of Haiti." The
union's leaders invited the Senators to fulfill their responsibilities
on this issue in order to provide some help to the country's poor,
especially workers and labourers who sell their labour in the assembly
factories. The upper house (the Senate) is currently considering the
minimum wage legislation already passed by the Deputies in the lower
house. The legislation introduced by the Deputy for P?tionville,
Steven Beno?t, sets the new minimum daily wage at 200 gourdes,
compared the current rate of 70 gourdes that was introduced in 2003.
(translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)
(Alterpress, 2/19)
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