[HaitiReport] Haiti Report for April 6, 2008
 
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 20:43:36 -0500 (CDT)


Haiti Report for April 6, 2008

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:
- Four Killed During Food Riots
- UN Secretary General Suggests an Extension on Peacekeeping Mission
in Haiti
- Haitian Lawmaker's Gun Goes Off During Debate in Parliament
- Unpaid Dues for Peacekeeping Mission Delay Salaries to Sri Lankan
Peacekeepers
- Wyclef Jean asks Haitians to give up Crime
- Prime Minister Discusses Efforts for Dual Citizenship
- Nostalgia for Duvalier in Haiti
- US DEA Fails a Second Time to Arrest Guy Philippe
- Financial Services Committee of House of Representatives Passes
Jubilee Act
- Excerpts from 35th Congress of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP)
Declaration
- Washington Post: Help for Haiti
, The U.S. should temporarily stop deportations
- Economist: Storm Brews in the Caribbean

Four Killed During Food Riots:
At least three people were killed and 25 injured in food riots and
clashes with U.N. peacekeepers Friday, a mission spokeswoman and
Haitian radio said. A young man was shot in the head and killed during
protests in southern Haiti. It was not immediately clear who shot him,
though protesters blamed United Nations troops. U.N. soldiers fired
because they were fired upon, said U.N. spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de
la Combe. She said the mission had opened an investigation. At least
two other people were found dead in other parts of Les Cayes, a
southern town where rioting occurred for a second day Friday, Radio
Kiskeya reported. It was not clear how they died. Boutaud said the
U.N. mission was not aware of those deaths. Nine people were treated
for bullet wounds, Boutaud said. A U.N. soldier was slightly injured.
Crowds blocked roads and looted stores in Les Cayes, burned cars and
tore down the front gate of a U.N. base. Food prices are rising
worldwide but the problem hits hard in Haiti, where 80% of the
population lives on less than $2 a day. Prices for rice, beans, fruit
and condensed milk have gone up 50% from last year, and the cost of
pasta has doubled. (AP, 4/5)

Four people were killed in southern Haiti when demonstrators
protesting the high cost of living clashed with security forces, a
local official said on Friday. The United Nations said protesters
rioted in the town of Les Cayes on Thursday, burning shops, shooting
at peacekeepers and looting containers at a U.N. compound. "At least
four people have been killed and about 20 others wounded," said
Gabriel Fortune, a senator from the southern region, who condemned the
violent behavior of the demonstrators. "The movement started well, but
it was spoiled by the intrusion of a number of criminals that have
nothing to do with the legitimate demands of the population," said
Fortune. Food prices in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas,
have soared in recent months, stoking anger against the government of
President Rene Preval.

Les Cayes was tense after the riots and the U.N. force trying to
maintain peace in the volatile Caribbean country sent 100 peacekeepers
as reinforcements, the U.N. statement said. A small group of
protesters broke into the U.N. compound in Les Cayes, damaging the
main gate and ignoring warning shots from peacekeepers, the statement
said. "The protesters also burned shops in Les Cayes and threw rocks
and fired weapons at some of the blue helmets during the night." At
least two U.N. vehicles were burned, demonstrators threw rocks at cars
and at least one woman was raped, according to local officials and
radio reports. "This hunger is unbearable and the government has to
act now, otherwise we will burn down and destroy everything," a
demonstrator shouted into a local reporter's microphone.

At a news conference, Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis denounced
what he called manipulation of the protests. "We know that these
demonstrations have been infiltrated by individuals linked to drug
dealers and other smugglers," he said, calling on the protesters to
stop the demonstrations. Alexis said the government had immediately
made available about $10 million to help fight the high cost of
living. He announced job creation and credit programs and said food
would be distributed and fertilizer prices cut in half. Haiti, which
shares the island of Hispaniola with the more prosperous Dominican
Republic, has been relatively tranquil recently, although a resurgence
in kidnappings and crime has alarmed the United Nations. (Reuters, 4/5)

UN Secretary General Suggests an Extension on Peacekeeping Mission in
Haiti:
Haiti's internal security has improved but remains fragile because of
rampant poverty, rising kidnappings and a weak government, U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Wednesday. Ban
suggested U.N. peacekeepers should remain in Haiti after their current
mandate ends in October, warning against a ''premature disengagement''
followed by a ''rapid reversal of all that has been achieved.'' The
multinational force, which now numbers about 9,000 troops and police,
has been in place since a 2004 rebellion ousted former President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide. The mission will cost member states $535 million
over the current year, Ban said. Though economic growth had returned
to a pre-rebellion level of 3.2 percent, Ban warned that most Haitians
were not reaping the benefits and that some could again turn to
violence. He cited an uptick in anti-government demonstrations
throughout the country, in which students and other demonstrators have
burned cars and clashed with police over rising food prices. The high
cost of living also helped lead to an attempt by lawmakers to oust
Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis in February. Though the no-
confidence vote failed, the fact that Alexis was summoned at all
underscored the fragility of the current government, Ban said. The
report noted that the reconstituting Haitian national police force has
slightly more than 7,000 members handling full-time policing duties,
half the minimum number the U.N. says will be necessary to take over
basic policing from peacekeepers. (AP, 4/2)

Haitian Lawmaker's Gun Goes Off During Debate in Parliament:
A Haitian lawmaker's handgun went off during a heated debate in
parliament Tuesday, injuring a legislative clerk. Isidor Mercier
insisted the gun fell and fired by accident after he bent down to pick
it up. The bullet hit the right shoulder of the clerk, Antonio
Celestin, who was rushed to a hospital. But reporters who witnessed
the scene said they saw Mercier brandish the gun after another
lawmaker accused him of profiting from a scheme that involved the
repeated replacement of tires on a legislative car. The firearm seemed
to discharge when Mercier was jostled from behind during the tense
debate, according to reporters who watched images of the shooting
captured by a camera. But some lawmakers who witnessed the scene
alleged Mercier, an opposition legislator from the southern peninsula
town of Jeremie, intended to fire the revolver and called for his
arrest. Relations have been tense in the Haitian parliament since
February, when eight legislators including Mercier attempted to oust
Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis in a failed no-confidence vote.
Officials with the Haitian state prosecutor's office arrived at the
parliament building Tuesday afternoon, only to be blocked by
legislative security guards and watch as Mercier drove away. It was
not clear if he was questioned later, and police did not immediately
return phone messages seeking comment. (International Herald Tribune,
4/3)

Unpaid Dues for Peacekeeping Mission Delay Salaries to Sri Lankan
Peacekeepers:
The failure by Haiti UN Peace Keeping Mission contributing countries,
including USA and Japan, to pay their dues for the UN Mission budget
has led to the delay to pay the salaries of the Sri Lankan peace
keepers, a statement by the Army said yesterday. bUN will transmit
the reimbursement money only after sufficient funds have been
contributed by Member States to the Mission budget, to be paid to
peacekeepers, including Sri Lankan,b Military Spokesman Brigadier
Udaya Nanayakkara said in a statement. He also said that the UN has so
far paid the salaries for UN troops only up to May 2007 as the last
payment received by Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka receives reimbursements for
the services as well as salaries for the troops on a quarterly basis
from the UN once sufficient funds are contributed by Member States to
the peacekeeping mission budget of the United Nations. bThe Special
Committee on Peace Keeping has several times brought this matter
urging contributions to the peacekeeping budget to be made promptly
without undue delays,b he said. The statement also said that the UN
confirmed that peacekeeping budget for the UN MINUSTAH mission in
Haiti is approximately US $ 500 million and that all 193 UN Members
contribute annually to this budget on UN assessment rate proportionate
to their GDP. bFor instance, USA bears 26% of MINUSTAH budget and Sri
Lankabs contribution is 0.0032%. The spokesman finally stated that,
the UN has informed that it expects to release another reimbursement
for troops Contributing Countries (TCCs) before the first half of the
year. (UN, 4/2)

Wyclef Jean asks Haitians to give up Crime:
Haitian-born rap star Wyclef Jean has recorded a radio message asking
people in the country to give up crime. "If you love Wyclef that means
you love Haiti," he said in Creole in a short ad run by local stations
in the nation. "So you should not be raping women, kidnapping people
and children. There can be no excuse for doing so." Jean, 35, was made
a roving ambassador for Haiti last year by President Rene Preval. The
singer gained fame as a member of hip-hop trio The Fugees. His message
was supported by the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, the poorest
nation in the Americas. Kidnapping is rife in the Caribbean republic,
with 36 people abducted in the capital city Port-au-Prince during
March alone. "I reject these evil practices," said Jean in his
message, in which he also urged Haitian men to respect women's rights.
Jean was born in Haiti in 1972 but moved with his family to New York
when he was nine years old. The award-winning musician provides
humanitarian aid and assistance through his Yele Haiti foundation.
(BBC, 3/31)

Prime Minister Discusses Efforts for Dual Citizenship:
In an exclusive interview, Haiti's Prime Minister, Jacques-C	douard
Alexis, told the Voice of America (VOA) that his government was
working to enact a constitutional amendment to allow dual citizenship.
"The President and I are concerned about the way we deal with people
who hold dual citizenship and the perception that could create in the
Haitian Diaspora. We are going to work on an amendment that would
solve this problem once and for all," Alexis said. The Haitian
constitution, which was enacted on March 29, 1987, bans dual
citizenship holders from voting or holding high political office.
Haiti's Senate recently expelled two of its members for dual
citizenship. The proposed amendment would re-enfranchise members of
Haiti's large Diaspora. The Prime Minister also announced the creation
of a commission to investigate current citizenship status in
accordance with the law. "In a letter I sent to the Senate, I told the
Senators about the creation of a commission that will investigate the
citizenship status of all members of my government and other senior
officials," said Alexis. He added, "If there are members of my
government whose citizenship status violates the constitution, I will
take the necessary action." The Prime Minister was interviewed while
in Washington for a two-day visit, during which he met with Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and prepared for a donors conference that
will take place in Haiti on April 25. (VOA, 3/28)

Nostalgia for Duvalier in Haiti:
The imported granite was smashed. The giant cupola was toppled. The
grave of FranC'ois Duvalier, the longtime dictator, is a wreck, much
like the country he left behind. Haitibs National Cemetery in Port-au-
Prince, where FranC'ois Duvalier, who ruled from 1957 to 1971, is
buried. Some Haitians feel nostalgia for him and his son; others
recall them with hatred. But Victor Planess, who works at the National
Cemetery here, has a soft spot for Mr. Duvalier, the man known as Papa
Doc. Standing graveside the other day, Mr. Planess reminisced about
what he considered the good old days of Mr. Duvalier and his son, Jean-
Claude, who together ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986. bIbd rather
have Papa Doc here than all those guys,b Mr. Planess said, gesturing
toward the presidential palace down the street. bI would have had a
better life if they were still around.b Mr. Planess, 53, who
complains that hunger has become so much a part of his life that his
stomach does not even growl anymore, is not alone in his nostalgia for
Haitibs dictatorial past. Other Haitians speak longingly of the
security that existed then as well as the lack of garbage in the
streets, the lower food prices and the scholarships for overseas study.

Haiti may have made significant strides since President RenC) PrC)val,
elected in 2006, became the latest leader to pass through the
revolving door of Haitian politics. But the changes he has pushed have
been incremental, not fast enough for many down-and-out Haitians.
bItbs time to show people that democracy is not just about voting
but changing their real lives,b said Prime Minister Jacques-C	douard
Alexis, who survived a no-confidence vote in February pushed by
critics of his handling of the economy. Jean-Claude Duvalier, now in
exile in France, sought recently to take advantage of the discontent
by raising the possibility of a return to Haiti. In a radio address in
September, he offered a tentative apology for his acts, saying, bIf,
during my presidential mandate, the government caused any physical,
moral or economic wrongs to others, I solemnly take the historical
responsibility.b Mr. Duvalierbs remarks, in which he also asked for
bforgiveness from the people,b together with the nostalgia one
hears on the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capital, these days
provoke fury among present-day leaders.

They say they cannot believe that Mr. Duvalierbs National Unity Party
is attracting followers, and that a giant photograph of the elder Mr.
Duvalier hangs from the partybs headquarters. They wonder who is
buying copies of a sympathetic new book about FranC'ois Duvalier called
bThe Misunderstoodb by Jean-Claude Duvalierbs former information
minister, Rony Gilot. Even FranC'ois Duvalierbs grave has received
some sprucing up, and the talk at the cemetery is that supporters plan
to rebuild it to its former glory. bItbs such an insult to the
victims to praise the Duvaliers,b said Patrick Elie, whom Mr. PrC)val
recently appointed to head a commission to look into whether the army
disbanded under the former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide ought to
be rebuilt. bThere is nothing redeemable about them. Webre still
paying for what they did to the country.b

Mr. Elie, who was a minister in Mr. Aristidebs government, calls the
praise of the Duvaliers a bconspiracy of amnesiab that makes his
blood boil. bIf you say FranC'ois Duvalier was good, I feel like
coming over and slamming my beer bottle in your face,b Mr. Elie said,
sipping from a bottle of Prestige beer one recent evening. bThere is
a limit to tolerance. It becomes complicity with butchery. If you do
that, I am going to go ballistic.b Mr. PrC)val has acknowledged the
Duvalier nostalgia and says he is working to counter it. bPeople
donbt know what the Duvalier regime truly represents,b Mr. PrC)val
told The Miami Herald late last year. Acknowledging that there was
peace back then, he added that Haitians born after Jean-Claude
Duvalier fled in 1986 b who make up the bulk of the countrybs
population of 8.5 million b bdonbt know the price of that
peace.b

Mr. PrC)val has sought to recover some of the tens of millions of
dollars that the younger Mr. Duvalier has stashed in foreign banks,
funds the president says were looted from Haiti. Mr. PrC)val is also is
pushing a plan to create a museum at the site of a former prison next
to the palace, in which the Duvaliersb henchmen tortured political
prisoners. The site would be a reminder of that erabs horrors, he has
said. Haiti has a poor track record when it comes to preserving its
past. A previous effort to restore another ignominious site, the Fort
Dimanche prison, failed. The crumbling prison, where political
executions once took place, is now home to squatters, some of whom get
by selling patties made from dirt to quell hunger pangs.

bTo think that the children being raised today do not have the
reference of what wrongs have been done in the past,b said Wilson
Laleau, vice president for academic affairs at the University of
Haiti. bItbs so frustrating. We donbt use history and memory to
understand our present and build the future. We keep beginning again
from scratch.b Mr. Laleau, an economist, said the economic growth
that Haiti experienced in recent years was not really growth at all
but a burst to catch up to where the economy was decades ago. bThe
economy was not as weak back then,b he said of the Duvalier era. The
old days come up in Haitibs debate about whether to recreate the
army. Mr. PrC)valbs commission is leaning against a traditional army,
but it is grappling with how to control the rise of drug trafficking
and what sort of force is needed to monitor the border that Haiti
shares with the Dominican Republic. bI know that the higher level of
insecurity has made people nostalgic for the strong hand,b said Mr.
Elie, the commissionbs leader. bThey think the army is going to
bring back what they call bthe good old days.b We donbt want
people to fall for that nostalgic trap.b

Those old days, Mr. Elie said, were a time in which Haitibs elite
lived lives on the backs of the suffering masses. Creating a more
equitable society, he said, is a long-term struggle that inevitably
makes many uncomfortable. bThe idea of recreating that monster that
was the army is preposterous and unacceptable,b he said. bOne thing
they did well was taking .50-caliber weapons and shooting into shanty
towns. They are going to have to step over my dead body if thatbs the
kind of army they want.b A United Nations peacekeeping force is now
in charge of Haitibs security. It has battled the gangs that used to
control the slums in the capital and restored a semblance of normality
in the poorest neighborhoods. The United Nations force, a mixture of
soldiers and police officers, has also trained Haitian police
officers, who are increasingly visible on the streets. The police
force is being vetted to rid it of officers who are themselves
criminals. But the judicial system is a shambles, ill equipped to
prosecute law breakers. Some gang leaders arrested last year have
already been released and are stirring up trouble again. Moreover,
kidnapping has become a new money-making opportunity for Haitibs
poor, with no one b babies, old people, rich or poor b safe from
being grabbed from the streets for ransom.

The situation in Haiti remains tenuous. bAll of this remains very
fragile,b said HC)di Annabi, a Tunisian who leads the peacekeeping
force. bItbs not irreversible. If we were to leave or downsize now
or in the immediate future, we would leave a vacuum, which would be
filled by the bad guys.b Mr. Duvalier is not the only former leader
with dreams of a comeback. In a New Yearbs message, Mr. Aristide, now
in exile in South Africa, declared in Haitian Creole, bWe are waiting
to meet again, face to face on Haitian soil.b About a thousand of his
supporters took to the streets last July to celebrate his birthday and
call for his return from exile. The political establishment in Haiti
considers the likelihood that either Mr. Duvalier or Mr. Aristide will
return to the presidential palace to be remote. But the two men have
devoted followings and play the role of spoilers in the countrybs
volatile politics. One of those who heard Mr. Duvalierbs radio
address was Bobby Duval, who remembered shaking his head as he
listened to the former dictator. bI heard his apology, but itbs a
little late for that,b said Mr. Duval, who served 17 months in jail
in the mid-1970s, a result of one of Mr. Duvalierbs crackdowns on
critics. bHe destroyed this country. He left our psyche completely
destroyed. Since 1986, webve been suffering the aftereffects of what
happened back then.b Mr. Duval said he would welcome Mr. Duvalier
back, but only to experience what so many Haitians did during his
rule. bIf he comes back, he ought to go to prison to reflect on what
he did,b Mr. Duval said. bAnything else would be spitting on all
those who died under him.b (NYT, 3/23)

US DEA Fails a Second Time to Arrest Guy Philippe:
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents stormed the rural Haitian
home of former rebel leader Guy Philippe on Tuesday but the accused
cocaine smuggler escaped for the second time in eight months. About
two dozen DEA, FBI and Haitian anti-drug agents searched for Philippe
with helicopters, fast boats and vehicles in the early morning raid in
the southern seaside town of Pestel, near Jeremie, local officials and
witnesses said. "They arrived in the middle of the night and they
terrorized the population with heavy detonations and stormed people's
homes," the mayor of Pestel, Lavillet Trezil, told Reuters in a
telephone interview. "They handcuffed and brutalized several people as
they searched house after house to look for Guy Philippe," said
Trezil, who added he thought the operation was illegal. "Haiti is a
sovereign country and as a mayor I was never informed." The raid was
the second attempt by DEA agents and Haitian anti-drug police to
arrest Philippe, who is accused by U.S. justice officials of smuggling
cocaine into the United States. Philippe, a former military officer,
police chief and unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2006, denies
the drug charges. He was a leader of an armed revolt in 2004 that
ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president. Philippe escaped a similar
raid last July on his residence in the village of Bergeau, near Les
Cayes. In a recent phone interview with Reuters from a hiding place,
Philippe claimed he was a victim of a plot by the United States and
its allies to eliminate him. "They have a plan to kill me because I
stood for the rights of my people, not because I am involved in drug
trafficking, because they know it is not true," Philippe said on his
birthday on Feb. 29. "If they knew I was really a drug trafficker,
they would have arrested me a long time ago because I was always here
going about my activities," he said. "If I have to die, I will die
with my head up, not down, and with the dignity and courage of a
fighter." Officials at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince declined to
comment. The U.S. attorney's office for the southern district of
Florida, where the charges against Philippe were brought, according to
media reports, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reuters, 3/25)

Financial Services Committee of House of Representatives Passes
Jubilee Act:
Today, the Financial Services Committee of the House of
Representatives passed Congresswoman Maxine Watersb debt relief bill,
H.R. 2634, Jubilee Act, by a voice vote.  bThe Jubilee Act will free
up resources for poverty reduction in some of the poorest countries in
the world.  I am proud that my colleagues on the Financial Services
Committee had the foresight to support debt cancellation to help
people in poverty.  I look forward to the passage of the Jubilee Act
by the full House of Representatives,b said Congresswoman Waters.
  The Jubilee Act expands debt cancellation for impoverished
countries, provided that they commit to use the savings to reduce
poverty.  The bill passed the Financial Services Committee with strong
support from both Chairman Barney Frank and Ranking Member Spencer
Bachus, as well as over 100 cosponsors.  bDebt cancellation allows
poor countries to use their own money to address the needs of their
people.  It is simple, effective, and the right thing to do,b said
the Congresswoman.

Congresswoman Waters has been a leader on issues of poor country debt
relief for the past decade.  In 1999, she worked with her colleagues
and the Clinton Administration to authorize the debt relief program
known as the bHIPC Initiative.b   The following year, she offered
an amendment on the House Floor to the Fiscal Year 2001 Foreign
Operations Appropriations bill, which increased funding for debt
relief from $69 million to $225 million.  The amendment passed the
House, thereby ensuring full funding for the program.  bDebt
cancellation saved Uganda over $57 million in 2006.  Uganda used the
savings to invest in primary education, malaria control, healthcare,
and infrastructure.  The Jubilee Act will allow more impoverished
countries to benefit from the cancellation of their debts,b said the
Congresswoman. (Office of Congresswoman Waters, 4/3)

Excerpts from the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP), 35th Annual
National Congress, March 16-20, 2008

4. On the issue of food security:
Haiti was a self-sufficient country in terms of food. Haitian peasants
always produced enough food to nourish the entire population. The
country even exported and sold food and other agricultural products in
foreign countries.

Haiti was known for exporting organic produce, produce that is the
best for health. Today the country has turned into a restavC(k in terms
of food. We buy 80% of the rice we eat from foreign countries, even
though we have the capacity to produce enough rice to nourish
ourselves, and to have a surplus we can export to sell abroad.

Our stomachs now depend on secondhand food like turkey wings, chicken
wings, rotten chicken, secondhand fish and a lot of other secondhand
products that destroy our health.

Today we have lost the eating habits that identified us as a people.
There are Haitians who no longer want to eat native rice. Peasants who
donbt want to eat local cornmeal porridge anymore. When a konbit
(community work team) happens it isnbt with a big pot of cornmeal
porridge anymore.  We should be eating food like tchaka, chanmchanm,
doukounou, akra, anpanan, tonmtonm, tayo mazoubel, tayo dijannankou,
breadfruit, labapen, sweet potatoes, manioc, plantain, etc.  Instead
we prefer to eat bread, spaghetti and macaroni. Instead of cooking the
food with fresh herbs like thyme and basil leaves we opt for bouillon
cubes like Maggi, Accent, all kind of chemical products that are
making us ill.

Today our stomachs are on our neighborbs hands. It is our neighbors
who sell us a million eggs each day, 84,000 white chickens each day.
It is our neighbor who sells us key limes, coconuts and all kinds of
products.

5. On the issue of hunger and the high cost of living
Today, if we were relying on the production of local food, hunger
would have already reached 60% of us.

We are experiencing national hunger that has our stomachs in knots. A
hunger that is truly painful and the people are calling it
bkloroxb. We are in this klorox because the government of the
republic has abandoned its national production. The peasants have been
abandoned like a millet field without a caretaker. They are obligated
to drop the production in their own house to work the land at the
neighborbs house and to import and sell to us.

The countrybs president and prime minister are always saying to us
that it is food that brings down the price of food, as a way of
confusing those who are incapable of analyzing the situation. We the
peasant to do not participate in this lie, when we know it is only
4.5% earmarked for agriculture in the national budget. In that 4.5%,
there is not even 1% that reaches us. The money in the budget for
agriculture is a joke, because that is what the funders have promised
them. They donbt really have these funds and the majority of this
little money will pay bureaucrats.

The countrybs president and prime minister are mocking the peoplebs
hunger. They say they canbt make miracles. They donbt have any
national production policy, no food production policy.

President Preval no longer talks about agrarian reform. They closed
the BCA [1], even though it wasnbt of that much use to the pesants
anyway. They speak of rural banks but it is truly a bluff.

Prezidan Preval pa pale de refC2m agrC( ankC2. Yo fC(men BCA [1], menm
lC( li pa te twC2 itil peyizan yo. Yap pale de yon bank riral ki se yon
veritab blC2f.

The government does nothing to support the peasants in the face of the
high cost of living. There is no job creation in the rural areas. The
social appeasement didnbt reach the rural areas and was truly a
bluff. This government is not interested in peasantsb affairs.

The governmentbs policies for peasants are making the peasant class
disappear or return to slavery on the jatropha plantation to make gas
to export to quench the thirst of American cars, or to go work for
potato peels in the free-trade zone, this government is putting their
plan in play all over the country.

6. On the environmental problem
At the moment of our independence, 80% of the countrybs territory was
covered with forest, today we have less than1% vegetable cover. It is
the existence of the country and its entire population that are in
jeopardy. The country cannot stand heavy rain without a catastrophe
descending upon the population. The situation becomes more serious
everyday, because the majority of peasants are obligated to enter into
charcoal production to survive. But, we donbt have trees anymore to
cut down. The peasants have to dig up the roots of trees to make
charcoal. There are no more trees to make food in many communal
sections of the country. What makes things more difficult is that the
Haitian government has never had any plan to create another source of
energy to alleviate the pressure on trees.

Each rain that falls, a part of the thin layer of soil that can still
produce food washes into the sea. The worst is that the flood water
washed away the people, their house, their animals and their garden.
In many areas, like AnsafolC(, Lapwent, Polen lakC2n in the north west
to give only those examples, peoplesb lives are in danger at all
times. The rivers overflow their banks and destroy whole community

The mountains are crumbling into the sea. Our fish cannot repopulate
anymore. The mangroves have nearly completely disappeared, our fish
cannot reproduce anymore and people who live as fishers can catch
them. Unfortunately, we do not have the means to go far out at sea to
fish. In this way, it is other countries that are exploiting the
maritime resources of our country. Our birds have gone into exile, our
fish have gone into exile.

Garbage has chased people out of the town. There is no drainage in the
cities, there is no policy for managing the trash. The water sources
for drinking water are contaminated. The peasants donbt have latrines
to take of their business. We are truly living in a catastrophe.

In the face of all these threats, we donbt have any policies for
protection of the environment. The government does not plant any trees
anywhere in the country. We donbt truly know which ministry is
responsible for reforestation in the country. (Read the entire
declaration in Creole, on the Alterpersse website:
http://www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article7073)

Washington Post: Help for Haiti,
The U.S. should temporarily stop deportations: THE UNITED STATES
occasionally grants immigrants from countries in extreme economic or
political turmoil "temporary protected status," or TPS, which means
U.S. removals to those countries will stop for a specified period. The
designation is given to people from countries or parts of countries
that have ongoing armed conflicts, recent environmental disasters or
other conditions that prevent nationals from being returned home safely.

On all these fronts, Haiti is a slam dunk. The poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere, it has been battered perennially by political
instability, financial hardship, violence, hurricanes, earthquakes,
AIDS, bad luck and worse leadership. The U.S. State Department warns
Americans who are visiting Haiti about the "chronic danger of violent
crime," all the while repatriating Haitians to a death zone. Still,
when Haiti applied in 2004 for TPS, it was turned down for undisclosed
reasons. Last month, Haitian President RenCB? PrCB?val wrote to
President Bush requesting TPS for Haitians who are unlawfully in the
United States, and Mr. Bush should grant the request.

Suspending deportations would allow Haiti to spend its limited
resources on economic and political reconstruction rather than on
social services for deported people. In Haiti's fragile economy,
remittances from nationals abroad equal about a quarter of the
country's gross domestic product. Allowing Haitian nationals to
temporarily stay in the United States, in other words, would be a sort
of cheap foreign aid, leaving undisturbed one of the few things
keeping the country afloat. This is not just a humanitarian issue,
though the misery there makes a compelling case; stability in Haiti,
which is only a boat trip from Florida's coastline, is in America's
interest, too.

Critics contend that granting temporary protected status to Haiti will
open the floodgates to more undocumented Haitian immigrants. But TPS
applies only to a country's nationals who are already in the United
States at the time TPS is declared, and the burden of proof is on them
to verify their eligibility. TPS designations given to Somalia,
Burundi, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Sudan don't seem to have
enabled more illegal immigration from those countries.

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.) has introduced legislation to extend
TPS to Haitians, and the proposal has obtained bipartisan support from
politicians across his state, which has the largest Haitian-born
population in the country. Immigration policy is too radioactive right
now for anything to happen on Capitol Hill. Fortunately, under current
law, TPS can be granted by the executive branch alone if the president
feels a country would benefit from having some time to breathe. While
a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would say
only that Mr. PrCB?val's letter is "being evaluated," we hope Mr. Bush
will take a positive stand. After all, on March 17, Citizenship and
Immigration Services renewed Somalia's TPS for another 18 months with
little fanfare. The people of Haiti deserve the same generosity and
sympathy granted to other deserving countries. (4/2)

Economist: Storm Brews in the Caribbean THE market bustles. Foul-
smelling puddles lap at the feet of women selling rice and men selling
charcoal. Cap-HaC/tien, Haiti's second city, on its north coast, is a
place struggling to escape its present. On the edge of town, by the
ocean, the poorer residents of this poor city in a poor country build
houses on a rubbish dump, their floors a thin layer of dirt. Outside
are glimpses of a better future. Chilean soldiers from a United
Nations peacekeeping force play football with the locals. The road to
the border with the Dominican Republic is being paved, and plans are
afoot to pave the highway to Port-au-Prince, the capital, as well. But
this air of possibility amidst penury is in peril. Though Haiti is far
worse off than the other larger countries in the Caribbean, it shares
two vulnerabilities with them. First, its economy depends greatly on
the United States: for remittances (which account for 21% of GDP); as
its main export market; and (potentially in Haiti's case) for
tourists. So the economic slowdown in America is a problem, and a
slump would be a disaster. Second, Haiti imports much of its food and
all its oil. With world commodity prices at record levels, that
threatens recent progress in controlling inflation, one of several
successes since the UN began to try to rebuild Haiti in 2004. Market
traders in Cap-HaC/tien say that cooking oil and rice have doubled in
price in the past few months.
The only shelter from this brewing storm is a rickety one: a scheme
known as Petrocaribe under which Venezuela's president, Hugo ChC!vez,
provides oil to 15 Caribbean and Central American countries on easy
terms. But Mr ChC!vez is increasingly unpopular back home in Venezuela.
That is a potential problem for Cuba in particular, which gets
subsidies of around $2 billion a year from him. America's trade
embargo has ensured that Cuba is not dependent on the United States.
But Cuba, like Haiti, imports much of its food.

Adjacent to Haiti on the island of Hispaniola there is a similar story
in the Dominican Republic. Leonel FernC!ndez, the president (who is
seeking a new term in an election in May), has restored the country
after a financial collapse. The economy has grown at almost 10% a year
for the past three years, and inflation had fallen to single digits
from over 50% in 2004. Now this progress is threatened. Exports from
the country's assembly plants, which ship most of their output to the
United States, are already falling. Hopes for growth in holiday homes
have vanished with the housing crash on the mainland. Tourism revenue
was flat last year. Tourism is a mainstay in many other Caribbean
states. More than 80% of visitors to the Bahamas come from the United
States; in Jamaica the figure is around two-thirds.

For some countries the commodity boom has been a blessing. The
Dominican Republic and Cuba export nickel and Jamaica alumina. But
prices for both have dipped sharply in recent weeks. Only gas-rich
Trinidad seems secure. Along with prosperous Barbados, it has been
able to snub Mr ChC!vez. Under Petrocaribe, Venezuela supplies 25-year
loans at 1% interest, with which the beneficiary countries buy some
185,000 barrels per day (b/d) of Venezuelan oil (of which more than
half goes to Cuba). This scheme has brought Mr ChC!vez political
dividends. No visible strings are attached. But Petrocaribe may
explain why the small island state of Dominica has joined the
Bolivarian Alternative, Mr ChC!vez's anti-American block based on
Venezuela and Cuba. Haiti's president, RenC) PrC)val, attended one of
its meetings in January. George Bush is said to have told Mr PrC)val
last year that he understood why Haiti was friendly with Venezuela.
Georgemain Prophete, a local official, says the turbines for a power
station going up just outside Cap-HaC/tien are paid for by Venezuela.
The Dominican Republic's Mr FernC!ndez is on good terms with the United
States. But even his government has discussed joining the Bolivarian
Alternative, according to Miguel MejC-a, a minister.

The worry for the countries lining up for Venezuelan help is that
PetrC3leos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil company, may be unable
to maintain the oil shipments indefinitely. That is because its
production is declining, whereas oil consumption at home is rising.
PDVSA exports around 1m b/d to the United States, full-price sales it
needs to pay for the imports it is sucking in. Unless this economic
storm dissipates, the IMF, which helps Haiti but has recently had
little work elsewhere and is so hated by Mr ChC!vez, may find itself
called upon to launch some financial lifeboats. (The Economist, 4/3)
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