`Baby Doc' return stuns Haiti
Thousands greet former President Jean-Claude Duvalier, who had been in exile, in his surprise return to the country. Miami Herald 1-17-2011
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
PLANS UNCLEAR: For hours after landing Sunday, Jean-Claude `Baby Doc' Duvalier was holed up in the diplomatic lounge at the airport.
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- In a move that stunned Haitians here and abroad, former dictator Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier unexpectedly returned to his homeland Sunday after decades of exile in France.
A crowd estimated at 2,000 people gathered outside the international airport after news of Duvalier's return began to spread through the capital.
``Here's my president!'' some in the crowd chanted.
Local journalists who talked with Duvalier inside the airport said he told them that he ``came to help his country.'' It was unclear how he intended to do so or what his immediate plans were. Duvalier's dramatic return could have unpredictable consequences for the country, Haitian experts said.
``At least in the short term, the Haitian political chessboard has changed and changed utterly,'' said Robert Fatton, Jr., a government and foreign affairs professor at the University of Virginia. ``We need more information from the French, the United States and the Haitian governments before arriving at a sensible idea of this event.''
Haitian officials had no immediate response to Duvalier's return. However, Police Chief Mario Andresol said there was no warrant for Duvalier's arrest and he was free to return.
For hours after landing, Duvalier was holed up in the diplomatic lounge at the airport as the crowd outside grew and authorities huddled over what to do. About two hours later, a frail-looking Duvaliar left the airport in the back seat of an SUV. The crowd cheered.
National police used pepper spray and pointed their weapons at journalists to keep them away from the airport. The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping force in Haiti, sent tanks to help keep order.
Earlier, a smiling Duvalier, wearing a dark-blue suit and light blue tie, stepped off an Air France flight shortly before 6 p.m. Few here knew of his planned return. Sources said he traveled on a diplomatic passport.
The foreign diplomatic community, which was also caught be surprise, had no immediate response. The U.S. ambassador and other diplomats were attending a meeting in preparation for Monday's visit of the head of the Organization of American States, which is working with the government to end a crisis stemming from last year's presidential and legislative elections.
Duvalier, who became president at 19, ruled Haiti from 1971 to 1986. He fled the country for France amid massive unrest after anti-government demonstrators clashed with his security forces. He has said for years that he would like to return to Haiti.
For months, graffiti on walls have said, ``Welcome home Jean-Claude Duvalier,'' indicating that his return may have been in the works for awhile.
Gesnol Pierre-Louis, 25, who was 2 years old when Duvalier left said he's always been a fan of the former president.
``My parents always said when he was here, life wasn't expensive, Haitians were not dying of hunger. He was not a bad person,'' he said.
But others remain confused about what the return means and it's political impact.
``This whole affair is mystifying,'' Fatton said.
At Karibe hotel, Duvalier was greeted by supporters of Michel ``Sweet Micky'' Martelly, one of the presidential candidates. The crowd screamed and nearly tore down the gate trying to get to him. He later waved from the the hotel's third floor to throngs of fans and journalists waiting to snap his photograph.
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Haitians suffer as U.S. aid is stuck in red tape
Not a cent of $1.15 billion promised for rebuilding has arrived
Ramon Espinosa / AP
Antoine Fesnell, right, prays as his daughters Nicole, 9, center, and Antoine, 6, look on during mass in the rubble of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Sunday. Fesnell's wife died in the earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12 and killed a government-estimated 300,000 people and left millions homeless.
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, MARTHA MENDOZA
The Associated Press updated 9/28/2010 6:25:48 PM ET
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived.
The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in March for use this year in rebuilding. The U.S. has already spent more than $1.1 billion on post-quake relief, but without long-term funds, the reconstruction of the wrecked capital cannot begin.
With just a week to go before fiscal 2010 ends, the money is still tied up in Washington. At fault: bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency, The Associated Press learned in interviews with officials in the State Department, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House and the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy. One senator has held up a key authorization bill because of a $5 million provision he says will be wasteful.
Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are mounting, as quake survivors scramble to live without shelter or food.
'Lives at stake'
"There are truly lives at stake, and the idea that folks are spending more time finger-pointing than getting this solved is almost unbelievable," said John Simon, a former U.S. ambassador to the African Union who is now with the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank.
Nor is Haiti getting much from other donors. Some 50 other nations and organizations pledged a total of $8.75 billion for reconstruction, but just $686 million of that has reached Haiti so far — less than 15 percent of the total promised for 2010-11.
The lack of funds has all but halted reconstruction work by CHF International, the primary U.S.-funded group assigned to remove rubble and build temporary shelters. Just 2 percent of rubble has been cleared and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built — less than 10 percent of the number planned.
The Maryland-based agency is asking the U.S. government for $16.5 million to remove more than 21 million cubic feet of additional rubble and build 4,000 more temporary houses out of wood and metal.
"It's just a matter of one phone call and the trucks are out again. We have contractors ready to continue removing rubble. ... We have local suppliers and international suppliers ready to ship the amount of wood and construction materials we need," said CHF country director Alberto Wilde. "It's just a matter of money."
Last week the inaction bore tragic results. On Friday an isolated storm destroyed an estimated 8,000 tarps, tents and shacks in the capital and killed at least six people, including two children. And the threat of violence looms as landowners threaten entire camps with forced eviction.
In Washington there is confusion about the money. At a July hearing, Ravij Shah, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, thanked members of Congress for approving the funds, saying, "The resources are flowing and are being spent in country."
It wasn't true then, and still hasn't happened.
When the earthquake hit, U.S. agencies sent troops, rescuers, aid workers and supplies to the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince. On March 24, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $2.8 billion in emergency aid to Haiti — about half to pay back money already spent by USAID, the Defense Department and others. An additional $212 million was to write off debt.
The heart of the request was $1.15 billion in new reconstruction funds.
A week later, Clinton touted that figure in front of representatives of 50 nations at the U.N. secretariat, the president of Haiti at her side.
"If the effort to rebuild is slow or insufficient, if it is marked by conflict, lack of coordination or lack of transparency, then the challenges that have plagued Haiti for years could erupt with regional and global consequences," Clinton said.
That was nearly six months ago. It took until May for the Senate to pass a supplemental request for the Haiti funds and until July for the House to do the same. The votes made $917 million available but did not dictate how or when to spend it. Without that final step, the money remains in the U.S. Treasury.
Then came summer recess, emergencies in Pakistan and elsewhere, and the distractions of election politics.
Now the authorization bill that would direct how the aid is delivered remains sidelined by a senator who anonymously pulled it for further study. Through calls to dozens of senators' offices, the AP learned it was Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.
Bill on hold
"He is holding the bill because it includes an unnecessary senior Haiti coordinator when we already have one" in U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten, Coburn spokeswoman Becky Bernhardt said.
The bill proposes a new coordinator in Washington who would not oversee U.S. aid but would work with the USAID administrator in Washington to develop a rebuilding strategy. The position would cost $1 million a year for five years, including salaries and expenses for a staff of up to seven people.
Ramon Espinosa / AP
Catholics pray in the rubble of the Notre Dame cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Sunday.
With the bill on hold, the State Department is trying to move the money along by avoiding Congress as much as possible. It sent lawmakers a "spending plan" on Sept. 20 and gave legislators 15 days to review it. If they fail to act on the plan, the money could be released as soon as specific projects get the OK.
"We need to make sure that the needs of the Haitian people are not sacrificed to procedural and bureaucratic impediments," Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry told the AP by e-mail. "As we approach nine months since the earthquake, further delays on any side are unacceptable."
Asked when the money will actually come, State Department spokesman Charles Luoma-Overstreet said the department expects to start spending in the coming weeks and months. He added that $275 million in "bridge" funds were released in March and have gone toward agriculture, work, health and shelter programs — not long-term reconstruction.
Haitian advocates say that is not enough.
Jean-Claude Bajeuax of the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights in Port-au-Prince said this phase was supposed to be about building semi-permanent houses.
Promised houses: 'Where are they'
"Where are they? We haven't seen them," he said. "There is not much money that is being used. There is not much work that has actually been done."
Of course there is no guarantee that the money would lead to the successful rebuilding of Haiti. Many past U.S. aid efforts have fallen short.
"I don't think (the money) will make any difference," said Haitian human rights advocate Pierre Esperance. "Haitian people are not really involved in this process."
But officials agree the funds could pay for new approaches to make Haiti more sustainable, and rebuilding projects could improve millions of lives.
The AP found that $874 million of the funds pledged by other countries at the donors conference was money already promised to Haiti for work or aid before the quake. An additional $1.13 million wasn't ever going to be sent; it was debt relief. And $184 million was in loans to Haiti's government, not aid.
The Office of the Special Envoy has been tracking the money delivered so far but does not know who got it. The envoy himself, former President Bill Clinton, told the AP in July and again in August that he was putting pressure on donors to meet their pledges.
On the streets of Haiti, many simply feel abandoned. Mishna Gregoire, 22, said she was happy when she heard about the donors conference. But six months later she is still in a tarp city with 5,000 other people, on a foul-smelling plaza in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville.
"I thought it was something serious they were really going to do," Gregoire said, standing amid tarps torn apart by the sudden storm. "But nothing has been done. And I don't think anything will be done."
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
What
Haitian Americans Ask of the New US President
**************************
Miami Herald
October
17, 2007
What Haitian-Americans
are asking of the next US president
- End the UN military occupation
(Haiti needs tractors not tanks. Community policing, not war soldiers).
- Grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) with a specification to stop all
deportations
- Cancel old Duvalier-dictatorship debts
- Stop failed policies and effectively trading through USAID, churches and
predator NGOs. A great portion of food aid from such entities do not reach
the intended beneficiaries in Haiti and, end up "for sale" in the
marketplace. Start fair trading with Haiti and supporting grassroots,
indigenous Haiti capacity building organizations.
- Void grossly unfair free trade deals and ineffective
initiatives such as - the Caribbean Basin Initiate, "Investment Support"
through the Investment Incentive Agreement provided by the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation ("OPIC"), or the Special Export Zones ("SEZ") under
the
Hope Act which bans trade unions to protect
workers' rights, or other such sorts of agreements - pummeling, bullying and
beating Haiti into the dust of misery, debt and poverty. And, instead,
support Haitian food production and domestic manufacturing, job creation,
sustainable development and a good working culture. After the storm
emergency, calibrate food aid so to assist and not further destroy Haiti's
food production.
- Support post storm rebuilding and reconstruction of environmentally
degraded areas (Invest in Haitian-led projects to
built flood barriers and better drainage as in La Gonave; support food
sovereignty, energy and reforestation such as planting of fruit trees for
food, capital building and trade and use of indigenous Haiti plant, such as
Jatropha, for biofuel -
energy. In the process of providing crisis assistance, the U.S. must promote
Haitian self-reliance wherever possible instead of the cycle of dependency.
For instance, instead of water purification tablets, add also, whenever
possible, the more long term and permanent
bio-sand filters' apparatus that will last forever and
purify toxic water on a continual, not just to one time basis.)
- Demand more oversight of USAID earmarked funds for Haiti,
greater fiscal accountability, transparency and quantifiable evidence of
self-sustainable development achievements and, in particular, that food and
other aid actually reach their intended beneficiaries and not end up for
sale in the open market.
- Support the institutionalization of the rule of law.
- Encourage Maximum leveraging of Diaspora remittances.
*
Priorities:
Haitian-Americans shall ask the new U.S. president to:
1. Stop the United States' unequal immigration treatment of Haitian
refugees,
grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and work
permits to Haitian nationals in the US with a specification to stop all
deportations until Haiti has recovered from the ravages of hurricanes,
floods and instability. Haitians in the United States should receive equal
treatment and protection under all the immigration laws. (See,
Ezili Dantò on Help for the Storm Victims;
HLLN Links for granting TPS, and
Sample Letter to US President and DHS Secretary Chertoff).
Immigration advocates estimate that there are
20,000 Haitians living in the United States illegally who could benefit from
TPS entitling them to temporary residency and work permits for up to 18
months. The remittances these workers provide to their families in Haiti are
critical lifelines in these hard economic times of high food and fuel
prices, hurricane devastations, flood damages and the destruction of Haiti's
rice and other crops by the back-to-back 2008 storms and floods.
In addition, we ask Congress and the new President to use their funding and
foreign aid powers to help denounce and stop the gross persecution, illegal
deportations, denial of citizenship to children born of Haitian parentage
and the general inequitable and unfair treatment of Haitian immigrants
throughout the Western hemisphere, but most egregiously in the Dominican
Republic and the Bahamas.
2. End the U.N. military occupation of Haiti, provide reparation and
restitution for the victims of 2004 Bush regime change in Haiti.
The U.N. troops in Haiti are paid
$601.58 million per year and have been in Haiti
for four years. That is $50.13 million per month, $1.64 million per day.
Yet, during the recent floods and hurricane season in Haiti, the Haitian
President had to call for international help from the international
community. Wasn't that help already in Haiti, to the tune of 9,000 U.N. -
MINUSTAH- troops already cashing in $1.64 million per day? Why are they
there, if incapable of providing emergency help? If they had not one
amphibious unit, temporary bridge, caravan of trucks or equipment to reach
Haitians in distress, what use are they to the people of Haiti? Are their
war tanks, heavy artillery, guns and military presence in Haiti making
Haitians more secure, more safe, more free, more prosperous, better
nourished, educated and healthier than before they landed four years ago? No. See:
3. Direct that the U.S. re-orientate its
resource allocation to Haiti to trade with the Haitian government, not, in
effect, with the U.S. Agency of International Development ("USAID"), foreign
NGO's, churches and charities in the name of Haitians. For this US policy
only undermines Haiti’s sovereignty, emboldens and empowers NGOs with no
public responsibility or accountability to Haitians or Haiti’s long term
well-being.
It is in the best interest of the United States to support Haitian
democracy, good governance, development, self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
This cannot be done if the Haitian government has to compete with foreign
funded NGOs and charities who are not elected or accountable to the people
of Haiti, but are predatory and promoting dependency and their own
organizations' interests for self-perpetuation in Haiti. Supporting
grassroots, indigenous Haiti capacity building organizations.
4. Support Indigenous Haiti Manufacturing and Job Creation
Provide that the U.S. only reward or give incentives, (ie.
USAID subcontracting bids, jobs, and/or grants through the Caribbean Basin
Initiative ("CBI"), Investment "Support" through the Investment Incentive
Agreement provided by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation ("OPIC"),
Special Export Zones under the
Hope Act or, other such sorts of agreements) to
transnational U.S. corporations in Haiti that abide by Haitian labor, human
rights, minimum wage and environmental laws; that are committed to
integrating all levels of corporate responsibility - economic, social and
environmental - in their entire range of operations; and, which U.S.
corporations are also patronizing the informal sector of local service
providers and generally not exporting all profits and capital but committing
to paying equitable custom duties and investing a very small percentage of
their Haiti profits in Haiti. (See,
Economic proposals that make sense for the reality of Haiti).
Comprehensive long term solutions means fair trade with Haiti, trade that
doesn't further contain Haiti in poverty.
End unfair treatment in trade and foreign aid.
Contact:
Joseph G. Billy Louis – 786-306-7060
Gamael Nassar – 786-286-7865
