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Haiti News
The following news briefs are culled from international news
agency wires, the Agence Haitienne de Presse (AHP), Radio Metropole, Haiti Press Network (HPN), Haïti Progrès, AlterPresse, and other sources.
JULY
Neptune said, "It is a truth that has become clearer to us: terrorist acts continue and the country's children are the victims of these acts. We will continue to do our job. We will continue to adopt every measure to protect the Haitian people, to protect the people of the Plateau Central."
He continued, "We ask all true friends of the Haitian people and all of you in the press, the country's children and the Haitian people's children to note that this is a threat. We cannot allow this threat to spread to the whole country and the whole Haitian people." (Radio Vision 2000)
25 July - Gunmen have ambushed a delegation from the Interior Ministry on a central highway, killing four and seriously wounding one, a radio station has reported. The delegation had gone to the town of Belladere, near the Haitian border with the Dominican Republic, for the swearing-in of a new mayor. As the delegates left the town after the ceremony, the gunmen attacked their vehicle, Radio Vision 2000 reported. About 25 people, including seven police officers, have been killed in attacks and clashes with gunmen in the Central Plateau this year. The government alleges the attackers are "the armed wing of the opposition," while the opposition denies using violence in its struggle against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.(AP)
23 July - The Inter-American Development Bank has announced nearly US$200 million in loans for Haiti, putting an end to a two-year freeze on lending. The IADB said its executive board approved a sectorial loan of US$50 million for Haiti, which will be disbursed quickly. It also approved an additional $146 million for social welfare programs and infrastructure projects. Both loan packages had been approved earlier, but were never disbursed since Haiti, which suffers from political instability, fell in arrears with the bank two years ago. But Haiti has been striving to get back in good standing with international financial institutions. It signed a program with the International Monetary Fund and earlier this month, Haiti paid the IADB $32 million, to clear its arrears. IADB president, Enrique Iglesias, plans to travel to Haiti on Friday to sign the loan contracts. The IADB said in a statement it acted "in close coordination with the international community." Haiti's government has often come under fire from State Department and other organizations for stalling on key political reforms that would pave the way for free and fair elections there. "Through several resolutions, the Organisation of American States has encouraged international financial institutions to restart its programs with Haiti" as a way of reducing the suffering of the Haitian people. (Reuters)
22 July - A high voltage wire has snapped and fallen onto
fans watching a basketball game in Petit-Goave, electrocuting and killing 15 spectators. Hundreds were watching the game on Monday night when the 2,500-volt wire began to spark. Within minutes, the powerline fell on the crowd. Most of the dead were teenagers. The youngest killed was 9-year-old Patricia Pierre. Two people were slightly injured with burns. Like most towns in poverty-stricken Haiti, the coastal town of Petit-Goave has been plagued with unreliable electric power for years. But in April, an independent power producer began to provide around-the-clock electricity. For the first time in months, streets and public places - such as the basketball court - were illuminated. "It's a tragedy," said Mayor Reginald Francois, pointing out that the cash-strapped state-run electricity company has not been able to modernise the dilapidated network of wires, transformers, and telephone poles. The electricity network dates from 1948, he said. (AP)
17 July - The Tèt Kole ti Peyisan Ayisyen peasant movement has denounced the lack of progress in the judicial enquiry into the massacre of peasants at Jean-Rabel on 23 July 1987. Clément François, a Tèt Kole leader, while pleased that the government has nominated a judge to lead the investigation, laments the fact that the authorities have not given the judge the means to carry out his work.
On the occasion of a meeting to organise the 16th anniversary of the massacre, François denounced the freeing of certain individuals implicated in the affair. He deplored the fact that these releases were carried out without any explanations to the movement's leadership.
More than 130 peasants were killed in the massacre carried out during the regime headed by General Henri Namphy. (AHP) 17 July - The Royal Bahamas Defence Force has seized 22 Haitian sloops in Nassau Harbour, The Bahamas, for illegally selling goods.
The crews aboard the sloops claimed to be traders who frequent the southern Bahamas, particularly Inagua. However, they were found to have a large number of undocumented Haitian nationals aboard their vessels.
The vessels were carrying in total about 100 people, 20 of whom were without proper visa documentation. The Haitians found without visas were taken to the Port Authority at the Prince George Dock for processing. Minister of Labour and Immigration, Vincent Peet, said this incident is part of the Government's ongoing battle with the influx of illegal migrants to the country, particularly from Haiti.
"Things are very bad, and the economy is still very, very bad," he said of Haiti. "The Government has said on many occasions that the economy is in a very poor state," he said. According to the boat captains, it is for this reason they travel to The Bahamas to trade their goods. (Nassau Guardian) 17 July - A massive fire has raged through the open-air marketplaces in downtown Port-au-Prince, destroying the warehouses, depots and market stands of at least 100 merchants. The marketplaces are located near Croix des Bossales and the port in the La Saline district. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is being investigated. (AP)
15 July - Michèle Montas, the widow of murdered journalist Jean Dominique, has said she is opposed to a hearing about the case taking place when the Port-au-Prince court session begins on 15 July. From her self-imposed exile in the United States, the Radio Haiti Inter director has sent an open letter to the State Prosecutor, Josué Pierre-Louis, reiterating her rejection of all proceedings based on what she describes as the "shameless" report submitted by the investigating judge, Bernard St. Vil, on 20 March. She denounced plans for a murder trial where, according to St. Vil's findings, there was no motive and no intellectual authors behind the murder. In the open letter she writes, "Is it a matter of calming the fears of those rich and powerful people implicated by investigating judges, Fleury, Gassant and St. Vil himself, or of reassuring the presumed intellectual authors and accomplices who have been either exonerated or whose names have mysteriously been left out of the report?" She continued, asking rhetorically, "Is it a question of botching the trial in order to put an end to the persistent international outcry about the journalist's assassination? Of mollifying reticent international aid donors?"
Montas also slams Josué Pierre-Louis for "shirking his responsibilities" following the murder of her bodyguard, Maxime Seide,
on 25 December 2002. He had promised an investigation but, six months later, not one word had been said about it. After receiving death threats, in February 2003 Montas left Haiti and closed down the Radio Haiti Inter station. (AlterPresse).
15 July - About US$50 million will begin flowing to Haiti next week to help fund health care needs and educational programmes, a US Treasury official has said. The money is part of a US$146 million Inter-American Development Bank loan package that had been frozen after disputed legislative elections in May 2000. As much as US$34 million will be made available immediately, John Taylor, Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Additional funds will follow to pay for roads, water and sanitation services. "With substantially better policy performance and financial accountability, Haiti could tap into other development assistance as well," Taylor said. (Miami Herald)
12 July - Violence flared in Cité Soleil, a seaside shantytown on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince when hundreds of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's partisans pelted self-styled civic leaders and journalists with rocks. Hundreds of supporters of the Group of 184 were scheduled to hold a meeting in Cité Soleil, but when the groups arrived, Aristide partisans stoned the leaders and attacked their meeting centre. Several shots were fired but it was unclear whether they came from Aristide supporters or others in the crowd. Many of the leaders fled before the meeting occurred. Six Haitian journalists were injured, including one who was hit in the head with a rock and another who had two ribs broken. Three police officers were hurt, including one who was shot. Dozens of other people in the crowd sustained minor injuries. 9 July - The Haitian Central Bank has paid US$32 million in arrears to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), practically wiping out the country's foreign reserves in an effort to restore frozen international loans. The Bank de la Republique d'Haiti notified the IDB it had made the payment from its dollar reserves on Tuesday, an official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said from the bank´s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Central Bank only had about US$35 million in reserves before. In Port-au-Prince, Communications Minister, Lilas Desquiron, confirmed the payment. "This won´t solve all our problems but it will give us some air to breath," she told AP. Haiti´s debt to the IDB has gradually mounted to US$32 million, and international financial institutions don´t lend to countries in arrears. The arrears had to be paid to start up the complicated process toward resumption of aid. Last month, several Haitian banks negotiated with the government to bail their country out with a bridge loan, but they apparently didn´t receive the guarantees they expected. Payment of the arrears is a necessary step toward receiving a US$50 million IDB budget support loan, ratified by Haiti´s Parliament last month. The IDB board of directors must approve the terms of the loan, a decision expected by the end of July, the IDB official said. The first US$32 million of the budget loan would reimburse the Central Bank. The disbursement of four IDB loans totaling US$146 million, frozen at first because of the elections and then stalled because of the arrears, could then begin. More than US$300 million in additional IDB loans would also become available. (AP) 9 July - The United States is worried about security at Toussaint Louverture Airport in Port-au-Prince. Reports from Washington confirm that several air transport experts and inspectors will come to Haiti today to observe how the Lavalas government is managing security conditions at the international airport. According to information confirmed by US embassy officials in Port-au-Prince, strict controls are going to be imposed regarding document trafficking and the passage of important documents such as passports and so on at the airport. These experts will also look into the drug-trafficking issue, which is currently causing serious concerns in the United States. The same information reports that US officials have made this decision following the strong-arm intervention at the customs office of the international airport by Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert and his bodyguards carrying heavy weapons. Even though they were prohibited from entering the customs office with weapons, the interior minister and his bodyguards got into the customs office and the immigration room, causing panic and other problems among the people who were waiting for their planes to leave. (Signal FM) 8 July - A Venezuelan military vessel carrying 14,000 barrels of diesel as a gift to Haiti has docked in Port-au-Prince. The Venezuelan government delegation on board was welcomed by Finance Minister, Faubert Gustave, and Venezuela'a ambassador to Haiti, Marco Requena Rotundo. The diesel fuel has a value of more than US$500,000. The gift from the Hugo Chavez government has been made to mark the celebration of Haiti's two hundred years of independence on 1 January 2004, and to extend cooperation between countries of the South. (HPN) 7 July - The US Coast Guard has returned another 460 people intercepted as they tried to make their way to the US by boat. They were intercepted the previous week on board two boats near the Bahamas. Originally from the north-west of Haiti, they said they were leaving the country for economic reasons. They said they wanted an improvement in Haiti's economic situation with a view to changing the lives of peasants who, they say, cannot live from agriculture anymore. The group of reptriated people were welcomed by the National Office of Migration (ONM) which allocated each person 300 gourdes with which to make their way home. More than 1,200 'boat-people' have been returned between January and July. (AHP) 6 July - Caribbean leaders have vowed to get more involved in Haiti's three-year-old political crisis (and sharply criticised the United States for threatening to cut off military aid to nations that won't exempt US soldiers from being tried at the International Criminal Court.) The announcements came at the end of a four-day summit here, where heads of state met and celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM. On Haiti, the leaders decided to practice shuttle diplomacy, and send a representative to the island nation for at least six months with the goal of brokering a deal for new elections, according to Fred Mitchell, the Bahamian foreign minister. The Organisation of American States has tried to do just that with the Haitian government and the opposition for the last three years, but "hasn't been successful," Secretary-General César Gaviria said in an interview. The Haitian government and its opposition have been at loggerheads since the elections of May 2000. Diplomats hope that having a member of CARICOM navigating Haiti's stormy political waters will bear results, Mitchell said, adding:. "There may be more trust on both sides." (Miami Herald) 5 July - President Jean Bertrand-Aristide said he's confident his beleaguered government can end a stalemate with the opposition and hold legislative elections this year. Speaking to reporters at a Caribbean summit Thursday, Aristide said his government is "trying to feed that process of dialogue in order to go to elections," though he wouldn't give an exact date. "We want to have those elections this year. It's still possible," he said. "We still wish soon the opposition will give the green light to make it happen." Aristide said he would continue trying to professionalize Haiti's police force, which has been accused of criminal activity and human rights abuses. He said observers should see improvements under Haiti's new police chief, Jocelyne Pierre, who was appointed by Aristide last month after her predecessor quit the post saying he feared for his life. Aristide also said he is hopeful of paying off US$30 million in arrears owed to the Inter-American Development Bank, in an effort to begin receiving part of an estimated US$500 million in suspended loans and grants. The international aid has been held up both by the electoral dispute and the unpaid arrears. Meanwhile, poverty in Haiti has deepened as its currency has lost value and the economy has foundered. "We think that as soon as possible we will be receiving some of this money," he said. (AP) 4 July - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has signed the agreement to join the Caribbean Court of Justice during the third day of the 24th Regular Meeting of the Caribbean Community Heads of Government, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The Caribbean tribunal will be used to settle trade disputes once the region establishes a single market economy. (AP) 3 July - A US missionary, James Glenn White, has gone on trial on charges of illegally importing assault weapons and a toy remote controlled helicopter, which police said could be used to drop bombs. White, a resident of Haiti with his wife and two children but formerly of New Castle, Indiana, was arrested on May 9 when he went to receive a shipment of items from his friend, Florida resident Jeremy Benenati, who was planning to join White's mission. Police found two weapons and a apparatus to make bullets as part of the household items. White had advised the police the guns - one an AR-15 assault rifle - were in the shipment, and was informed he and Benenati could apply for Haitian licenses once they arrived, he said. (AP)
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