a12024: AHP reports 10-15,000 Demostrated at UN to Unblock Assistance to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: Kevin Pina        <kpinbox@hotmail.com>


Agence Haitian de Presse (AHP)


Summit of Heads of State and Government on Children : Jean-Bertrand Aristide
advocates on Friday a policy of openness and a new world partnership to help
needy children.

New York, May 10, 2002 (AHP)- Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
advocated on Friday a policy of openness and a new world partnership to help
needy children.

The Head of State who was speaking at the United Nations (UN) where is being
held the summit of Heads of State and Government dedicated to children,
indicated that over one million Haitian children, aged under five, i.e. 14%
of the population dream of happiness and love and that more than three
million, aged under eighteen, i.e. 49% of the population, dream of a new
Haiti and a better world.

In his view, all the children of the world are entitled to life and
happiness. Mr. Aristide stated that this summit was a good opportunity for
all to put children’s rights as a top priority.
The Head of State equally denounced the trauma caused by terrorism, violence
and conflicts as well as poverty to which children are exposed. According to
president Aristide, over 100 million children do not go to school and more
than half a billion live with less than 1 US dollar a day.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide also informed the Assembly that 2 million children
had been massacred during the last 10 years, 6 million had been wounded and
handicapped in conflicts or wars, and 12 million have become homeless and
been left uncared-for.

The Head of the Haitian State also highlighted the AIDS pandemic which
devastates children throughout the planet. According to Mr. Aristide, 1.4
million children under 15 have tested positively in the world, while 4.3
million others have already died. Jean-Bertrand Aristide calls for global
solidarity against corruption, drugs, impunity and poverty in order to
reduce the child mortality rate and to provide basic education to all.  He
took pride in the enacting in Haiti of a law prohibiting corporal
punishment, while he looked forward to eliminating domesticity throughout
the country.

The Head of State seized the occasion to "express his thanks to the friends
who support the lifting of the economic sanctions against Haiti, instated
following the OAS concerns about the election of 7 senators in the first
round of the legislative elections of May 21 2000.

While the Head of State was addressing the UN, some 10 to 15 thousand
persons were demonstrating by the UN headquarters to protest against the
decision by the international community, and especially by the United
States, to freeze assistance to Haiti. According to the demonstrators, it is
the withholding of international financial assistance which prevents
president Aristide to work more to alleviate the misery of the Haitian
people. They condemned the freezing by the United States for political
reasons of over 500 million dollars.
Participants in this demonstration also renewed their attachment to
president Aristide.


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