12409: MSNBC Haiti Dispatch: Slavin (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PSlavin@unicefusa.org

Some powerful pictures and useful sidebars are part of this usual roundup
story.

Patrick

http://www.msnbc.com/news/771458.asp

Haiti sinks further amid stalemate
U.S. policy under scrutiny as political paralysis grips nation

By Sean Federico-O'Murchu
MSNBC

June 25 ¡ª  As leaders of the world¡¯s wealthiest nations gather this week in
Canada, they will ignore the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.
Haiti¡¯s poverty levels hover near those of sub-Saharan Africa ¡ª and a
two-year political stalemate has exacerbated the woes of the nation¡¯s eight
million people. But while the Group of Eight will discuss an Action Plan
for Africa, Haiti is getting poorer while subject to a U.S.-orchestrated
block on grants and loans to the country¡¯s government until the impasse is
resolved.

LAST WEEK, the Organization of American States reported that progress has
been made in opening dialogue between the government of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the opposition, but the pace has been grindingly
slow ¡ª and success is far from assured.
       Meantime, the country ¡ª 600 miles off the coast of Florida ¡ª is
sinking further into destitution, a flameout all the more notable given its
proximity to the world¡¯s wealthiest nation. On virtually any regional
misery index imaginable, Haiti takes the prize.
       According to UNICEF, the infant mortality rate stands at 81 per
1,000 births (compared with seven per 1,000 in the United States), less
than half the population has access to safe water and just about a quarter
has access to adequate sanitation.
       The average income hovers around $1.40 a day and the life expectancy
is about 53 years, a rate that international organizations fear could drop
further as Haiti struggles with the highest level of HIV infection in the
region ¡ª at more than 5 percent of the adult population.
       ¡°People are getting poorer and poorer because no investment can be
made because of the political situation,¡± said Rafael Dessieu, president of
the Methodist Church of Haiti.

A CONTENTIOUS ELECTION

       Haiti has been wracked by political turmoil throughout its
existence. While Haitians celebrate the fact that the country was the first
black republic in the world, Haiti only emerged from decades of
dictatorship in 1990 when Aristide, the charismatic priest turned
politician, was elected president ¡ª to be ousted seven months later in a
military coup.

On Sept. 19, 1994, the United States led a U.N.-backed multinational force
that was deployed in Haiti to secure the country and allow the return of
Aristide a month later.
       Ever since, Aristide has dominated the political landscape, stepping
down in favor of an ally from the presidency in 1996 but winning
re-election in 2000.
       However, the vote was mostly boycotted by the opposition, upset by
what was viewed as flawed legislative and local elections held earlier that
year.

U.S. ROLE

       The upshot has been political paralysis and economic deterioration,
the latter worsened in the view of aid organizations by a U.S.-backed block
on international loans and grants to the Aristide government.
       According to a report in 2001 by Roberto Machado, an economist with
the Inter-American Development Bank, the ¡°major factor behind economic
stagnation¡± is the withholding of such aid, which has been valued at $500
million.

 Group of Eight leaders gather in Canada

 For its part, the United States has demanded steps by the Aristide
government to remedy the 2000 election results and bring about political
reforms before it will support the resumption of financial support. The
United States does, however, fund non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
operating in Haiti.
       ¡°There is no hiding our disappointment that, nearly eight years
since the restoration of elected government, Haiti has made so little
progress,¡± Lino Gutierrez, deputy assistant secretary of state for Western
Hemisphere affairs, said last month.
       Washington¡¯s policy is supported by the Conv¨¦rgence D¨¦mocratique, a
loose confederation of opposition parties ¡ª including some backers of
former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier ¡ª that protested the flawed election
process.
       But it¡¯s a stance that infuriates humanitarian groups. ¡°What about
the fact we [the United States] poured millions and millions into the
country when there were dictators killing people ¡ª and we did nothing,¡±
said Rita Russo of the Saint Boniface Haiti Foundation, which runs a
hospital in Fond des Blancs, Haiti.
       However, the United States has its defenders. Stephen Johnson, a
Latin America policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a
Washington-based conservative think-tank, said there was little sense in
directly funding a government ¡°that has had a deplorable record in using
those resources.¡±
       Instead, the United States should continue to help the NGOs on the
ground in Haiti, especially in the area of education, he said.

SLOW DIPLOMACY

       The stutter-step push to resolve the crisis has been left to the
Organization of American States (OAS) in association with the Caribbean
Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
       It has led to innumerable mediation missions, and last week, the
OAS¡¯s Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi said the stage may be set
for resolving the deadlock.
       Haiti¡¯s Permanent Representative to the OAS, Ambassador Raymond
Valcin, also saw signs of progress, noting the government had taken steps
to re-open lines of communication with the opposition. But he objected to
making agreement with the opposition a condition for international
financial assistance.
       Those on the ground in Haiti are not as optimistic. ¡°[The two sides]
are playing the cat-and-mouse game,¡± said the Methodist Church¡¯s Dessieu.
¡°They forget that negotiations mean giving up something. Instead, they are
thinking about their own power, rather than the millions who are suffering
because of their ambitions.¡±


QUALITY OF THE OPPOSITION

       Another problem, according to analysts, is the quality of the forces
lined up against Aristide and his party, Fanmi Lavalas (Lavalas Family).
       ¡°Some are very well rooted and relatively sincere, the rest are a
bunch of yobbos whose only raison d¡¯¨ºtre is to oppose any agreement,¡± noted
one observer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
       The left-leaning Council on Hemispheric Affairs was scathing in a
report earlier this month. ¡°Due to the members¡¯ close working relationship
with Washington, the Conv¨¦rgence¡¯s directors are, in effect, co-rulers of
the country, in spite of their lack of a popular base of supporters.¡±
       Brian Corcoran, an American lawyer based in Haiti who works for the
government to prosecute human rights abuses, believes the opposition has
little reason to seek a resolution. ¡°There is an inverse relationship
between electoral support and [U.S. government] support for the Conv¨¦rgence
D¨¦mocratique,¡± he said.
       ¡°The international community has missed an opportunity [to help the
democratic process],¡± said Corcoran, who has worked in Haiti since 1996.
¡°Because the international community was opposed to Aristide, they promoted
people whose only platform was opposing Aristide. There is a lot of room
for an opposition that could have challenged the Lavalas Party on
policies,¡± he said.
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, right, and his wife Mildred Aristide
watch Vertieres Day celebrations Nov. 18, 2001 in Port-au-Prince. The
holiday marks the defeat of Napoleon's army in 1803 at the Battle of
Vertieres, which led to Haitian independence.


VIOLENCE INCREASE

       In the meantime, the economic decay has been accompanied by
widespread lawlessness and an increase in street violence, including brutal
and deadly attacks on opposition supporters and even journalists.
       In December, an apparent coup attempt was met with attacks on
buildings associated with opposition parties and leaders. Human rights
organizations expressed alarm about the apparent free rein given to armed
¡°popular organizations¡± loyal to Aristide.
       A scorecard issued February by the National Coalition for Haitian
Rights painted a dismal picture, noting for example that nearly 20
journalists have been forced to flee for safety in other countries since
1994.
       The organization¡¯s executive director Dina Paul Parkes told
MSNBC.com, ¡°I think you have a weird dynamic in Haiti right now, you have
the general disintegration in some areas, but the country has progressed in
the past 10 years.
       ¡°You cannot go back to a dictatorship, it has moved too far to slide
back to that. Now there is a human rights infrastructure, there is a
journalists¡¯ association. Those signs of a nascent democracy are there and
it would be hard to snuff them out.¡±

DAY-TO-DAY MISERY

       But little gains has been made in easing the impoverished existence
of ordinary Haitians, despite the best efforts of NGOs operating in Haiti.
       One reason may be that the government is distracted from development
issues by the political crisis, said Rodney Phillips, the UNICEF country
representative in Haiti. ¡°I have been here for two years now, and I have
begun to see recently the real face of poverty on the street of
Port-au-Prince and rural areas.¡±
       He noted more and younger street children, child prostitution, a
surge in street crime by armed unemployed youths. ¡°The whole security
situation has clearly got worse.¡±
       Then there¡¯s the unique Haitian tradition of Restav¨¦k, whereby poor
families send children as young as five years old to work for families in
the cities and they end up ¡°in virtual slavery,¡± Phillips said.
       The Methodist Church¡¯s Dessieu said Haitians are losing hope; those
who can flee, while most scratch a living in increasingly desperate
circumstances.
       ¡°One thing that you can read on the faces of everybody is that they
are tired of the situation,¡± he said.

There are 2.1 billion children in the world, accounting for 35 percent of
the world's population. Some 129 million children are born each year.
     According to UNICEF, 1 in 4 children lives in abject poverty ¡ª in
families with income lower than $1 a day. In developing countries, 1 in 3
children lives in abject poverty.
     One of every 12 children dies before they reach five, mostly from
preventable causes.

Out of every 100 children

*    55 are born in Asia (19 in India, 18 China)
*    16 are born in sub-Saharan Africa
*    8 are born in Latin America and the Caribbean
*    7 are born in the Middle East and North Africa
*    6 are born in the Eastern Europe, CIS and Baltic States
*    8 are born in industrialized countries (Western Europe, USA, Canada,
Israel, Japan, Australia, New Zealand) The births of 33 are not registered.
These children have no official existence or recognition of nationality.
Out of every 100 children

*    27 are not immunized against any disease.
*    32 suffer from malnutrition in their first five years of life.
*    Only 44 are exclusively breastfed for the first three months of life.
*    18 have no access to clean drinking water.
*    39 live without adequate sanitation.
Out of every 100 children

*    18 of the children never go to school. Of these, 11 are girls.
*    25 of every 100 who begin 1st grade do not reach the 5th grade.
*    17 out of every 100 children never learn how to read. 11 are girls.
Out of every 100 children

*    1 of every 4 children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the developing
world work.
*    Half of those who work do so full time.
*    8 of the 21 children born in Africa work.
*    12 of the 55 children born in Asia work.
*    1 of the 8 born in Latin America work.

*    Globally, children born today are expected to live 64 years.
*    In the industrialized world, they will live 78 years.
*    In the 45 countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, average life expectancy
is 58 years.
¦²    In Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe ¡ª
countries heavily affected by HIV/AIDS ¡ª life expectancy is less than 43
years.



    Sean Federico-O¡¯Murchu is an international news producer/editor for
MSNBC.com

http://www.unicefusa.org