25667: Hermantin(News)Cuban and Haitian exiles debate whether to send aid (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Jul. 11, 2005


STORM AFTERMATH
Cuban and Haitian exiles debate whether to send aid
Politically charged debates have divided some in the Haitian-American and 
Cuban-American communities about relief aid to the two nations.
BY MONICA HATCHER
mhatcher@herald.com

As Hurricane Dennis swamped the Gulf Coast Sunday, a political storm began 
brewing in South Florida over local relief efforts for island nations hit hard 
by the hurricane's passage through the Caribbean.

Leaders in both the Cuban-American and Haitian-American communities were 
divided over how -- or whether -- humanitarian aid should be sent to their 
respective, politically beleaguered homelands.

At least 20 people have been reported killed in Haiti and Cuba after Dennis 
slammed into those countries last week . Tens of thousands of homes were 
destroyed by wind and rain. Hundreds of thousands are still without power.

ITEMS MAY BE STOLEN

Some Haitian commentators took to the airwaves Sunday to discourage the 
community from giving supplies and money to organizations soliciting donations, 
warning that items sent to Haiti would be intercepted by thieving gangs with 
political ties. Supplies would likely be stolen by military and government 
officials who would sell them across the border in the Dominican Republic, 
these commentators also claimed.

Pointing to last year's relief efforts in Haiti, where more than 2,000 people 
perished after tropical storm Jeanne slammed the country, submerging the city 
of Gonaives, activist Lavarice Gaudin, a supporter of ousted president 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said few of those victimized by that storm have yet to 
receive promised assistance.

''They haven't received nothing yet from the stuff that was sent to Haiti,'' 
said Gaudin, president of Veye Yo, a grass roots organization opposed to 
Haiti's interim government. ``Even the stuff sent to Gonaives by the Red Cross 
was kidnapped on the road. They are stealing everything.''

`LUDICROUS'

Gepsie Metellus, executive director for Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, 
who organized a telethon last year that raised $300,000 for the Red Cross, said 
the reasoning of those opposing relief efforts is ``ludicrous.''

''We as a community ought to do what we can, where we can, however we can,'' 
Metellus said. ``The folks who need that immediate relief -- that person who 
needs water, food, that clean change of clothing and bedding -- their immediate 
concern isn't the political situation. Their immediate concern is to protect 
themselves and survive.''

Aid workers in Haiti still face security issues that will hamper relief 
efforts, according to Jeff Koenreich, a spokesman for the American Red Cross of 
Greater Miami and the Keys.

A Red Cross volunteer was killed in Port au Prince two weeks ago in an act 
Koenreich described as ``chilling and unprecedented.''

''It's an extremely dangerous situation,'' Koenreich said. ``However, we must 
gather donations -- financial donations. People should not be stopped by 
violence or a political situation when it comes to a humanitarian response.''

POLITICALLY COMPLEX

Cuban exiles in South Florida are also faced with a politically complex relief 
response.

Opposed to tough U.S. rules tightening remittances and travel to Cuba, Silvia 
Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, 
said a letter-writing campaign was under way to have the travel restriction 
rescinded for a few months. The proposed freeze, she said, would allow those 
with family in Cuba to travel to the island to assist in disaster relief.

The new restriction implemented by the Bush administration last year limits the 
number of times Cuban Americans can visit immediate family members from once a 
year to once every three years.

There is no exception in the law for emergency situations.

Wilhelm said for those who can't visit, the government should also consider 
broadening the items that Cuban-Americans can send to the island. Currently, 
humanitarian provisions include medicine and food, but not daily necessities 
like toilet paper and tooth paste, as well as items needed for home repair, 
Wilhelm said. In a joint statement, U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln 
Díaz-Balart and Mario Díaz-Balart, all Miami Republicans, encouraged local 
residents to donate to localorganizations licensed to send unlimited amounts of 
humanitarian aid to Cuba through non-governmental organizations.

Changing the law for hurricane relief is not necessary, the statement read.

`MISGUIDED'

''Any efforts to exploit the current humanitarian crisis to change U.S. laws or 
regulations are misguided and unfortunate, since current law authorizes the 
sending of unlimited amounts of humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba by way 
of independent civil society groups throughout the island,'' the statement 
said.

Still, some were skeptical about the effectiveness of non-governmental 
organizations, saying aid would end up in the wrong hands or simply refused by 
the communist government. ''Every time the exile community has wanted to send 
aid, Castro has said he doesn't want it,'' said Ninoska Perez Castellon, a 
conservative commentator on Radio Mambi.

She also said that some relief supplies sent after Hurricane Lillie wound up in 
tourist gift shops in Havana.

Relief assistance, Perez Castellon said, ``will not end up benefiting the Cuban 
people. It will end up benefiting the government.''






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