[NYTr] Haiti Report for October 15, 2007

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

HaitiReport mailing list
http://lists.haitikonpay.org/mailman/listinfo/haitireport


Haiti Report for October 15, 2006

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described  
in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.  
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.  
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the  
situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide  
a variety of perspectives on the situation.

To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall  
Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.

IN THIS REPORT:

- Flooding Causes Deaths, Highest Toll in Cabaret
- Population of La Gonave Struggles for Water, Rotary Helps
- Legislative Elections are Postponed Amidst Allegations of Corruption
- UN Security Council to Vote on Future of Haiti Mission
- Haitians Honored with New Monument in Savannah


Flooding Causes Deaths, Highest Toll in Cabaret:

Flooding in Haiti caused by several days of torrential rain has left  
at least 20 people dead, officials say. Twenty-three bodies were  
recovered from the town of Cabaret, which was inundated by flooding,  
Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said. Floods and mudslides  
across the country have damaged farmland and left hundreds of people  
homeless. Efforts are being made to evacuate people from villages in  
dangerous areas, civil defence agencies say. Efforts were underway to  
provide food and water and shelter to people in Cabaret, Mr Bien-Aime  
said. Aid operations have been hampered by poor communication links  
and infrastructure. Heavy rains have also affected other countries in  
the Caribbean, including Cuba and Jamaica. (BBC, 10/13)

Flooding triggered by torrential rains killed at least 23 people in a  
village in central Haiti on Thursday, a government official said on  
Friday. The loss of life in Cabaret, nestled in mountains about 30 km  
north of capital Port-au-Prince, brought the toll from floods and  
mudslides across much of Haiti over the last two weeks to at least  
31, civil protection officials said. Forecasters said on Friday there  
was no end in sight to the downpours lashing the Caribbean country  
and some of its neighbors. "In the Cabaret area alone, 23 people are  
confirmed dead but there could be more and we are still in the  
process of assessing the situation," Interior Minister Paul Antoine  
Bien-Aime told local radio. He said efforts were underway to  
distribute food, water and other supplies to the village, where at  
least 1,000 people have been made homeless. Heavy rains have also  
caused havoc in Cuba and Jamaica. (Reuters, 10/13)


Population of La Gonave Struggles for Water, Rotary Helps:

On the small island of La Gonave, Haiti, the deep blue waters of the  
Caribbean Sea encroach upon every shore. And yet, for the 100,000 or  
so who live in the seeming tropical paradise, clean water remains a  
scarce resource - one whose absence has become a leading cause of  
death among the youngest there. “There are people literally dying of  
thirst,” said Dr. Linda Kofeldt, a retired Staunton physician and  
activist with the humanitarian group Haiti Outreach. “And it’s not  
because they don’t have enough water, because they have a wonderful  
aquifer. It’s because they can’t pump that water up.” For La Gonave,  
one of the poorest areas in the Western Hemisphere’s single poorest  
country, a combination of deficient infrastructure and crushing  
poverty leaves many locals with only brackish, disease-causing water  
at their disposal. Those lucky enough to live within a few miles of a  
working well routinely spend hours lugging large buckets back and  
forth, a chore generally reserved for children.

It was this overwhelming level of need that brought Kofeldt to the  
Waynesboro Rotary Club earlier this year in search of just one thing  
- cold, hard cash. “I knew that Rotary was well-known for taking on  
water projects,” said the doctor of this monetary mission. “It was my  
hope that, after hearing about the conditions in Haiti, the local  
Rotarians would want to help.” They didn’t let her down. For the  
club, whose members number around 80 locally, the plea for donations  
was a “no-brainer,” said president Dave Segars. “Haiti and La Gonave  
are both just big sponges of need right now,” explained Segars, who  
visited the island this summer with Kofeldt. “They can both soak up  
everything you can give them.” Working with other clubs from  
Staunton, Augusta County and Nelson County, the Rotarians managed to  
raise close to $6,000 in local contributions. That cache was then  
leveraged into a series of matching grants from the larger Rotary  
organization that brought the final total up to $22,000 - enough to  
build a well that will, according to Kofeldt, serve around 6,000  
Haitians.

“The Rotary has been just amazing; they’ve got a really caring bunch  
of people,” said Kofeldt. “… We can make a difference here. We can  
help these people make a change and help them improve their lives.”  
Construction of the well, which will be carried out in partnership  
with the local community there, will include the installation of a  
solar-powered pump, an addition that both saves valuable fuel and  
minimizes the need for maintenance. For the Rotary, this is the start  
of a long-term commitment to the humanitarian work being done in  
Haiti. Club leaders envision the construction of more wells - one of  
the most immediate needs - and perhaps one day a business program  
that will help Haitians develop their own lines of work. (The News  
Virginian, 10/15)


Legislative Elections are Postponed Amidst Allegations of Corruption:

Haiti is delaying legislative elections as it sorts out allegations  
of financial fraud and criminal activity within the nation's  
electoral council, a government spokesman said Wednesday. The current  
Parliament was elected in 2006 after two dormant years in the wake of  
a 2004 uprising that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,  
and 10 out of 30 Senate seats were supposed to be up for election in  
November. Government spokesman Joseph Jasmin said the election "is  
certainly not going to happen in November." "I can't give you any  
estimate when it is going to happen but we will work so it can happen  
quickly," he said. Jasmin said Rene Preval and leaders of Haitian  
political parties have reached a consensus to revamp the feuding  
election panel and replace some or all of its members.

The Provisional Electoral Council has long been criticized for votes  
plagued by ballot irregularities and fraud allegations. Internal  
conflict reached a head when two members — Patrick Fequiere and Louis  
Jerson Richeme — accused commission President Max Mathurin, Secretary- 
General Rosemond Pradel and Treasurer Francois Benoit of embezzling  
an undisclosed amount of money for personal use and of trying to have  
Richeme killed. "The (council) is broken in two. The members are  
fighting all the time," Jasmin said. Mathurin declined to comment  
Wednesday, saying he would issue a statement later. Pradel and Benoit  
could not be contacted. It was unclear how the announcement would  
affect current business in the Senate, which has the power to dismiss  
the country's prime minister and members of the Cabinet. (AP, 10/10)

An investigation into allegations that members of Haiti's electoral  
council have misappropriated public funds forced authorities to  
abandon plans to hold elections next month for a third of the  
country's Senate seats, an electoral official said on Tuesday. The  
president of the electoral council, Max Mathurin, said the first  
round of the ballot, due to take place on Nov. 25, and the second  
round on Dec. 2 would be postponed because the council had stopped  
working while the members accused of corruption by their colleagues  
wait to know their fate. "The decision to set a new date for the  
election is no longer in our hands ... President (Rene) Preval has to  
make a decision as to what will become of this electoral council,"  
Mathurin told Reuters.  Jostling for political power is getting  
fiercer as political parties vie for control of the 30-member Senate,  
which has the constitutional power to fire the prime minister and  
government ministers.

Next month's election was to replace a third of the Senate and also  
find a replacement for an additional senator killed in an accident  
this year. The delay means it will not be possible for new senators  
to take office by the Jan. 14, 2008, deadline set in the  
constitution.  The corruption allegations against three electoral  
council members were filed by two other members of the nine-seat  
panel -- Patrick Fequiere and Louis Jerson Richeme.  Mathurin,  
Rosemond Pradel, the council's secretary-general, and Francois  
Benoit, its treasurer, who have been banned from leaving the country,  
are accused of misappropriating public funds. The amount allegedly  
embezzled was not disclosed.  Fequiere told Reuters he and Richeme  
had filed documents proving the allegations but declined further  
comment because the accusations were being investigated by a  
prosecutor. Mathurin denied the allegations and said Fequiere and  
Richeme were trying to destroy the electoral council's reputation  
because of personal conflicts with other members. "All they want is  
to destroy this council and to get rid of the other members, hoping  
they'll keep a seat on the next panel," Mathurin said. Benoit is also  
the subject of a separate criminal investigation over allegations he  
tried to kill Richeme.  In a complaint filed with prosecutors,  
Richeme said Benoit pulled a gun on him during a recent discussion at  
the council's headquarters. (Reuters, 10/9)


UN Security Council to Vote on Future of Haiti Mission:

The Security Council will analyze this week the situation in Haiti  
and the future of its mission in that Caribbean nation while the  
General Assembly will discuss the UN Report of expenses, sources of  
the organization reported. According to the United Nations'  
engagement book the assembly will meet in plenary session on Tuesday  
to choose five non permanent seats to the Security Council next year.  
Costa Rica and Dominican Republic are the candidates to fill the  
vacancy Peru will leave for Latin America and the Caribbean. On  
Monday, besides a Resolution on Haiti, the Council will debate the  
situation in Georgia, by adopting a resolution too and afterwards  
will deal with the panorama in Afghanistan, according to the program  
spread here in this headquarters. On Wednesday it will debate on the  
annual report of the Commission of Consolidation of Peace and on  
Friday will analyze the situation in Iraq and its mission there. On  
Wednesday, the UN Headquarters, in New York, will celebrate the  
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with several  
activities, among them the award ceremony of a Children's Art  
competition under the theme "We can put an end to poverty," among  
other activities. (PRensa Latina, 10/15)


Haitians Honored with New Monument in Savannah:

After 228 years as largely unsung contributors to American  
independence, Haitian soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War's  
bloody siege of Savannah had a monument dedicated in their honor  
Monday.About 150 people, many of them Haitian-Americans who came to  
Savannah for the event, gathered in Franklin Square where life-size  
bronze statues of four soldiers now stand atop a granite pillar 6  
feet tall and 16 feet in diameter.``This is a testimony to tell  
people we Haitians didn't come from the boat,'' said Daniel Fils- 
Aime, chairman of the Miami-based Haitian American Historical  
Society. ``We were here in 1779 to help America win independence.  
That recognition is overdue.''In October 1779, a force of more than  
500 Haitian free blacks joined American colonists and French troops  
in an unsuccessful push to drive the British from Savannah in coastal  
Georgia.More than 300 allied soldiers were gunned down charging  
British fortifications Oct. 9, making the siege the second-most  
lopsided British victory of the war after Bunker Hill.Though not well  
known in the U.S., Haiti's role in the American Revolution is a point  
of national pride for Haitians. After returning home from the war,  
Haitian veterans soon led their own rebellion that won Haiti's  
independence from France in 1804.``It's a huge deal,'' said Philippe  
Armand, vice president of the Association of American Chambers of  
Commerce in Latin America, who flew to Savannah from the Haitian  
capital of Port-au-Prince. ``All the Haitians who have gone to school  
know about it from the history books.''Fils-Aime's group has spent  
the past seven years lobbying Savannah leaders to support the  
monument, which the city approved in 2005, and raising more than  
$400,000 in private donations to pay for it.Fils-Aime said the  
historical society still needs $250,000 more to finish two additional  
soldier statues.As it stands now, the monument features statues of  
two Haitian troops with rifles raised on either side of a fellow  
soldier who has fallen with a bullet wound to his chest.The fourth  
statue, a drummer boy, depicts a young Henri Christophe, who served  
in Savannah as an adolescent and went on to become Haiti's first  
president _ and ultimately king _ after it won independence.It's  
unclear exactly what role Haitian troops played in the battle at  
Savannah because Haitian records from that era were destroyed by fire  
in the 1830s, said Scott Smith, director of Savannah's Coastal  
Heritage Society, which is dedicating a park on the battlefield site  
Tuesday.But surviving records show 545 Haitian soldiers sailed to  
Savannah in 1779 _ making them the largest military unit of the  
Savannah battle. The Haitians are also believed to have been the  
largest black unit to serve in the American Revolution.In the 1800s,  
Savannah erected monuments in its oak-shaded squares to Revolutionary  
War heroes Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene, one of George Washington's  
most trusted generals, as well as Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski and Sgt.  
William Jasper, both killed in the Savannah siege.More than a century  
later, Haitian troops who fought for the same cause have rejoined  
them in history's ranks.``When you look at the other monuments in the  
city of Savannah and then you look at this one, this is first class  
all the way,'' said Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson.On the Net:Haitian- 
American Historical Societyhttp://www.haitianhistory.org (AP, 10/8)