a906: BBC: Haitian opposition criticizes Black Caucus stance on sanctions (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Haitian opposition criticizes Black Caucus stance on sanctions
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 24, 2002


The Democratic Convergence deplores the position of the Congressional Black
Caucus members, who are calling for the resumption of financial aid to Haiti
without a political agreement being reached first. The Convergence leaders
say that the unblocking of the aid will not be synonymous with the
resolution of the political crisis. They encourage the Black Caucus members
to modify their strategy. Gerard Pierre-Charles made the following remarks:
[Pierre-Charles - recording, in Creole] The fundamental problem with the
Lavalas power is the mess that it makes of public funds, whether these funds
are from Haiti or from overseas. It is not a new experience. It is something
that has been happening since 1994. We must not forget that 500m dollars
allocated for micro-projects by the presidency are unaccounted for. And
throughout the Lavalas Family's history, it has always been administrative
chaos. Under the Preval administration, 22m dollars was allocated to build
the Plateau-Central road, but that road has not been built. The money was
wasted. As far as we are concerned, the fundamental problem that can worsen
the situation is that the Lavalas regime has a bigger appetite than any
other regimes of the past, and they have made a bigger administrative mess
with both domestic resources and resources from abroad. So, that is the
situation that we are going to expose to the Black Caucus so that they may
have a better picture of the situation and understand the reasons for the
sanctions. There are a series of attitudes that the financing organizations
require from the beneficiaries. They want honesty. They want the programmes
to be executed and they do not want their money to be mismanaged. As far as
we are concerned, that is the fundamental problem now in the economic
relations between the Lavalas regime and the international financing
organizations. When Aristide returned in 1994, those organizations promised
to give 2bn dollars. They have not given most of that money because the
ruling party has not managed to ensure good management. So, the poor
management of the Lavalas party is the problem, and the Black Caucus needs
to see how it can help solve that problem. Later, if there is an
international aid that can be provided within the framework of a balanced
power, within the framework of power control, and where honesty in the
accomplishment of the international commitments can be proved, then I think
that the Haitian people will really appreciate that. [words indistinct] [End
of recording]
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 22 Feb 02
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.