12721: This Week in Haiti 20:22 8/14/2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                       August 14 - 20, 2002
                         Vol. 20, No. 22


FUEL PANIC SWEEPS CAPITAL

Long lines formed at gas stations in Port-au-Prince this week due
to an apparent fuel shortage which stoked Haiti's already crisis-
ridden political atmosphere.

"I got 4000 gallons yesterday, but it's already finished," one
gas station owner said. "It's as if it went with one gulp."

Frantic motorists, panicked by rumors, scoured the capital for
gasoline and diesel fuel, and, in some places, merchants hawked
drums of black market fuel. Several other Haitian cities also
reported fuel shortages.

But Mario Dupuy, Communications Secretary of State, downplayed
the apparent shortage and the response of motorists. "There is no
panic, and gas is not rare in the country," he said, charging
that certain "profiteers" were creating a false alarm to generate
black market price-gouging.

The National Association of Petroleum Product Distributors
(ANADIPP) also declared that there was no fuel shortage, despite
the gas station lines and the marked thinning of public transport
traffic on Aug. 12.

A tanker of diesel fuel arrived in Port-au-Prince bay on the
morning of Aug. 12, somewhat taming tensions. Despite its earlier
pronouncements, the government called for the public's patience
while gas stations are replenished.


COPS BUSTED FOR DRUGS IN JACMEL

Police Inspector General Harvel Jean-Baptiste ordered the arrest
on Jul. 30 of over a dozen cops in and around the southeastern
city of Jacmel, including the district's Police Director, Jean
Neslie Elie. The arrests came on the heels of an investigation
into the delivery of between 1000 and 2000 kilos of cocaine near
the town of Sable Cabaret in July.

Elie was arrested for refusing to collaborate with investigators.
"I cannot be the Inspector General of the Police if, when I
summon an officer, he refuses to come," Jean-Baptiste explained.
"So I had him arrested. If you don't want to answer to me, you
are out of the police. You'll take your insubordination
elsewhere."

Also arrested was Eugens Bazelais, a security officer for Sen.
Immacula Bazile. Police also seized the senator's official
vehicle. Several parliamentarians protested that the seizure was
disrespectful and unwarranted. Deputy Millien Rommage complained
that the Inspector General should have telephoned Sen. Bazile
before the arrest and seizure of her vehicle to inform her of his
intentions.

"I am not going to get into a polemic with any given senator, who
is an authority I respect," Jean-Baptiste responded. "I don't
want to give the impression that I am on a witch-hunt. Our goal
is to better understand what is going on within the police
institution."

Investigating judge Marc St. Ange announced that 12 other people
had been arrested in connection with the Sable Cabaret drug drop,
including four Colombians and Adonis Noël, a communal section
administrator (ASEC).


VISA RACKET AT THE DOMINICAN CONSULATE?

According to Haitian and Dominican investigators, a Haitian has
to pay about $80US to travel legally to the Dominican Republic.
At the Dominican Consulate in Pétionville, a person pays $40 for
consular fees, and another $40 to one of the "facilitators"
stationed on the sidewalk outside the building. Haitians have
begun to accuse the Dominican Consulate of being in cahoots with
the men who expedite obtaining a visa, a charge the Alberto D.
Cabral the Dominican ambassador angrily denies.

"The Dominican Consulate is under my control, I can assure you of
that," Cabral said. "Inside the consulate, there is no racket. If
there are racketeers, it is the Haitian racketeers who are in
front of the consulate. I have denounced that several times, but
the Haitian police have done nothing."

Nonetheless, many of the racketeers at the Pétionville Consulate,
like that in Cap Haïtien, carry "authorization cards" which
appear to be issued by the consulates.


EXAM CORRECTORS DEMAND PAY

Several hundred teachers involved in correcting final exams
(Baccalauréat) for about 380,000 Haitian high school students
protested last week to demand their pay.

"They found money to pay off the demonstrators in Gonaïves, even
though the demonstrators got mad and said they didn't want the
money," complained one teacher. "We, who have worked diligently
doing a job which has importance for the republic, we need to be
paid. Up until now, they haven't paid us a cent."

The protesting teachers have threatened to block the correction
process on remaining exams, even though results for most of
Haiti's nine geographic departments have already been released.
Education Ministry officials claimed that electrical blackouts
caused exam scores stored on a computer to be lost, which caused
a delay in the announcement of test results.

The protesting correctors also charged that the Education
Ministry hired many "mediocre" and "unqualified" teachers on the
basis of favoritism to correct the exams.

"The [Education] Ministry is not respecting the contract signed
with the correctors," said Jean Lavaud Fréderique, secretary
general of the National Federation of Haitian Teachers (CNEH),
"and that is the root of the problem. Many are the fathers of
families, some left their homes to come and correct exams, and
now they aren't paid. We think that the Education Ministry
authorities truly do not care about teachers, do not respect
teachers."

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Please credit Haiti Progres.

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