13083: Haiti Progres: This Week in Haiti 20:25 9/4/2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      September 4 - 10, 2002
                          Vol. 20, No. 25

OUTRAGE GROWS OVER BROKEN PROMISES IN COOPERATIVES' CRASH

Hundreds of angry demonstrators took to the streets in cities
around Haiti this past week to demand that the Haitian government
restitute the deposits they lost when dozens of "popular banks,"
known as cooperatives, collapsed earlier this year (see Haïti
Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 19, 7/24/2002).

Most demonstrators held President Jean Bertrand Aristide
personally responsible for their misfortune, saying he misled
them into losing their money by encouraging people to invest in
the cooperatives, which he endorsed as "peoples' capitalism."

Many demonstrators even felt that he profited from their loss.
"People used to say that Aristide stole money and I didn't
believe it," said one angry man in front of a closed cooperative
in Port-au-Prince. "But now I do, and if he doesn't give us back
our money, he will soon be out of this country!"

In recent weeks, Henriot Pétiote, director of the government's
regulatory agency, the National Council of Cooperatives (CNC),
has assured cooperative "shareholders," as depositors are called,
that they would be reimbursed by Sep. 2, the start of the school
year. Aristide promised as much on Jul. 3.

But now there is a new official stance. "Neither the CNC, nor
President Aristide, nor anyone else sent anybody to deposit their
money anywhere," Pétiote responded. "If Aristide wants to be the
good-hearted father, to carry out this reimbursement operation,
people have to realize that here in the CNC we cannot deal with
27,020 cases in three days. This is something that will take some
time."

Furthermore, only "part" of the money allocated for the
cooperatives' bail-out would go to depositors, according to
Pétiot. The other part would go to the cooperatives themselves
"so they don't close, so they stay afloat," he said. Most
cooperatives have already closed their doors and many of their
directors have fled Haiti.

Pétiote also claimed that reimbursements had begun, but only with
a handful of depositors "to avoid a stampede."

On Aug. 30, the National Coordination of Victim Depositors
(CONASOVIC) marched from the U.S. Embassy to the National Palace,
stopping in front of the Port-au-Prince civil court along the
way. The court and the CNC are both charged with receiving
depositor claims.

On their march through the capital, the demonstrators reproached
Aristide bitterly, saying that he had done nothing to oversee the
often shady cooperatives. "I now see that Aristide is an expert
'zenglendo,'" yelled one demonstrator into the microphone of
Radio Métropole, using the Creole term for an armed robber. "I
have never seen a chief of State do what Aristide has done to us.
He took in one day what it took us years to gather. We want our
money this very day!"

CONASOVIC spokesperson, Rosemond Jean, sharply criticized the
government's compensation program, calling it "a diversionary
move aimed at calming the spirits of the victim depositors."

"When the government prosecutor commissioner admits that he has
put out warrants to prevent cooperative directors from leaving
the country and then they are able to flee with our money, the
head of State should say something," he said. "It is pure theater
when they say that the depositors have started to receive their
funds."

Meanwhile, in the South of Haiti, protesters led by the
Association of Victim Depositors of Cayes threatened to paralyze
school openings if the government does not reimburse them at
least half of their funds. The association, with over 2000
members,  gave the government one week to deliver, saying that
authorities were dragging their feet. "We did everything that
they asked us to do to reclaim our money," said Duquerès Mathieu,
the Association's spokesman. "We have children who have to return
to school. We are sending an urgent message to the government to
give us our money before Sep. 9, otherwise the return to classes
will be impossible here."

Trouble is likely since Elma Ezechiel, the region's CNC head,
told the Cayes depositors that they will not receive their money
during September. According to him, the South's cases are only
now being studied in Port-with-Prince.

In the southeastern city of Jacmel, depositors are also
threatening to obstruct the start of the school year if their
claims are not satisfied. They charged that the CNC's
compensation program is neglecting the provincial towns and
focusing on the capital. Warlike Dieuseul, the CNC's Jacmel
regional manager, has washed his hands of any responsibility in
the matter. "My only job is to transmit the claims of  victim
depositors to Port-with-Prince," he said.

On Sep. 2, depositors massed in front of the Coeurs Unis credit
cooperative in Port-au-Prince, which had promised on that date to
pay "shareholders" interest on their deposits. But depositors
were unable to enter the bank, which was surrounded by and filled
with security guards and policemen. Coeurs Unis spokesman, Yves
Penel, claimed that the cooperative was ready to honor its
promise to pay out interest payments, but was asked not to do so
by the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) and the CNC.

Pétiote denied and admitted to the charge. "Neither the CNC nor
the BRH asked Coeurs Unis not to open," he said. "It is due to a
law that just passed. The law says that now the BRH will control
all the cooperatives. And the BRH and the CNC still have
preliminary work to do before things can get underway."

Penel also denied rumors that the Coeurs Unis president, David
Chery, had fled the country. Recently, several of the bank's
vehicles and other assets were taken at gunpoint by "men dressed
in police uniforms," according to Chery. "They took assets worth
30 or 40 times the value of their deposits," he said.

In a Sep. 2 press conference, the BRH, announced the creation of
a Directorate of General Inspection of Popular Banks (DIGCP),
which is called for by Article 146 of the new law on cooperatives
promulgated on Jun. 26. According to the BRH vice-governor, Hancy
Pierre-Louis, this law appoints the bank to supervise the
cooperatives on the basis of information received from the CNC.
(Under Duvalier era laws, the CNC was already supposed to oversee
all cooperatives, but clearly did not do so.) This supervision,
however, is not due to begin until Jul. 2003. "The Central Bank
has made no decision yet about the credit and savings
cooperatives,"  Pierre-Louis said.

Meanwhile, it was announced this week that the government deficit
has soared to 2.5 billion Gourdes (about $100 million), up from 1
billion Gourdes ($40 million) last year and 900 million ($36
million) the year before. This has fueled ever-accelerating
inflation, making the circle of popular demands and government
broken promises ever more vicious.

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