13485: (Chamberlain: news story) Haiti blames foreign aid freeze for boat people (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A Haitian government
official on Wednesday blamed an aid freeze by foreign donor countries for
causing the poverty in his country that led more than 200 migrants to
travel in an overcrowded freighter to the United States.
     The Haitians leaped from the grounded boat yards (metres) from a Miami
causeway on Tuesday, swimming and wading to shore where they were rapidly
rounded up by authorities and taken to a detention center where their cases
will be processed.
     The dramatic arrival of the migrants, who included children, was shown
live on U.S. television. Unless they can make a case for political asylum,
the migrants likely will be sent back to their impoverished Caribbean
nation.
     "The economic sanctions are responsible for the situation because the
population is desperate," Haitian Secretary of State for Communications
Mario Dupuy said of the migrants, referring to a suspension of direct
economic assistance to the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
since disputed legislative elections two years ago.
     "Perhaps this event will pressure the international community to lift
them," he told private Radio Metropole.
     Haiti, already the poorest country in the Americas, has seen a
precipitous decline in the value of its currency, the gourde, in recent
months, adding more hardship to the country's 8 million inhabitants.
     Aristide began his second term as president in January 2000 and has
been locked in a dispute with the Democratic Convergence opposition
coalition over results of May 2000 legislative elections that his opponents
say were biased to favor Aristide's Lavalas Family party. The deadlock has
stalled over $500 million in international aid.
     There has been a marked increase in political violence in Haiti over
the last year, including an attack by unidentified gunmen on the National
Palace, the murder of a local journalist by a pro-government mob and
anti-government riots in the capital and elsewhere.
     In a resolution passed in September, the Organization of American
States called for a restoration of aid to the country, as well as calling
for disarming political militants and the arrest of those responsible for
political violence.
     Haiti's "boat people" usually depart from small wharves and islands
along the country's northern coast, a once lush region rapidly turning into
desert from widespread deforestation. The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted
1,400 Haitian migrants at sea last year, rescuing many from dangerously
flimsy boats. In many cases, Haitians pay migrant smugglers for a place on
a boat.
     Aristide's political opponents rejected the government charge that the
international community was solely to blame.
     "The government wants to manipulate this terrible situation of our
compatriots for political gain," said Micha Gaillard, a spokesman for the
Democratic Convergence.
     "It is a problem of the governance of this country, regardless of the
status of international aid. Our country needs to find a way to keep its
children at home."
     Haitians have a life expectancy of just 57 years and a per capita
annual income of about $250, according to the World Bank. Four-fifths of
the rural population lives in poverty, and the capital, Port-au-Prince, is
a teeming city where many people live in slums.