15481: (Bellegarde-Smith) Taiwan reaffirms ties to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>


Friday, May 02, 2003    >>    >
>
Taiwan reaffirms ties to Haiti with navy ships' historic visit

By Jane Regan, The Miami Herald

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Three Taiwanese navy ships steamed past fishermen in dugout
canoes and into Port-au-Prince harbor on Thursday to make their first-ever
visit to one of Taiwan's oldest partners.

Flying the blue and red flags of Haiti and Taiwan, two guided-missile
frigates and a supply ship carried 800 sailors and midshipmen who waved and
snapped photos from the gray decks boasting machine guns and rocket launchers.

Most people along the seaside boulevard turned little more than a curious eye
to the ships' arrival. But inside the port authority walls, officials were
out in force to welcome the Taiwanese, who have supported the Haitian
government for 47 years. Taiwan is the Haitian government's largest donor.

The National Palace band learned Taiwan's anthem, school children waved
Taiwanese flags and shouted greetings in Mandarin, and units of Haiti's coast
guard and National Police saluted as Taiwanese officers and sailors, in
dazzling white uniforms, stepped onto Haitian soil.

At a welcome ceremony, Haiti's Minister of the Interior Jocelerme Privert
said the Taiwan navy's presence -- part of a three-month training cruise --
``puts a seal on our relationship at a particularly difficult time.''

Both Taiwan and Haiti ''share a history of exclusion and ostracism by the
powerful countries,'' Privert said, referring to Taiwan's exclusion from the
United Nations and differences between Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's government and the Organization of American States, the United
States and other countries over allegedly fraudulent elections and human
rights violations.

''We are both struggling to conserve our independence and autonomy in the
face of attacks and selfishness,'' Privert said.

''Haiti is one of our most important partners,'' Taiwan's ambassador, Hsieh
Hsin-ping, confirmed. Only last week, he noted, Taiwan gave Haiti $3 million
for a government literacy program.

Although the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank and other
donors are blocking assistance to the Aristide government, Taiwan plans to
disburse about $40 million in grants and $15 million in loans between now and
2005.

SIGNS OF LARGESS
Signs of Taiwan's largess can be seen throughout Haiti, where police cars and
garbage trucks often say ``Gift of the Republic of China.''
Taiwan has paid for roads, low-cost housing, experimental rice farms and a
sports complex.

The island nation has also directly supported Aristide with funds for his
foundation and the Lafanmi Selavi orphanage he founded in the 1980s.
Because of China's claim on Taiwan, the Taipei government is only recognized
by 28 nations, 13 of them in the Caribbean basin.

Taiwan, which rewards its friends with what is sometimes called ''dollar
diplomacy,'' has stood by every government to occupy Haiti's National Palace
since 1954, including dictators François Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude
Duvalier.

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Public panic about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which originated
in China and spread to neighboring Taiwan, put the visit in doubt, even
though the ships had left Taiwan long before the first SARS case appeared.
Opposition politicians had called the government ''irresponsible'' before the
government held several news conferences to reassure the public.

At the welcoming ceremonies, Taiwanese Adm. Chu Tsong-rong delivered a
certificate promising that none of his sailors posed a health threat.


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Forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group - solidarity with the
Haitian people's struggle for human rights, participatory democracy and
equitable development - since 1992.

Web site: www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

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