16142: Karshan: U.S. Senate Hearing on Haiti Calls for More Assistance to the Haitian Govt... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

CBS MARKETWATCH

U.S. Senate Hearing on Haiti Calls for More Assistance to the Haitian
Government and More U.S. Involvement to Resolve Nation's Political Stalemate

7/15/2003 8:31:00 PM

WASHINGTON, Jul 15, 2003 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The United States Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing today entitled "Successes and
Challenges of U.S. Policy Toward Haiti." The panel heard testimony from Bush
Administration officials, Undersecretaries Marc Grossman and John Taylor from the
Departments of State and Treasury respectively, and covered a range of topics
from the internal political stalemate between the governing party and some
opposition political parties to the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on Haiti's
population of eight million people. Senator Richard Lugar, committee chairman,
set the theme by saying that "the hard part is translating vision into reality
[and] to find common ground on the way forward in Haiti." Other Senators
expressed specific concerns about the objectives of U.S. policy and urged the
Administration to make changes in policy so that the U.S. is working more closely
with the Government of Haiti on political and economic matters.

Senator Bill Nelson of Florida expressed his deep concern for what he
described as a harsh and discriminatory U.S. immigration policy that seems to
differentiate treatment of Haitian illegal immigrants compared to those of other
nationalities. Senator Nelson also expressed his frustration with U.S. policy
regarding the disbursement, or lack thereof, of humanitarian and development loans
from the international financial institutions designated for Haiti. Several
other Senators including Senator Chris Dodd and Senator Lincoln Chaffee joined
Senator Nelson in his criticism of the U.S. policy of withholding loans as
political leverage. Moreover, the Committee was unified in its support for the
news from Undersecretary Taylor that all the International Financial
Institutions (IFIs) are now moving forward with new lending commitments to the Government
of Haiti.

On the political front, several Senators urged the Administration to work
more closely with the Government of Haiti to move the political process forward
and to hold elections as soon as practical. Senator Dodd was explicit in his
criticism of U.S. policy and the role of the OAS Special Mission to Haiti and
called on both institutions to seriously engage all parties to find a solution
to the political crisis. "It is not clear to me that either the U.S.
administration or the OAS leadership has any game plan for helping Haiti resolve the
political impasse it finds itself caught in -- namely wanting and needing to have
elections either by the end of the year or shortly thereafter -- but not
being able to get all the players to join with the government in those elections."
Senator Dodd questioned the purpose of Saturday's march into Cite Soleil by
the Group of 184 referring to the provocative nature of the event as not unlike
Protestants in North Ireland marching through Catholic areas of Belfast every
July.

The hearing's three additional witnesses from the private sector included Dr.
Paul Farmer, a Harvard physician who operates an HIV/AIDS clinic in Haiti,
Mr. Steven Forester, an immigration attorney who represents Haitian Women of
Miami, and Dr. Rudolf Moise, a Haitian American physician and CEO of the Haitian
Broadcasting Network, also from Miami, Florida. Each panelist expressed hopes
that the U.S. administration can work with the Haitian Government to address
the massive development and political challenges facing the nation. In response
to many questions regarding healthcare and IFI lending to Haiti, Dr. Farmer
assertively summarized that public /private partnerships were the only means
for addressing the health crises in Haiti, and the "Government should have a
central role in healthcare [and] should not be placed into an untenable position
of depleting 90% of its national reserves to simply to pay IDB arrears caused
by US policies that prevented humanitarian lending for nearly two and one half
years."

Global Market Solutions is a marketing communications firm and is also a
registered agent of the Government of Haiti.

SOURCE Global Market Solutions

Global Market Solutions, +1-202-270-4877

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