16138: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-$50 million unfrozen for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Jul. 16, 2003

$50 million unfrozen for Haiti
Loan stalled by election dispute will fund healthcare, education
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@herald.com

WASHINGTON - About $50 million will begin flowing to Haiti next week to help
fund healthcare needs and educational programs, a U.S. Treasury official
said Tuesday.

The money is part of a $146 million Inter-American Development Bank loan
package that had been frozen after disputed legislative elections in May
2000.

As much as $34 million will be made available immediately, John Taylor,
Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, told the U.S. Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. Additional funds will follow to pay for roads,
water and sanitation services.

''With substantially better policy performance and financial accountability,
Haiti could tap into other development assistance as well,'' Taylor said.

The Haitian government paved the way for the cash flow last week by using
foreign reserves to pay $32 million in arrears to the development bank.
Taylor said the payment was ''a crucial step forward,'' but said Haiti still
has a long way to go in establishing political and economic stability, as
well as curtailing widespread corruption.

The most pressing issue is the creation of an electoral commission to
supervise national elections intended to bring an end to the political
deadlock between President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his opponents,
collectively known as Democratic Convergence.

That dispute has prompted several international lending institutions to
suspend millions of dollars in grants managed through the government.

At an Organization of American States meeting in Chile last month, Secretary
of State Colin Powell pledged $1 million for training Haiti's national
police force to ensure a peaceful environment for the national election and
to weed out corruption within the department, allegedly enticed by a
thriving drug-trafficking trade in the Caribbean nation.

Marc Grossman, undersecretary of state for political affairs, told senators
that an estimated 9 percent of cocaine headed to the United States flows
through Haiti.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., meanwhile, bombarded officials with questions
about perceived disparate treatment toward Haitians seeking to immigrate.

Grossman cited three ''spikes'' in migration -- in 1991, 1992 and 1994 -- as
reasons for the Bush administration's policy of interdiction and
repatriation of those who do not qualify for asylum. Holding Haitians in
detention while they seek asylum, rather than releasing them to family
members, also is intended to send a message.

''The reason for that, senator, is to keep people in Haiti,'' Grossman said,
adding that ''expectations and perceptions'' have been the spark behind the
three migration spikes.

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