17852: Esser: Forging Links With Haiti Will Benefit That Country's Poor People (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

Forging Links With Haiti Will Benefit That Country's Poor
People, Says Dlamini-Zuma

Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
January 11, 2004 Posted to
the web January 12, 2004 Johannesburg

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said this
week the South African government would visit Haiti again to
forge a co-operation agreement.

Dlamini-Zuma said such an agreement would benefit the
ordinary people in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country,
not the government ruling them.

Haiti has been run by dictators for most of its 200 years of
liberation from colonial rule.

She said the co-operation agreement was important to Haiti
as its problems would remain irrespective of its government.

Zuma spoke after DA leader Tony Leon launched a scathing
attack on the government for its attendance of the
celebrations.

Leon said: "It is disgraceful that President Mbeki has
squandered South Africa's foreign prestige, moral authority
and taxpayers' rands on making common cause with yet another
morally dubious regime in order to thumb his nose at the
West." Dlamini-Zuma was at pains to explain the South
African government's involvement in Haiti, saying it was in
line with African Union policy and had the blessing of the
Caribbean political community.

Dlamini-Zuma, who was later joined by President Thabo Mbeki,
visited the Caribbean at the end of the Commonwealth summit
in Abuja last month. She said the African Renaissance was
concerned not only about the condition of Africans on the
continent, but also those living in its diaspora.

Mbeki was the only head of state to attend Haiti's
bicentennial independence celebrations.

Dlamini-Zuma said it was not unusual for South Africa to
buck international trends. The government did not regret the
visit.

"They are crediting us with powers we don't have of keeping
dying regimes alive. The government [of Haiti] didn't ask us
to keep them alive, but to work with them in organising
[independence] celebrations," she said.

Apart from the government's R10-million donation for the
celebrations, members of the South African Police Service
trained their Haitian counterparts in crowd control.
Dlamini-Zuma said plans were afoot to engage in the second
phase of the training once the co-operation agreement was
concluded.

Dlamini-Zuma said the Haitians had asked South Africa to
help organise the celebrations as they did not have
experiencing in managing big events. She said the government
agreed as it had looked up to Haiti as an "inspiration"
during the liberation struggle.

However the island's political turmoil and economic ills
have isolated it. "It poses a challenge to all Africans who
wish to see Africans everywhere in the world prosper and
overcome poverty," said Dlamini-Zuma. - Sabelo Ndlangisa


Copyright © 2003 Sunday Times. All rights reserved.
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

http://allafrica.com/stories/200401120029.html