20175: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Businesses are paying high price for ouster (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Mar. 10, 2004


UPRISING'S DAMAGE


Businesses are paying high price for ouster

Haiti's business leaders, who led the effort to oust President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, say looting and burning during the uprising have cost them
millions.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The call from Haiti came after 10 p.m., two days before
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned. A group of armed thugs was
outside the Delimart on National Road Number One, not far from Aristide's
private residence, and threatening to burn down the supermarket.

''Try to negotiate with the group,'' store owner Reginald Boulos pleaded
from Aventura in South Florida, where he was visiting with his family.

''They said they cannot take any money because they are acting on orders,''
the store manager in Haiti told Boulos.

Soon after, tires soaked in gasoline were set ablaze, sending the
supermarket and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of groceries up in
flames. What didn't burn was eventually looted.

It was the second time in as many weeks that one of Boulos' businesses had
become a target during the recent political chaos and violence in Haiti. And
it would not be the last. Four of his businesses were attacked, including
Radio Vision 2000, whose Cap Haitien offices were burned and equipment
stolen. The offices here were sprayed with bullets one day, then ransacked
the next. Boulos estimated his loss at $500,000.

In the days preceding and following Aristide's departure, scores of Haitian
business owners have each lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in
merchandise and property, from buildings to automobiles to garments.

The government estimates the damage, including government-owned buildings in
rebel-controlled areas, to be around $300 million -- more than half of
Haiti's budget. The private sector's own guess -- a formal study is under
way -- makes a similar estimate, minus the government-owned properties.

REBUILDING IN DOUBT

The widespread property damage has left hundreds of people out of work, and
left business owners like Patrick Blanchet wondering how -- and if -- he can
rebuild.

''Every single piece, all articles were taken,'' Blanchet said about his
family's 50-year-old luxury goods store located near the port. It was burned
and looted while he was in Miami. ``Anything they could not take they
destroyed. It's going to be very difficult to rebuild.''

On Monday, Blanchet was struck again when a truck loaded with garments was
stolen, and the thieves demanded $20,000. He got the truck back, but without
the merchandise, after paying a price.

Unlike Boulos, a vocal critic of Aristide who has survived three
assassination attempts since 1994, Blanchet says he's just a simple
businessman. He has attended a few opposition marches but is not a leader,
he said.

''It's sad to see people who are not involved in anything lose things out of
pure hatred,'' Blanchet said.

While looting is no stranger to Haitian society -- it occurred following the
1986 departure of Jean-Claude ''Baby Doc'' Duvalier -- business owners say
it is much more malicious this time.

But whether they spoke out against Aristide or attended the countless
marches demanding his resignation, business owners say they were all
targeted for leading the opposition movement that eventually led to
Aristide's ouster before his term ended in 2006.

''There is no doubt that the business community is paying a price for its
involvement and leadership for moving the country in a certain direction,''
Lionel Delatour, a business consultant and power broker said Monday as he
surveyed for the first time the damage in downtown Port-au-Prince. ``This is
a major blow in a country that is already poor.''

Outgoing Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, whose home was burned and ransacked,
disputed claims that the business community was targeted because of its
opposition to Aristide.

Neptune's replacement, Gerard Latortue, is scheduled to arrive today.

Regardless of why it happened, both government supporters and critics say
Haiti is now even more in need of outside assistance.

Delatour, who is also a founder of the Center for Free Enterprise and
Democracy, a local public policy think tank, is pushing hard for U.S.
legislation that would help create about 100,000 new manufacturing jobs in
Haiti. The hope is that the bill would also draw investment and foreign aid.

''This is a business community that was already on its knees because of the
economic policies of [the Aristide] administration,'' said Boulos, a
physician and media mogul, who is pushing for a rebuilding fund to help
businesses that can't afford bank loans. ``Many of these businesses were on
the brink of bankruptcy, and will not find cheap capital to rebuild.''

PROVIDES A LESSON

Ever the optimist, Boulos, like others, says he will rebuild and that there
is a lesson to be learned by Haiti's private sector and business elite.
After years of separating politics and business, he says, the private sector
must get more involved in being responsible citizens, to prevent the need
for looting and to establish policies that will protect business owners.

``The private sector of this country, the elite of this country, has to bear
some responsibility also in what happened here. The inequality in this
country is not acceptable.

''The majority of the population is living in s---. We have a
responsibility,'' Boulos said.

``We have to be responsible citizens.''

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