21534: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Poor, weary population sees no advance in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Apr. 24, 2004

HAITI | FACING THE FUTURE


Poor, weary population sees no advance in Haiti

Nearly two months after the forced departure of former President Aristide,
Haiti's interim government struggles to provide even the most basic of
services.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The streets are choking with garbage. There hasn't been
electricity for weeks, and justice remains at the mercy of corrupt judges
and armed rebels.

That's what a $100 million budget deficit, frozen foreign aid and virtually
no local government infrastructure has led to as Haiti's interim government
struggles to provide even the most basic of services.

''Right now, they don't have the key to restart the car,'' said Jean-Marie
Vorbe, a Haitian in the energy and road construction business. ``The battery
is down, the tires are flat and it's all out of gas.''

The jalopy is Haiti, a grindingly poor country of nearly eight million
people where months of upheaval and weeks of deadly political violence led
to the Feb. 29 departure of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The driver is an interim government whose members, including several Haitian
Americans, are moving so slowly that some here joke that Prime Minister
Gerard Latortue may be trying to live up to his name -- ''the turtle'' in
French.

''We didn't think they would perform a miracle, but we did think it would
move much faster,'' said Paul Denis, a former opposition senator with the
Organization of People in the Struggle.

Indeed, government promises to resolve the garbage and electricity problems
have gone unfulfilled despite attempts early on. Security also remains a
problem, despite scattered police checkpoints that have been largely
ineffective in disarming the rebels or Aristide supporters.

Allegedly corrupt judges continue to sit on the bench, and no new mayors or
other town administrators have been named in Haiti's 134 communities to
replace the Aristide supporters who held many of the local posts.

A CRITICAL TIME

With the hemisphere's most impoverished nation at such a critical
crossroads, much is riding on the interim government, critics and supporters
say. But the government says it is doing its best with the few resources it
has.

''The government is cash-strapped,'' said government spokesman Robert
Ulysse. ``There is no money, and most of what was done in the past was done
on credit.''

For instance, while the Aristide government could provide up to three hours
of electricity a day by getting the Central Bank to advance it the
$65,000-a-day cost, the new minister of public works, Jean-Paul Toussaint,
opted against that system. He argued it would be cheaper to wait until the
rainy season and then switch on a government-owned hydroelectric plant.

Meanwhile, the national electricity grid has been shut down for several
weeks and Haitians who can afford the fuel must rely on private generators
to light their evenings.

''The situation is very bleak,'' Raymond Magloire, the newly appointed
governor of the Central Bank, said of Haiti's economic situation.

In December alone, the Aristide government overspent its budget by millions
of dollars, with most of the money presumed to have gone to paying for the
Jan. 1, 2004, celebrations marking Haiti's 200th year of independence.

Officials in the new government say there's also evidence of blatant
corruption and little accounting of where large sums of money were spent and
for what.

''Money is owed to everybody,'' said Magloire, whose board has been charged
by the interim government to give an accounting of the government's
financing.

Exacerbating the country's financial woes is a lack of revenue. After
Aristide's departure, many of the government offices responsible for
collecting revenue were shut down. Although some have reopened in the
capital, anti-Aristide rebels still control some in outlying areas.

PRICE OF LOOTING

Damage from looting during the February revolt, variously estimated at $100
million to $300 million, also shrank the already-small tax base relied on by
the government.

''In March, the tax people said they collected $4 million. They should have
collected ten times that,'' Magloire said.

Minister of Finance Henri Bazin said that while many foreign-aid donors are
now reviewing their long-term approach to Haiti, they cannot overlook the
country's current crisis.

''If you want us to succeed, you have to do something to help us succeed,''
he said. ``Having come as far as this, we cannot go back.''

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