22798: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Bloomberg (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 27 (AP) -- Saying he would focus on the
impoverished country's problems when he returned to the United States, New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited a slum and met Haiti's interim leaders
Tuesday.
   Bloomberg planned to visit in January to celebrate Haiti's 200th
anniversary of its independence but canceled after violence grew between
supporters and opponents of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was
ousted Feb. 29 following a bloody revolt.
   "I had read and I had been told of the problems that many people in
Haiti have, but ... you can't understand their pain and suffering until you
see it yourself on their face," Bloomberg said after visiting the Cite
Soleil slum.
   He also met interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and interim President
Boniface Alexandre, who was appointed to replace Aristide, now in exile in
South Africa.
   Leaders of New York's Haitian community accompanied the mayor, and
Bloomberg said he would urge the 150,000 Haitians and Haitian-Americans
living in New York to give back to their country.
   The mayor laid a flower wreath at a statue of independence hero
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led Haitian forces to victory against French
troops.
   Seeing the poverty two centuries later, he said, "you cannot help but
resolve ... to try to do something about it."