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25667: Hermantin(News)Cuban and Haitian exiles debate whether to send aid (fwd)




From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Jul. 11, 2005


STORM AFTERMATH
Cuban and Haitian exiles debate whether to send aid
Politically charged debates have divided some in the Haitian-American and Cuban-American communities about relief aid to the two nations.
BY MONICA HATCHER
mhatcher@herald.com

As Hurricane Dennis swamped the Gulf Coast Sunday, a political storm began brewing in South Florida over local relief efforts for island nations hit hard by the hurricane's passage through the Caribbean.

Leaders in both the Cuban-American and Haitian-American communities were divided over how -- or whether -- humanitarian aid should be sent to their respective, politically beleaguered homelands.

At least 20 people have been reported killed in Haiti and Cuba after Dennis slammed into those countries last week . Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed by wind and rain. Hundreds of thousands are still without power.

ITEMS MAY BE STOLEN

Some Haitian commentators took to the airwaves Sunday to discourage the community from giving supplies and money to organizations soliciting donations, warning that items sent to Haiti would be intercepted by thieving gangs with political ties. Supplies would likely be stolen by military and government officials who would sell them across the border in the Dominican Republic, these commentators also claimed.

Pointing to last year's relief efforts in Haiti, where more than 2,000 people perished after tropical storm Jeanne slammed the country, submerging the city of Gonaives, activist Lavarice Gaudin, a supporter of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said few of those victimized by that storm have yet to receive promised assistance.

''They haven't received nothing yet from the stuff that was sent to Haiti,'' said Gaudin, president of Veye Yo, a grass roots organization opposed to Haiti's interim government. ``Even the stuff sent to Gonaives by the Red Cross was kidnapped on the road. They are stealing everything.''

`LUDICROUS'

Gepsie Metellus, executive director for Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, who organized a telethon last year that raised $300,000 for the Red Cross, said the reasoning of those opposing relief efforts is ``ludicrous.''

''We as a community ought to do what we can, where we can, however we can,'' Metellus said. ``The folks who need that immediate relief -- that person who needs water, food, that clean change of clothing and bedding -- their immediate concern isn't the political situation. Their immediate concern is to protect themselves and survive.''

Aid workers in Haiti still face security issues that will hamper relief efforts, according to Jeff Koenreich, a spokesman for the American Red Cross of Greater Miami and the Keys.

A Red Cross volunteer was killed in Port au Prince two weeks ago in an act Koenreich described as ``chilling and unprecedented.''

''It's an extremely dangerous situation,'' Koenreich said. ``However, we must gather donations -- financial donations. People should not be stopped by violence or a political situation when it comes to a humanitarian response.''

POLITICALLY COMPLEX

Cuban exiles in South Florida are also faced with a politically complex relief response.

Opposed to tough U.S. rules tightening remittances and travel to Cuba, Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, said a letter-writing campaign was under way to have the travel restriction rescinded for a few months. The proposed freeze, she said, would allow those with family in Cuba to travel to the island to assist in disaster relief.

The new restriction implemented by the Bush administration last year limits the number of times Cuban Americans can visit immediate family members from once a year to once every three years.

There is no exception in the law for emergency situations.

Wilhelm said for those who can't visit, the government should also consider broadening the items that Cuban-Americans can send to the island. Currently, humanitarian provisions include medicine and food, but not daily necessities like toilet paper and tooth paste, as well as items needed for home repair, Wilhelm said. In a joint statement, U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario Díaz-Balart, all Miami Republicans, encouraged local residents to donate to localorganizations licensed to send unlimited amounts of humanitarian aid to Cuba through non-governmental organizations.

Changing the law for hurricane relief is not necessary, the statement read.

`MISGUIDED'

''Any efforts to exploit the current humanitarian crisis to change U.S. laws or regulations are misguided and unfortunate, since current law authorizes the sending of unlimited amounts of humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba by way of independent civil society groups throughout the island,'' the statement said.

Still, some were skeptical about the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations, saying aid would end up in the wrong hands or simply refused by the communist government. ''Every time the exile community has wanted to send aid, Castro has said he doesn't want it,'' said Ninoska Perez Castellon, a conservative commentator on Radio Mambi.

She also said that some relief supplies sent after Hurricane Lillie wound up in tourist gift shops in Havana.

Relief assistance, Perez Castellon said, ``will not end up benefiting the Cuban people. It will end up benefiting the government.''






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