28902: Varma(Press Release)Haiti: RFK Files Action against the US Treasury Dept (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Monika Kalra Varma <monika@rfkmemorial.org>



Media Contact:

Jeffrey Buchanan, RFK Memorial  (202) 463-7575 ext 241

RFK Memorial Takes Treasury Department to Court to Determine US Role in
Denying Loans Vital to Haiti's Perilous Public Health
Department of Treasury Has Stonewalled for Three Years

WASHINGTON (Aug 15, 2006) -- The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for
Human Rights asked a federal court today to order the U.S. Treasury
Department to reveal records of its role in suspending loans destined
for vital public health projects in Haiti.  The RFK Center filed a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request almost three years ago seeking
correspondence and documents related to Treasury's intervention with the
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on infrastructure loans to Haiti.
After Treasury's intervention, the IDB made an unprecedented about-face,
and refused to disburse loans previously approved for Haiti in 2001.

Despite repeated requests and modifications of RFK Center's FOIA
request, the Treasury Department has not provided a single document in
three years.

In July 1998, the IDB approved $145.9 million in loans to Haiti.  The
money was intended to improve water, sanitation, health, rural roads,
and education in Haiti with payment to begin in 2001.  However, on April
6, 2001, US Executive Director to the IDB Lawrence Harrington sent a
letter to IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias requesting that the loans
not be disbursed, leading to the loans' halt.  The U.S. Executive
Director reports directly to the Treasury Department.



Due to the IDB's unprecedented actions, all too many Haitians have died
or become ill due to the lack of potable water and inadequate
healthcare.  In particular, women and children have suffered high
incidences of death and illness from waterborne diseases.

Today's motion was filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia.

"The American public has a right to know what role its government is
playing behind closed doors," said Monika Kalra Varma, Acting Director
at the RFK Center. "The denial of these loans directly violates
Haitians' human rights, leaving them to suffer significant human
casualties. If the U.S. blocked these life-saving loans to influence
Haiti's internal politics, it would be an unconscionable act to which no
American would want to attach their nation's good name."

Varma continued to insist, "As international financial institutions and
donor nations begin publicizing plans to reinvest in Haiti, this
information must be made public so that such a destructive and perverse
reversal does not happen again."

The Freedom of Information Act celebrated its 40th anniversary this past
July 4th.  Many critics, including former President Jimmy Carter, have
begun expressing concerns about the Bush Administration's neglect to
fulfill FOIA requests in a timely manner and its increased tendency to
withhold information. The watchdog coalition OpenTheGovernment.org
credited the Bush Administration with creating 81% more "secrets",
defined as unclassified materials withheld from the public, in 2005 than
in 2000.



FOIA states that federal agencies should share documents within 20
working days.  According to the National Security Archives 2003 report,
many agencies during the Bush Administration have been in violation of
the law with average response times as long as 1,113 working days.



RFK is a non-profit non-governmental organization that engages in
long-term partnerships with activists who win the RFK Human Rights
Award, advocating for the social justice goals they champion.  RFK's
Haitian laureate, Loune Viaud, Director of Strategic Planning and
Operations for Zanmi Lasante, the largest socio-medical complex in the
Central Plateau of Haiti, advocates for the realization of the right to
health for all Haitians.

The RFK Center is represented in this case by the Washington, D.C. law
firm of Garvey Schubert Barer.