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Haiti Report for October 15, 2007

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Haiti Report for October 15, 2006

The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described
in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY.
It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization.
This service is intended to create a better understanding of the
situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide
a variety of perspectives on the situation.

To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall
Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930.

IN THIS REPORT:

- - Flooding Causes Deaths, Highest Toll in Cabaret
- - Population of La Gonave Struggles for Water, Rotary Helps
- - Legislative Elections are Postponed Amidst Allegations of Corruption
- - UN Security Council to Vote on Future of Haiti Mission
- - Haitians Honored with New Monument in Savannah

Flooding Causes Deaths, Highest Toll in Cabaret:

Flooding in Haiti caused by several days of torrential rain has left
at least 20 people dead, officials say. Twenty-three bodies were
recovered from the town of Cabaret, which was inundated by flooding,
Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said. Floods and mudslides
across the country have damaged farmland and left hundreds of people
homeless. Efforts are being made to evacuate people from villages in
dangerous areas, civil defence agencies say. Efforts were underway to
provide food and water and shelter to people in Cabaret, Mr Bien-Aime
said. Aid operations have been hampered by poor communication links
and infrastructure. Heavy rains have also affected other countries in
the Caribbean, including Cuba and Jamaica. (BBC, 10/13)

Flooding triggered by torrential rains killed at least 23 people in a
village in central Haiti on Thursday, a government official said on
Friday. The loss of life in Cabaret, nestled in mountains about 30 km
north of capital Port-au-Prince, brought the toll from floods and
mudslides across much of Haiti over the last two weeks to at least
31, civil protection officials said. Forecasters said on Friday there
was no end in sight to the downpours lashing the Caribbean country
and some of its neighbors. "In the Cabaret area alone, 23 people are
confirmed dead but there could be more and we are still in the
process of assessing the situation," Interior Minister Paul Antoine
Bien-Aime told local radio. He said efforts were underway to
distribute food, water and other supplies to the village, where at
least 1,000 people have been made homeless. Heavy rains have also
caused havoc in Cuba and Jamaica. (Reuters, 10/13)

Population of La Gonave Struggles for Water, Rotary Helps:

On the small island of La Gonave, Haiti, the deep blue waters of the
Caribbean Sea encroach upon every shore. And yet, for the 100,000 or
so who live in the seeming tropical paradise, clean water remains a
scarce resource - one whose absence has become a leading cause of
death among the youngest there. There are people literally dying of
thirst, said Dr. Linda Kofeldt, a retired Staunton physician and
activist with the humanitarian group Haiti Outreach. And its not
because they dont have enough water, because they have a wonderful
aquifer. Its because they cant pump that water up. For La Gonave,
one of the poorest areas in the Western Hemispheres single poorest
country, a combination of deficient infrastructure and crushing
poverty leaves many locals with only brackish, disease-causing water
at their disposal. Those lucky enough to live within a few miles of a
working well routinely spend hours lugging large buckets back and
forth, a chore generally reserved for children.

It was this overwhelming level of need that brought Kofeldt to the
Waynesboro Rotary Club earlier this year in search of just one thing
- - cold, hard cash. I knew that Rotary was well-known for taking on
water projects, said the doctor of this monetary mission. It was my
hope that, after hearing about the conditions in Haiti, the local
Rotarians would want to help. They didnt let her down. For the
club, whose members number around 80 locally, the plea for donations
was a no-brainer, said president Dave Segars. Haiti and La Gonave
are both just big sponges of need right now, explained Segars, who
visited the island this summer with Kofeldt. They can both soak up
everything you can give them. Working with other clubs from
Staunton, Augusta County and Nelson County, the Rotarians managed to
raise close to $6,000 in local contributions. That cache was then
leveraged into a series of matching grants from the larger Rotary
organization that brought the final total up to $22,000 - enough to
build a well that will, according to Kofeldt, serve around 6,000
Haitians.

The Rotary has been just amazing; theyve got a really caring bunch
of people, said Kofeldt. ] We can make a difference here. We can
help these people make a change and help them improve their lives.
Construction of the well, which will be carried out in partnership
with the local community there, will include the installation of a
solar-powered pump, an addition that both saves valuable fuel and
minimizes the need for maintenance. For the Rotary, this is the start
of a long-term commitment to the humanitarian work being done in
Haiti. Club leaders envision the construction of more wells - one of
the most immediate needs - and perhaps one day a business program
that will help Haitians develop their own lines of work. (The News
Virginian, 10/15)

Legislative Elections are Postponed Amidst Allegations of Corruption:

Haiti is delaying legislative elections as it sorts out allegations
of financial fraud and criminal activity within the nation's
electoral council, a government spokesman said Wednesday. The current
Parliament was elected in 2006 after two dormant years in the wake of
a 2004 uprising that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
and 10 out of 30 Senate seats were supposed to be up for election in
November. Government spokesman Joseph Jasmin said the election "is
certainly not going to happen in November." "I can't give you any
estimate when it is going to happen but we will work so it can happen
quickly," he said. Jasmin said Rene Preval and leaders of Haitian
political parties have reached a consensus to revamp the feuding
election panel and replace some or all of its members.

The Provisional Electoral Council has long been criticized for votes
plagued by ballot irregularities and fraud allegations. Internal
conflict reached a head when two members " Patrick Fequiere and Louis
Jerson Richeme " accused commission President Max Mathurin, Secretary-
General Rosemond Pradel and Treasurer Francois Benoit of embezzling
an undisclosed amount of money for personal use and of trying to have
Richeme killed. "The (council) is broken in two. The members are
fighting all the time," Jasmin said. Mathurin declined to comment
Wednesday, saying he would issue a statement later. Pradel and Benoit
could not be contacted. It was unclear how the announcement would
affect current business in the Senate, which has the power to dismiss
the country's prime minister and members of the Cabinet. (AP, 10/10)

An investigation into allegations that members of Haiti's electoral
council have misappropriated public funds forced authorities to
abandon plans to hold elections next month for a third of the
country's Senate seats, an electoral official said on Tuesday. The
president of the electoral council, Max Mathurin, said the first
round of the ballot, due to take place on Nov. 25, and the second
round on Dec. 2 would be postponed because the council had stopped
working while the members accused of corruption by their colleagues
wait to know their fate. "The decision to set a new date for the
election is no longer in our hands ... President (Rene) Preval has to
make a decision as to what will become of this electoral council,"
Mathurin told Reuters. Jostling for political power is getting
fiercer as political parties vie for control of the 30-member Senate,
which has the constitutional power to fire the prime minister and
government ministers.

Next month's election was to replace a third of the Senate and also
find a replacement for an additional senator killed in an accident
this year. The delay means it will not be possible for new senators
to take office by the Jan. 14, 2008, deadline set in the
constitution. The corruption allegations against three electoral
council members were filed by two other members of the nine-seat
panel -- Patrick Fequiere and Louis Jerson Richeme. Mathurin,
Rosemond Pradel, the council's secretary-general, and Francois
Benoit, its treasurer, who have been banned from leaving the country,
are accused of misappropriating public funds. The amount allegedly
embezzled was not disclosed. Fequiere told Reuters he and Richeme
had filed documents proving the allegations but declined further
comment because the accusations were being investigated by a
prosecutor. Mathurin denied the allegations and said Fequiere and
Richeme were trying to destroy the electoral council's reputation
because of personal conflicts with other members. "All they want is
to destroy this council and to get rid of the other members, hoping
they'll keep a seat on the next panel," Mathurin said. Benoit is also
the subject of a separate criminal investigation over allegations he
tried to kill Richeme. In a complaint filed with prosecutors,
Richeme said Benoit pulled a gun on him during a recent discussion at
the council's headquarters. (Reuters, 10/9)

UN Security Council to Vote on Future of Haiti Mission:

The Security Council will analyze this week the situation in Haiti
and the future of its mission in that Caribbean nation while the
General Assembly will discuss the UN Report of expenses, sources of
the organization reported. According to the United Nations'
engagement book the assembly will meet in plenary session on Tuesday
to choose five non permanent seats to the Security Council next year.
Costa Rica and Dominican Republic are the candidates to fill the
vacancy Peru will leave for Latin America and the Caribbean. On
Monday, besides a Resolution on Haiti, the Council will debate the
situation in Georgia, by adopting a resolution too and afterwards
will deal with the panorama in Afghanistan, according to the program
spread here in this headquarters. On Wednesday it will debate on the
annual report of the Commission of Consolidation of Peace and on
Friday will analyze the situation in Iraq and its mission there. On
Wednesday, the UN Headquarters, in New York, will celebrate the
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with several
activities, among them the award ceremony of a Children's Art
competition under the theme "We can put an end to poverty," among
other activities. (PRensa Latina, 10/15)

Haitians Honored with New Monument in Savannah:

After 228 years as largely unsung contributors to American
independence, Haitian soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War's
bloody siege of Savannah had a monument dedicated in their honor
Monday.About 150 people, many of them Haitian-Americans who came to
Savannah for the event, gathered in Franklin Square where life-size
bronze statues of four soldiers now stand atop a granite pillar 6
feet tall and 16 feet in diameter.``This is a testimony to tell
people we Haitians didn't come from the boat,'' said Daniel Fils-
Aime, chairman of the Miami-based Haitian American Historical
Society. ``We were here in 1779 to help America win independence.
That recognition is overdue.''In October 1779, a force of more than
500 Haitian free blacks joined American colonists and French troops
in an unsuccessful push to drive the British from Savannah in coastal
Georgia.More than 300 allied soldiers were gunned down charging
British fortifications Oct. 9, making the siege the second-most
lopsided British victory of the war after Bunker Hill.Though not well
known in the U.S., Haiti's role in the American Revolution is a point
of national pride for Haitians. After returning home from the war,
Haitian veterans soon led their own rebellion that won Haiti's
independence from France in 1804.``It's a huge deal,'' said Philippe
Armand, vice president of the Association of American Chambers of
Commerce in Latin America, who flew to Savannah from the Haitian
capital of Port-au-Prince. ``All the Haitians who have gone to school
know about it from the history books.''Fils-Aime's group has spent
the past seven years lobbying Savannah leaders to support the
monument, which the city approved in 2005, and raising more than
$400,000 in private donations to pay for it.Fils-Aime said the
historical society still needs $250,000 more to finish two additional
soldier statues.As it stands now, the monument features statues of
two Haitian troops with rifles raised on either side of a fellow
soldier who has fallen with a bullet wound to his chest.The fourth
statue, a drummer boy, depicts a young Henri Christophe, who served
in Savannah as an adolescent and went on to become Haiti's first
president _ and ultimately king _ after it won independence.It's
unclear exactly what role Haitian troops played in the battle at
Savannah because Haitian records from that era were destroyed by fire
in the 1830s, said Scott Smith, director of Savannah's Coastal
Heritage Society, which is dedicating a park on the battlefield site
Tuesday.But surviving records show 545 Haitian soldiers sailed to
Savannah in 1779 _ making them the largest military unit of the
Savannah battle. The Haitians are also believed to have been the
largest black unit to serve in the American Revolution.In the 1800s,
Savannah erected monuments in its oak-shaded squares to Revolutionary
War heroes Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene, one of George Washington's
most trusted generals, as well as Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski and Sgt.
William Jasper, both killed in the Savannah siege.More than a century
later, Haitian troops who fought for the same cause have rejoined
them in history's ranks.``When you look at the other monuments in the
city of Savannah and then you look at this one, this is first class
all the way,'' said Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson.On the Net:Haitian-
American Historical Societyhttp://www.haitianhistory.org (AP, 10/8)

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