US to give 100 million dollars more to Haiti
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): The United
States is to give an extra 100 million dollars in aid to Haiti, which has been
ruled by an interim government since February, taking the total to 160 million
dollars, US ambassador James Foley said Monday.
"This will be immediate aid that will be available in the first half of June,"
Foley, who spoke in French, told a news conference.
Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue had traveled to Washington earlier this
month to request more aid to his Caribbean nation, the poorest country in the
continent. "Mr. Latortue explained that the
state coffers were empty, the needs and suffering of the Haitian people is
increasing, electricity is lacking, trash is piling up, and there was
deliberate destruction and pillaging by the former government," Foley said.
The United States has led an international stabilization force in Haiti since
former president Jean Bertrand Aristide resigned and fled the country on
February 29 amid an armed rebellion. Foley
said 35 million dollars will go to Haiti's budget, 22 million dollars to the
judiciary and police, 16 million dollars for employment and nine million
dollars for elections. The rest of the money
will be used to support democracy, fight corruption, restore electricity, pick
up trash and provide humanitarian aid. Four
million dollars will also go to a police force within the United Nations'
stabilization mission in Haiti, which will take over for the US-led force on
June 1. "The multinational force barely
avoided a large war between (pro-Aristide) armed gangs and rebel forces,"
Foley said. "What this country needs most is peace."
"Violence is a cancer that has raged in this country for too long," he added.
Foley said he regretted the decision by Aristide's Lavalas party to stay out
of an election council. "The Lavalas party
had given itself the historic mission of defending the country's poor, but the
result was catastrophic with intimate links to criminal networks and drug
traffickers," Foley said.
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