NOT even the continued foot-dragging to advance the promised single economic space, or the ongoing double-speak on the burning issue of intra-regional freedom of movement for CARICOM nationals, could have blunted the positive outcome of the recent Dominica Heads of Government Meeting in relation to the strength of solidarity shown for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

As if sharing the expressed anger of President Rene Preval over the “contempt and arrogance” reflected by the latest US State Department report on Haiti, alleging “widespread corruption in all branches and at all levels of government”, CARICOM leaders unanimously decided to urge “direct financial support” to the administration in Port-au-Prince and to so channel their own aid to that Community partner.
While the controversial report was evidently concluded prior to the January 12 earthquake that wrecked Haiti, President Preval’s angry denunciation resulted from the seeming consistency in such contemptuous claims by US State Department officials involved in the preparation and dissemination of such annual country reports.
The Haitian President, who recently had a White House meeting with President Barack Obama, has also expressed the hope that the US President would bring “an end to the hurt” being done to countries like his own by such “judgemental” reports.
CARICOM leaders had a clear message of their own at the conclusion of the two-day Inter-sessional Meeting in Roseau.
They announced their determination to lobby the international community, including the financial institutions, to “recognise the importance of channelling resources through the government of Haiti” and stressed their own “confidence” in the administration in Port-au-Prince.
While urging foreign donors and the international financial institutions in particular to “demonstrate a greater level of confidence in Haiti” to hasten national reconstruction efforts”, CARICOM has committed itself to no less than US$ six million in economic aid in the short-term, in addition to revising upwards the level of assistance for health initiatives in the face of the Preval administration’s challenges to cope with budgetary deficits.
The general budgetary support being sought internationally amounts to some US$350 million since the country’s traditional revenue base has diminished by approximately 80 percent as a direct consequence of the unprecedented earthquake disaster.
In response to Haiti’s request, CARICOM leaders had devoted a significant session of their separate meetings in Roseau with the top officials of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
They discussed ways and means of providing urgent forms of assistance to Haiti.
This level of involvement was consistent with the mandate CARICOM had earlier received from the Preval government to act on its behalf with the international community in mobilising post-earthquake national reconstruction aid, and for which new initiatives are to unfold at the coming special United Nations Conference in New York on Haiti”.
(Reprinted, courtesy of yesterday’s Barbados Nation)