Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy (VT), chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, has called on President Obama's administration to suspend aid to Haiti and cancel visas for its top officials. Leahy's statement comes as the streets of Haiti are in chaos over a disputed election that was plagued by fraud, voter intimidation, ballot stuffing and violence even before the votes were counted.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, who is the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, have so far been silent on the contested elections.
This silence may end as Sarah Palin will be in Haiti this weekend with Franklin Graham, who heads up Samaritan's Purse, a charitable organization involved in providing water filtration and other aid to the 1.5 million displaced in refugee camps since the January earthquake which killed 250,000 and injured up to 300,000.
Polling and leaked results had indicated a surprise in which the Preval government's choice, Jude Celestin, was relegated to third place behind a grandmother and a popular, flamboyant musician. All polling had indicated that 70-year-old Mirlande H. Manigat, a former parliamentarian, Sorbonne graduate and the wife of a past president, along with businessman and musician Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly (49) had surged in a crowded field.
The final tally prompted a statement from the US Embassy in Haiti questioning results that put Celestin in the two-person run-off ahead of Martelly.
In a statement, Leahy said:
As if Haiti did not have enough problems, now, once again, those in power there are trying to subvert the will of the people. The United States must come down squarely in support of the Haitian people's right to choose their leaders freely and fairly. By suspending direct aid to the central government and visas for top officials and their immediate family members, the United States would be sending that message. This process needs to bring about a legitimate government respected by the Haitian people and recognized by the international community.
Leahy's request to freeze travel for Haitian government officials is important, given the WikiLeaks cable on Haiti that indicated the current president, Rene Preval, wants to guarantee his safety after the election. From 09PORTAUPRINCE575, DECONSTRUCTING PREVAL:
Thus, they argue, his [Preval's] overriding goal is to orchestrate the 2011 presidential transition in such a way as to ensure that whoever is elected will allow him to go home unimpeded. Based on our conversations, this is indeed a matter that looms large for Preval. He has said to me on various occasions that he is worried about his life after the presidency, that he would not survive in exile. His concerns seem real, given Haiti's history, albeit somewhat overblown at this point in time.
The State Department has also issued a travel advisory to Haiti for US citizens, recommending against all unnecessary travel as violence continues and reports from there indicate continuing violence over the disputed election.
We received direct street testimony from our regular contact, and there is more from the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network:
(This is what) happened on the Champ de Mars. I was not in PA, I was in Carrefour when I heard about it. Some people wearing Celestin's t shirt were demonstrating on the Champs de Mars by 1 pm. (wearing Celestin's t-shirt don't mean anything to me cause anyone can do it, anyone who wants an explosion in Haiti -- it could be Celestin or anyone else) So they were around 50 according to witnesses. They had a car and a few motorbikes with them. As they were singing, dancing and walking on the streets some people on the champs de Mars started to yell "Micky, Micky" (Martelly's artist name) and one of the bikers got a bottle on his head. So he stopped his motorbyke and walked towards those people. He took his gun and shooted people just like , from one block of LePlaza and two blocks from the main police station of PAP. They talked about three to five people were killed and many injured. The closes health care facilities is the General Hospital. Dr Alix Lassegue ( who you met ) talked on radio to say that the hospital can still provide health to people sick or people injured, of course everything is not ok as usual because of the situation of the street but he needed help this afternoon because the X Ray lab is not working and the people injured needed X Ray in emergency.
Reuters has supporting video here, but embedding has been disabled.
In Friday's DOS press briefing and in response to a question as to whether DOS would support Leahy, Assistant secretary Phillip Crowley hedged on taking immediate action, but seemed to signal that DOS would stand behind its original statement from the Haiti embassy.
We have already publicly stated our significant concerns about the results that have been announced. There is a process underway. I think today is the last day to file formal complaints to challenge the results that have been announced. And we are committed to support this review. It needs to be credible. The results that -- when these results are finalized, leading to a run-off election next month, the people of Haiti have to believe that these are the candidates that they have chosen, they haven't been chosen by the government behind closed doors.This is a critical moment for Haiti. We are prepared to support Haiti. We are also sending a very clear message to the existing government that that this election has to be done properly, in accord with the wishes of the Haitian people. We will judge our future relationship by the actions that Haiti undertakes, but -- and we are committed to supporting this process. But let's wait until we see what happens first, and then we will judge the implications.
Camp Canaan in November Photo: Nienaber
Silence from US officials such as Secretary of State Clinton cannot be endured for much longer as a cholera epidemic continues to spread unabated with 96,092 cases and 2,167 deaths. Even these numbers are in dispute, as it is widely believed that there is gross under-reporting from remote areas. Civil unrest has compounded the problem, but the government and NGOs had done virtually nothing to prepare for an epidemic of diarrheal disease since the January earthquake. The squalid, fetid conditions in the camps and lack of access to clean water all but guaranteed an epidemic.
UN Nepalese Base in Mirebalais Photo G. Nienaber
The CDC, French scientists and The New England Journal of Medicine have confirmed that the cholera strain was introduced into Haiti in a single event at the UN base in Mirebalais, where Nepalese soldiers were deployed from a cholera stricken area in their homeland. Septic waste leaked or was dumped into the Artibonite River system -- the source of water for drinking and bathing.
Follow Georgianne Nienaber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nienaber
Alternative exist that give long term equity to aid recipients. (http://www.shelterusnow.com)
We have seen the results of the "election" and they are a charade. Time for another paradigm to be tried.
What exactly do American 'charities' and ngos want in Haiti? A piece of the quake relief pie, no doubt.
Religious wackos and NGO privateers have landed on Haiti like a plague of hungry locusts. Whatever aid has reached the country has been sucked up by proselytizers and pirates. Corrupt charities, corrupt NGOs, corrupt government and a corrupt election are a recipe for continued disaster for the long suffering people of Haiti.
Franklin Graham and Palin arrive this weekend bearing bibles and bromides, Graham looking for endangered souls and cash and Palin doing a quick morph from moose slayer to Mama Theresa wearing Prada.
Palin's book sales are down, a visit to the Don Imus Show on Fox might help. She could introduce herself as the voice for autism and how her endorsement of Sarron Angle would have helped families coping with health costs. Fortunately, the NV voters didn't elect her.
They are still in tents and nothing has been done to get the people better homes or health care.
I hope Palin's efforts to help get them clean drinking water will help.
I'm sure that if she had been given the money entrusted to Clinton to help the people of Haiti, it would have already been put to use to improve the lives of the people who have been suffering for nearly a year since the earthquake, and the time that the money was raised.
Sigh. God help them and keep them safe from book signings.
God Bless all people and organizations who offer a helping hand so selflessly to the suffering and poor People of Haiti ....
America sent up influence in Haiti and surrounding region as part of its Monroe Doctrine and subsequent anti communism Cold War strategy as part of its lesser of two evils: better a dictator in Haiti than a chain of communist states in Caribbean islands that eventually gave raise to socialist powers in Latin America that ended decades of American corporate exploitation of the region.
As for Bill Clinton, despite that famous biting of the lower lip and claiming to "share your pain," he really set Haitian agriculture back when he sold rice, among other things, to Haitians to "help" American farmers, at a lower price than they could grow it themselves, thus destroying rice production and a chance at self-sufficiency. Then there was that totally inept "invasion" while Carter and Powell were down there negotiating. Bill Clinton is vastly overrated for competence. And Hillary's silence? Who knows. The Americans always talk about free elections and the will of the people, but they always side with the tiny elite and send elected presidents, like Aristide, into exile, so who knows what her silence means in this case?
The obvious solution is to give more aid, distribute it through reputable organizations and to target it at easily curable diseases.
Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham returned to Haiti today to survey our work with cholera patients, hand deliver Operation Christmas Child shoe box gifts to hurting children, and meet with staff.
Samaritan’s Purse teams have been working in Haiti since the country was devastated by a deadly earthquake in January. Still struggling to recover from the quake, the Haitian people have more recently suffered from the growing cholera epidemic that has already claimed more than 2,000 lives and from the hurricane that pummeled the island nation in November.
“I don't know of any people in recent years who have suffered more, and in such a short period of time than the people of this small country—with an earthquake, a hurricane, and now a cholera epidemic,” Graham said.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Greta Van Susteren of Fox News are accompanying Graham on the trip.
Franklin Graham, Sarah Palin, and Greta Van Susteren.
After arriving, the group toured a shelter community where Samaritan's Purse has built temporary houses for people who lost everything in the earthquake.
"I've really enjoyed meeting this community," Gov. Palin said. "They are so full of joy. We are so fortunate in America and we are responsible for helping those less fortunate. Samaritan's Purse is still here doing the tough work."
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Samaritans_Purse_Today/post/sarah_palin_to_visit_haiti_with_franklin_graham/
I find any of Franklin Grahams 'dealings' highly suspect. Just as I find Pat Robertson's 700 Club nothing more than a 501c3 cover for his highly suspect 'dealings'.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/search/label/alaska%20natives
Needless to say, there would also be no photo opportunities for Franklin Graham and Sarah Palin enabling her to polish her religious and foreign policy credentials in preparation for a possible 2012 Presidential campaign.
However, that has not happened, and the question is where has the money gone... has it entered the pockets of the NGOs and government officials as the accusations arising out the of presidential campaign hint in the efforts to ensure that the President's hand-chosen successor wins election? With these underlying questions and the unrest in Haiti arising out of the election, Senator Leahy's suggestion makes sense. The issue is whether the Obama administration will implement them, and whether the Senate or the newly-elected Republican House will conduct an investigation that may adversely impact some of their supporters to identify both the misusers of the funds, and those that have aided the Haitian people.