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Haiti dominated 21st Inter-sessional conferene of Caricom Heads
Haiti and its struggles took the spotlight at the 21st inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM heads which ended here on Friday night.
A number of prominent individual’s including St. Kitts Prime Minister Denzel Douglas, St Lucia’s Tourism Minister Allan Chastanent, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn formed part of the two day deliberations.
CARICOM Chairman Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit told journalist at the closing ceremony on Friday, that heads had taken a decision to support the priorities of the government of Haiti and have indicated that whatever resources that CARICOM has put together will be sent directly to the government of Haiti.
“We believe that the international community must demonstrate a greater level of confidence in the ability of the government and people of Haiti in moving the country forward. We have heard of several hundreds of millions of dollars that have been raised on behalf of the people of Haiti but with our deliberations with the president, he has indicated to us that that money has not come to the government of Haiti,” he said.
The President also noted that he needs about 365 million dollars to address some very pressing challenges and his government was only able to put 20% of the total revenue prior to the earthquake, Skerrit said.
“We are hoping that the international community can recognize the importance of channeling the resources through the government of Haiti to do what they have to do. If we fail to address that very important challenge, the situation will be reduced to chaos and uprising and social and political unrests…” he added.
According to Skerrit, while “we speak about building a new Haiti, there are challenges that must be addressed and the conference has called on the international community to do what is right and channel the monies to the government of Haiti.
The Haitian President Rene Preval also met with the media.
He said he has been advised that it is possible to hold presidential elections by December this year.
According to him, the Organization of American States has assessed the situation in light of the devastating earth-quake and has recommended that the elections go ahead.
The elections are constitutionally due in November and there has been some debate over whether it’s practical to hold the polls this year.
The meeting came one week after Prime Ministers and Ministers of Finance met in Basseterre, St. Kitts for the 66th Meeting of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Monetary Council.
