From: Chris Cartter <newslink@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Haiti Info #6/lead
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 20:43:00 GMT

(Below is the table of contents and lead story from the most
recent issue of Haiti Info, the newsletter of the Haitian
Information Bureau.  The lead story from each bi-weekly issue is
posted in this conference.  To receive the entire newsletter, you
may subscribe by email, fax or mail. See the subscription
information at the end of this entry).

				* * * HAITI INFO * * *

		News direct from the people and organizations of
		Haiti's grassroots democratic movement

				9 Nov. 1992, Vol. 1, #6


	TENDREMOS UNA VERSION EN ESPANOL MUY PRONTO PARA
	     LOS COMPANEROS DE AMERICA LATINA Y ESPANA!


Contents:

News Stories:   FOOD AID SCANDAL
			Government Institutions Still Deadlocked
			Refugees Held Hostage Parishioners Attack
			Papal Nuncio Conference Participants
			Denounce Coup Leaders Strongmen Rule on La
			Gonave O.A.S. Inexplicably Silent

Interview:              Claude Bernard Craan Human Rights Report
Behind the Headlines:   IS CLINTON GOOD FOR HAITI? 
Common Ground:          THE IMF vs. THE PEOPLE
About Haiti Info

(No Development column this issue)

News:

				FOOD AID SCANDAL

ANSE A GALETS, Nov. 9 - Humanitarian food aid has been sold
illegally here and local citizens who have tried to stop it are
being physically threatened.
   The food, part of a U.S.-sponsored project called Operation
Lifeline, is supposed to feed 25,000 children on the island of La
Gonave and also other parts of Haiti.
   The program has been criticized for a number of reasons by
extension workers and its own board of advisors since it began
about six weeks ago.
   Nevertheless, the program's local director, caught selling
food, has not been replaced and Lifeline has been closed  even
though there are areas of near-famine here.
   According to many on this rocky and  isolated island, even when
it was operating many communities did not receive food. In some
cases people walked to Anse a Galets a dozen  times, only to leave
empty- handed.

Board discovers theft
   Lifeline is supposed to be overseen by a local board of
advisors, but according to one member who requested anonymity
because of numerous threats, they have not been included in any
decision- making.
  Several weeks ago they discovered that the local director, Maxo
Claircira, had sold large amounts of the food to  merchants. One
paid over $4,000 for over 100 cases (6 gallons each) of soybean
oil.
   The advisors confronted Claircira, who  said he had been given
the authority to sell the food by "his boss" in the national
office.
   In spite of warnings not to get involved, advisors seized much
of the oil, locked it in a local jail, and sent one member to
Port-au- Prince to report the misconduct.
   While there, he was physically threatened by over ten men
hanging around the office. Luckily, he said, someone recognized
him and let him wait inside another room until his appointment
with Director Robert Watkins and his assistant, Joseph Senat.
   "The men told me they would cut off my head ," he said, visibly
shaken. "I'm not  going to Lifeline anymore."
   After the visit, Lifeline sent a team to investigate the
problem, but according to the advisor, they used the opportunity
to threaten the board once again.
   Watkins admits there are problems on La Gonave.  "We fired
   everyone out there but two guys, and probably should
have fired them, too. But they are only boys," he said in a
telephone interview.
   The two not fired were those who everyone here says sold the
   food
- Claircira and the warehouse manager.

Questionable employees
   Claircira was hand-picked to run the La Gonave program by
   Senat.  While Claircira does not have a specifically suspicious
   background,
Senat is well known on the Haitian political scene, especially for
his ties to the Duvalier dictatorships.
   Senat was the head of Syndicat des Chauffeur-Guides, the
tourist taxi driver union, one of  the  few  unions allowed under
the Duvaliers until 1984, when he was given permission to organize
another "friendly" union, Federation des Ouvriers Syndiques (FOS),
so Haiti would qualify for special trade programs with the U.S.
FOS has always been "pro-business," in contrast to the more
popular, pro- worker unions here. Every year FOS receives large
amounts of U.S.  funding from budgets earmarked especially for
conservative labor groups throughout the world.

Quality of aid questioned
   Members of the advisory board and extension workers  have also
questioned the quality of the food aid, which consists of wheat,
soybeans and soybean oil - all excess products in the U.S. where
farmers overproduce because of government subsidies. Those
products are mixed together and cooked into a mush, according to
one advisor.
   "It's not food," he said. "There are no vegetables or
   vitamins." Last week the advisors were supposed to meet with
   the U.S.
Agency for International Development which oversees Lifeline, but
they decided not to go because of renewed rumors and threats.
   In the meantime, Claircira is still in charge of the program,
and thousands of children are still hungry.
   According to Watkins, the program will operate again in "four
to six weeks."
   That information was no consolation to the advisor.  "It's
   thieves who have the food now, not the people," he said.

ABOUT HAITI INFO:
* Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the Haitian
Information Bureau, an alternative news agency, and is edited by a
group of committed individuals from democratic and popular
sectors.
* All articles ) HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.  Please cite Haiti Info
and send copies of usage.
* Haiti Info is available by mail, by fax, and also electronically
via computer. Subscription rates range from U.S. $18 to $100.  For
North American/European subscriptions contact newsLINK, 67
Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.  Tel:  617-661-7592.
E-mail:  newslink@igc.org.  Other correspondence:  Haitian
Information Bureau, c/o Lynx Air, Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL,
33340, USA or B.P. 15533, Petion- ville, HAITI.  Fax: (509) 573560
(temp.) E-mail:  hib@igc.org.

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