Gang Violence Increases as Angry Haitians See Quake Aid Benefitting the Wealthy Elite

[babylonsister]

Gang Violence Increases as Angry Haitians See Quake Aid Benefitting the Wealthy Elite
Former supporters of President René Préval arm themselves against government amid claims that poor's plight is ignored

by Peter Beaumont


Groups who once supported the president of Haiti, René Préval, are arming themselves against the government, putting the earthquake-ravaged country in danger of renewed instability and political violence.


Women queue for food at a homeless earthquake survivors' camp in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: Ramon Espinosa/AP

Threats from individuals closely linked to a number of leading gangs who once enjoyed the patronage of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide come amid growing private concern among diplomats and aid workers over Haiti's increasingly dangerous trajectory.

The country's parliament expires next month, but with no elections on the horizon Préval has moved to consolidate his control over the country's reconstruction. The Senate voted last week to extend the state of emergency by 18 months, creating a reconstruction commission to administer billions in aid that will be overseen by Préval and former US president Bill Clinton.

Despite pledges of billions in aid from the international community following January's earthquake - which killed 230,000 people - anger and resentment are growing against both the Haitian government and the international community. The anger is being driven by the widespread perception - three months after the catastrophe - that what aid and reconstruction money is coming into Haiti is benefiting the country's more articulate and wealthy minority, while not reaching the vast mass of victims of the quake. That, in its turn, has revitalised the country's long-existing political and social antagonisms between a huge and impoverished class and a tiny political and business elite.

Observers are also warning of the potential for social friction between those whose homes were destroyed, who are being furnished - often for the first time - with sanitation, food aid and schooling and those deeply impoverished shanty town dwellers who have not lost their homes, whose conditions are equally desperate.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/18-1

[annabanana]

1. This should not come as a shock to anyone. Could this trajectory

have been deflected? Did they need a National leader who could rally the rich to the aid of the poor in the name of the Country? Has Haiti ever had such a leader?

sad sad business