Grave deterioration des conditions de vie dans les camps

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Grave détérioration des conditions de vie dans les camps
Grave détérioration of the living conditions in the tent camps

Port-au-Prince, le 1er juin 2010 - (AHP) -

Port-au-Prince, Haïti, June 1, 2010 - (AHP) / Translate from French MORN HAITI, Inc.

Des rescapés du séisme du 12 janvier vivant dans des camps d'hébergement de la zone métropolitaine de Port-au-Prince ont fait part mardi de leurs déboires et leurs inquiétudes avec l'arrivée de la saison cyclonique.

Surviving victims of the seism of January 12 currently living in camps throughout the metropolitan zone of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday shared their profound vexations and their concerns with the arrival of the hurricane season.

Nombre d'entre eux vivant notamment sur les places du Champs-de-Mars ont fait savoir que leur situation déjà précaire est devenue un véritable calvaire depuis que les pluies ont commencé.

Many of those living in particular on the park of the Champs-de-Mars stated that their already precarious situation has become a true martyrdom since the rainy season has started.

« Nos tentes sont déchirées et nous passons des nuits blanches avec nos enfants », se sont plaints de nombreux pères et mères de famille, ajoutant que leurs conditions de vie risquent encore de dégénérer avec la saison cyclonique qui a débuté officiellement ce 1er juin.

"Our tents are torn and we spend sleepless nights with our children", complained many fathers and mothers, adding that their living conditions are still likely to degenerate with the hurricane season, which began officially on June 1."

Certains rescapés ont même avoué avoir pensé au suicide, estimant être oubliés et abandonnés.

Certain survivors even acknowledged to have thought of committing suicide, feeling like they have been forgotten and totally abandoned.

De fait, ils affirment que les autorités avaient tout le temps pour éviter un nouveau drame.

" Elles ont préféré traîner, faire de grands discours et puis attendre le dernier moment, s'est indignée une femme de 4 enfants en bas âge, ayant perdu son mari dans le séisme.

In fact, they affirm that the government authorities had all the time necessary to avoid a potential new drama.

"They preferred to waste their time, make great speeches and then wait at the very last minute", says a woman, with total indignation, the mother of 4 children, who lost her husband in the seism.

Anita n'a pas épargné la communauté internationale et les ONG: " Comment osent-ils parler de grands projets de reconstruction", s'ils n'ont pas été en mesure de nous aider, pendant 4 longs mois, à nous protéger des intempéries.

Anita spared neither the international community nor ONG in her comments: "How dare they speak about great reconstruction projects" if, after 4 long months, they have not been able to help us or protect us from the imminent bad weather.

Plusieurs rescapés ont néanmoins indiqué qu'ils sont prêts à retourner là où ils vivaient avant le séisme, pourvu que l'Etat les aide à déblayer leurs maisons effondrées et à construire sur ces sites, une structure capable de résister à la pluie et au mauvais temps.

Several survivors nevertheless indicated that they are ready to go back to where they used to live before the earthquake, provided that the State assists them in clearing the rubble from their crushed homes and in rebuilding, at the same locations, a new structure capable to resist the rain and the imminent bad weather.

L'Etat a pour obligation d'assumer ses responsabilités en aidant les citoyens victimes à se doter des moyens pouvant leur permettre de faire face à la saison cyclonique, ont-ils fait savoir.

The State has an obligation to assume its responsibilities by helping the earthquake victims to obtain the means necessary to enable them to deal with the hurricane season, they declared

Open Letter to the General Secretary of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon and to the former Presidents of the United States of America Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

Figure 1: At the centre, Paul Gustave Magloire, among the members of the Provisional Electoral Council, the General Secretary of the OAS and the Special Envoy of the UN General Secretary

171; President René Préval is setting the stage for genocide in Haiti »

Sirs the Presidents and Mister the General Secretary:

We want to thank you for having honored our country with your presence, following the terrible seism, which devastated the Haitian capital and several neighboring cities.

According to the estimates, this earthquake has caused the death of approximately 270,000 people, has left 450,000 wounded people and has created 1,350 million new homeless people, in a country where 72% of the population was already living in atrocious misery.

Thus, January 12, 2010 will remain in our collective memory as the most painful day of our history.

This disaster is due not only to the eruption of the forces of nature, but also to the negligence of those who govern us. And due to the actions of this government and its collaborators, we are now progressing towards an even larger disaster than the one that just affected us. Furthermore, according to geologists, the earth, which continues to shake, indicates that we still run the risk of being struck by another seism of great magnitude.

Thus, we implore that you remain focused on the situation in Haiti as long as necessary, in order to motivate the international media to continue to highlight our ongoing tribulations.

Indeed, at the time of your visits to our country, you certainly took notice of the catastrophic magnitude of the situation: more than one million people have lived for more than two months in makeshift shelters, battered and drenched by pouring rain and also at times dried by the burning sun, all the while in an extremely deplorable sanitary condition.

And yet this situation will still continue for a long time, in spite of the high risk of infectious disease and hurricanes, which could decimate our population, and in so doing create one of greatest tragedies of this century, at the doorsteps of the Americas.

But, if this tragedy strikes our country, it will be the result of the misguided and selfish intentions of those who govern us, especially those of President Rene Préval. Given that this tragedy has the potential to cause the deaths of tens of thousands of people; it will certainly amount to a case of genocide.

Indeed, in the days that followed the earthquake, the population of Port-au-Prince had started spontaneously to move from the capital into the provincial towns in search of a more accommodating environment.

At that time, the government should have supported this exodus and should have sought to mobilize the means necessary to assist the provincial towns in adequately welcoming the newcomers.

Consistent with the fact that we have always promoted the depopulation of the capital and the decentralization of the country, following the earthquake we expressed public mandates with respect to the manner in which the government should have encouraged the population to continue to migrate towards the provinces and the manner in which the government authorities should have assisted the municipal authorities, whose cities received a great number of refugees who had arrived from the capital and the surrounding areas.

The response from Mr. Préval, who has been consistently and historically opposed to decentralization, either for ideological reasons or due to political opportunism, was to publicly declare that the majority of people in the streets came from the residential surroundings and that these people preferred to remain within the capital for the purpose of being closer to their homes.

In actuality, there was very little truth to that statement.

As a matter of fact, the vast majority of this homeless population emanated from the underprivileged areas of the capital and is principally comprised of families who had migrated to the capital in the search of work and a higher standard of living.

Undoubtedly, a responsible government with an iota of humanity in its heart for its people would have exploited this situation as an opportunity to offer to these hundreds and thousands of women, men and children, a new beginning in a more decent and more secure environment in the provincial towns.

But, the only opportunity that Mr. Préval and his cronies have seen in this disaster has been an opportunity to make money and to enrich themselves financially.

Indeed, Mr. Préval declared to whomever wanted to listen to him that he needed 200,000 tents for the homeless people, principally because his cohorts are the major vendors to the State.

As a matter of fact, the first tents that arrived in the country were being sold at full price on the market.

Then, there was a rumor that was believed by each tent owner that he/she could eventually obtain one of the houses, which the government was going to build with the $3 billion aid fund that it was going to receive from the international community.

Needless to say that the tents were then sold at premium prices, that the people were once again "duped" and that Mr. Rene Préval and his cohorts grew richer.

Today, as being reported by the human rights organizations, in these tent cities, which have been created by the hundreds in the capital due to the encouragement of Mr. Préval, women as well as children are being violated with total impunity during the night; this population is totally disregarded by the current administration.

Inevitably, if Mr. René Préval remains in power and nothing changes before the arrival of the rain and hurricane season, there is great risk that we will once again have thousands of additional fatalities.

The feelings of frustration will grow further.

The international community is still capable of avoiding this probable resulting genocide.

The history of Haiti is marked by incremental efforts for the development of this nation, which, after two centuries of independence, and decline after decline, is now considered the poorest country within the Americas.

Although, after the earthquake, every corner of the world has almost instantaneously contributed plans for the development of the country, all of these plans, however numerous they are, address a future vision that is far removed from the current living conditions of our population.

Indeed, plans have always existed, but what has always been lacking in our country is honesty, a strong will or a sense of fairness from those in charge.

Today, the situation is the worst that it has ever been, because we have a Haitian mafia that controls the governing body, thanks to its straw man, President René Préval. The atmosphere of corruption that rots the proper governance of the country will prevent the reconstruction projects from being implemented, because for the most part, the funds will be diverted from their intended objectives.

My country is presently subject to continuing peril.

The greatest of these dangers is the fact that it is being managed by a government that is corrupt at its very core and that seeks only to satisfy its interests and those of its cohorts, but not those of the Haitian people, for whom it does not have any regard, consideration or concern.

Mr. Préval does not even hesitate to engage notorious gangsters as his close collaborators.

He fixes elections and does not have any respect for the democratic process.

Consequently, in return, he does not enjoy the respect nor the confidence of the population, nor does he have the requisite moral authority that our nation so needs during this difficult period.

As such, for the love of God, do not leave the fate of the Haitian people to the mercy of a handful of selfish profit seeking opportunists.

The actions of Mr. René Préval and his accomplices will undoubtedly subject Haiti to inevitable genocide, if they are not stopped before it is too late.

Sirs the Presidents and Mister the General Secretary, we are much honored to greet you in the name of our brothers and sisters of Haiti.

Paul Gustave Magloire

Former Minister of Interior of Haiti

MORN PRESIDENT

03/26/10

Morn, June 4 2010, 8:23 AM

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Iam very dissapointed with our leader did the are not really listen to the people that elected them especially us on... read more >
Lautre Niveau, 4-Jun-10 2:52 pm
L'autre niveau d'imbecilite said, bla bla bla read more >
Macaque Sale, 4-Jun-10 7:06 pm
I cannot blame you, you do not know any much better you just the same imbecille just like them our people will never... read more >
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