Haiti protesters denounce aid corruption, hoarding

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Hundreds of Haitian  earthquake survivors protested in a suburb of the wrecked  capital yesterday, accusing a district mayor of corruption and  hoarding food aid provided by relief groups, witnesses said.

The protest in the Petionville neighborhood of  Port-au-Prince was one of the largest since the Jan. 12 quake  that killed more than 200,000 people and left over 1 million  homeless. It reflected still simmering anger among survivors  over problems in the massive international relief effort.

Aid agencies from around the world have moved tons of rice  and other food into Haiti but distributions to the hungry and  homeless have been slow and sometimes chaotic.

Banging on plastic buckets and waving branches and palm  fronds, the protesters surged past piles of earthquake rubble  — and a woman bathing by the side of the road — to the city  hall in Petionville, where they accused Mayor Lydie Parent of  hoarding aid.

“I am hungry, I am dying of hunger. Lydie Parent keeps the  rice and doesn’t give us anything. They never go distribute  where we live,” one protester said.

Parent was not immediately available for comment.

Most of the demonstrators were women. Aid agencies are  doling out food to women to prevent men from dominating  distribution sites, and because they believe women are more  likely to share it with children and relatives.

Donor nations have poured tens of millions of dollars into  the impoverished Caribbean nation and some Haitians have blamed  corruption for the sometimes sluggish distribution of aid.

Sacks of donated rice have turned up in local street  markets. Aid officials said it was inevitable that some aid  would find its way to the black market in Haiti, which was  ranked 10th from the bottom of Transparency International’s  latest corruption rating of 180 nations.

1 million need
shelter

Haitian President Rene Preval, who has been seen only  occasionally in public since the quake, has been targeted by  some protests, and graffiti messages of “Down with Preval” have  been scrawled on some buildings and walls.

“We are all victims. It is a fallen country. It has lost  its children, husbands, homes and family,” protester Agustin  Michou said.

The demonstrators chanted “if the police shoot at us, we  will burn everything,” but the protest ended peacefully and  police did not intervene.

During a visit by senior Dominican Republic officials to  Port-au-Prince over the weekend, Preval said he estimated some  250,000 people had been killed in the quake, and 250,000 houses  were destroyed.

He added that a million homeless people urgently needed to  be relocated in temporary shelter before the rainy season,  which normally begins in March.

But he recognized that many quake victims would want to  remain close to their original places of residence. “This is  their neighborhood, their environment, they won’t want to leave  those places,” he said.

In an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday, U.S.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she and her husband,  former U.S. President Bill Clinton who is the United Nations  special envoy and relief coordinator for Haiti, were committed  to helping the earthquake-ravaged country.

“We have a special place in our heart for Haiti having gone  there during our honeymoon many years ago. And it’s a place  that is captivating. The people are so resilient. And they  deserve so much better that what they’ve gotten over their  history,” Hillary Clinton said.

The U.S. military, backed by a flotilla of warships and a  fleet of aircraft flying in supplies, has been spearheading the  international relief effort.