Ambassador: US' main Haiti concern is drugs

The US government's main concern in Haiti is drug-trafficking that corrupted the ousted regime of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and threatens future governments, the US ambassador said.

Ambassador James Foley outlined future US policy toward the country "whose problems quickly become our problems" in a wide-ranging speech Tuesday to business leaders.

Foley leaders of the February rebellion that led to Aristide's ouster must lay down their weapons. He also urged Haiti's tiny and mostly lighter-skinned elite to abandon its class system and antiquated business methods that breed corruption while keeping the darker-skinned majority in near-serfdom.

Despite "enormous number of reasons to be pessimistic," he said the US was optimistic, committed to help transform the country in the long term, and would announce "considerable aid" at a June donors' conference where he appealed for others also to be generous, "notably the European Union."

"Haiti doesn't really have the choice of missing this new last chance," he said. "It's going to change because it must change; the alternative is unthinkable."

"The current situation in Haiti is disastrous," Foley told attendees at a dinner of the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce. "Everything must change: the government, the society, the private sector, the political parties. Especially, mentalities in general must evolve profoundly so that Haiti can become a modern nation."

traffickers

With Haiti a transshipment point for up to 15 percent of Colombian cocaine that reaches the US, Foley said Washington's "biggest worry" is trafficking.

"With the departure of one regime that maintained intimate relations with big traffickers ... there will be an effort to rebuild the networks -- including by trying to infiltrate and manipulate the police," he said.

That appeared to refer to rebel leader Guy Philippe's efforts to have 1,500 former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army enlisted in a recruiting drive to fortify and professionalize a police force that fled before the rebel advance. The US says Aristide promoted officers for political reasons and used the force to attack his enemies.

US have said off the record that Philippe facilitated drug trafficking while he was Aristide's police chief for north Haiti, but none has provided evidence. Philippe denies the charges, as does Aristide the allegations that he profited from the Haitian drug trade, worth an estimated US$1 billion annually.

Foley also said an "ethical commitment against corruption is fundamental."

"And in the criminal act, there is not only the corrupted but also the corrupter. The private sector must pay its taxes and renounce and abandon looking for advantages by using the old ways of connivance and patronage in its relations with the powers that be."

entrepreneurs

Haiti's entrepreneurs must invest in all key sectors and especially in educating people, he said. Haiti may has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world, at well over 50 percent.

Entrepreneurs "turn the Haitian masses into real consumers," Foley said in apparent criticism of salaries that seldom top the mandatory 70 gourdes (US$2) a day, while half the work force is unemployed or tries to get by with odd jobs.

Foley the Democratic Platform coalition of 184 political parties and civic groups including many businesspeople, saying their refusal to work with Aristide under an internationally agreed compromise for transition nearly caused another coup in Haiti.

He said the US made clear its "categorical refusal to recognize or legitimize a government [of rebels] that would have taken power by force."

Foley's delivered in elegant French, drew much applause but some hostility.

"I think it is time now to accept your responsibility and admit you made a mistake in making us suffer 10 years of Aristide," said businessman Philippe Villedrouin.

He was referring to former US President Bill Clinton's deployment of 20,000 troops to Haiti in 1994 to end a brutal military dictatorship, restore Aristide to power and halt an exodus of tens of thousands of boat people.

Villedrouin Foley for asking them to condemn the rebels while forgiving Aristide when "the rebels liberated us."