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Haiti: Martelly’s report on the 2nd anniversary of the quake
Martelly said 800,000 Haitians are living without electricity, 500,000 can’t read or write, and eight out 10 live on less than US$2 a day. Many educated Haitians have left the country, he added.
The controversial issue of Martelly’s call to restore the disbanded army as a “national defense force” also came up.
Despite opposition from some Western diplomats and rights group, the leader said the new army would patrol Haiti’s borders and protect its few remaining forests. A military, he said, would allow Haiti to regain its sovereignty and enable the withdrawal of a U.N. peacekeeping mission that has helped provide stability since its arrival in 2004.
Critics of the army proposal say money to revive the force would be better spent on strengthening the national police force, which has 8,000 officers in a country of 10 million, or on reconstruction efforts. The army was disbanded in 1995 because of its involvement in coups and other abuses.
The speech came three days before Haiti observes the second anniversary of the quake. Government officials, Western diplomats and humanitarian groups are spending the week promoting their work, but many Haitians are frustrated over what they see as little progress.
The president also mentioned how Haiti is run by a very small group of people but didn’t single out anyone. Just 2 percent of Haitians control 69 percent of the economy, he said.
The events surrounding last year’s anniversary were fewer and more solemn. The country was still in mourning, coping with a contested presidential election that had sparked tire-burning riots, and trying to control a cholera epidemic that had erupted only a few months prior.
The waterborne disease created a parallel crisis to the destruction caused by the earthquake. Health care workers say Haiti now has the highest cholera infection rate in the world.
Nearly 500,000 people have fallen ill and 7,000 have died because of the disease, health officials say. Studies show cholera was likely introduced to Haiti by a U.N. battalion from Nepal, where the disease is endemic.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
