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Pace of Haiti re-construction slows
“Donors will give money but they may revert to the same old practices where they unilaterally decide what to do,” said Pierre-Louis, the former board member. “There will be reconstruction but it will take us 20 years instead of 10.”
The biggest obstacle facing the new reconstruction panel is Haiti’s Parliament.
Martelly and lawmakers have routinely lashed out at each other since the first-time politician took office in May. The legislature has viewed Martelly and his inner circle as haughty and rejected Martelly’s first two picks for prime minister before finally agreeing upon Conille, paralyzing his government for months and doing little to put donors at ease.
The already uneasy relations plunged south in October when police locked up Deputy Arnel Belizaire because, according to a spokesman, the deputy had escaped from prison on the day of the Jan. 12, magnitude-7 earthquake.
Senators and deputies were livid. Criminal investigators hadn’t formally requested that the immunity Belizaire enjoys as an elected official be lifted and lawmakers called for the dismissal of officials they believed ordered the detention. One of them, Haiti’s justice minister, resigned on Tuesday.
How will the Belizaire case affect Parliament’s vote on approving the mandate of a reconstruction panel?
“For certain it’s going to cause problems,” said Bien-Aime, a member of the Unity opposition party that controls the 30-member Senate and has 36 seats in the 99-member Chamber of Deputies. Whether the mandate is approved “depends on how the president is going to handle the Belizaire matter.”
Just before midnight Wednesday, Martelly posted a video on his Facebook page. He fell short of issuing an apology but said the executive, legislative and judicial branches need to work together.
“One completes the other,” he said. “In this sense, we can’t be fighting among one another.”
Copyright 2011. The Associated Press
