The government has paid US$32m in arrears to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), paving the way for the disbursement of four frozen IDB loans amounting to US$146m.
The multilaterals suspended a total of US$500m of loans to Haiti in the wake of the disputed legislative elections of 2000. Haiti began its rehabilitation with the multilaterals in May, when it struck a deal with the IMF to cut spending and implement currency stabilisation measures. The IMF will come up with between US$100 and US$150m if Haiti keeps to its side of the bargain over the course of the fiscal year. The government resorted to desperation tactics earlier this year, after recording nil growth in 2002, when Aristide demanded that France repay billions of dollars that Haiti handed over after its independence in 1838 (see RC-03-04).
Advances on the political front are less impressive. The Organization of American States (OAS) condemned the latest outbreak of violence on 12 July, when 300 people gathered from business, trade and human rights groups, travelling in a motorcade, were bombarded with stones by protesters. Ironically, they were on their way to a meeting to discuss a project to restore law and order to Haiti. Two OAS vehicles were also stoned. Prime Minister Yvon Neptune blamed the opposition for staging the attack to destabilise the government. The opposition blamed Aristide loyalists. No one was arrested.
More disturbing was the resignation of Jean-Robert Faveur as Haiti's police chief on 22 June, only two weeks after his appointment, and his decision to leave Haiti. Addressing the OAS Permanent Council, the US representative to the OAS, Roger Noriega, said, 'One must ask, in all seriousness, if the government of Haiti cannot create a secure climate for the chief of its national police, how can it be said to be making strides toward security for anyone else in the country, particularly the democratic opposition to the ruling party?'
Faveur's resignation letter to Aristide, in which he said he had 'chosen the path of exile' to keep from becoming 'corrupt and subservient', suggested that the government is far from honouring its promise to the OAS to forge a professional and independent police force to pave the way for free and fair legislative elections later this year.
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