HAITI: PRESIDENT PREVAL REJECTS INTERNATIONAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L PORT AU PRINCE 001388 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAR, DRL, S/CRS, INR/IAA SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR TREASURY FOR MAUREEN WAFER E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/29/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID HA SUBJECT: HAITI: PRESIDENT PREVAL REJECTS INTERNATIONAL "CHARITY" Classified By: Ambassador Janet A. Sanderson. Reason: E.O. 12958 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Returning to Haiti after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings, President Rene Preval used themes of his UNGA address to appeal for more reconstruction and development aid and less ''charity'' for Haiti. Echoing a belief we sometime encounter among high-level GOH officials, Preval told his people that Haiti is ill-served by the current form of international assistance, which he said should focus on reconstruction and unlocking the unrealized talents of the Haitian people. We hear that Preval was disappointed by the international response in New York to his own and UN appeals. Gently scapegoating the international community is also Preval's way of playing to his people's prejudice that international donors and their implementing NGOs do not make the best use of their aid. His words, however, have had little perceptible press or other echo in Haiti. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Returning to Haiti September 28 after a week in New York attending UNGA, President Preval met with the press at the airport to reiterate themes of his address to the UNGA plenary two days earlier. He expressed gratitude to the international community for the outpouring of humanitarian assistance that followed the string of hurricanes in Haiti last month. But he then voiced warnings and reservations about the pattern of assistance Haiti has received. Preval warned that the initial wave of aid motivated by compassion at the suffering of Haiti would fade and leave Haiti alone until the next disaster. He claimed that Haiti was left to fend for itself between these waves of international mobilization. ¶3. (U) Preval identified the real task facing Haiti as the ''reconstruction of the country.'' Haiti's partners would have to ''break the charity paradigm'' in international assistance, because charity had never ''helped any country emerge from underdevelopment.'' Haiti needed a systematic reconstruction plan that harnessed the entrepreneurial and commercial spirit of the Haitian people. The real mobilization would have to come from Haiti itself, he added. Preval also pleaded for free trade ''without hypocrisy'' in which the world powers that promote free trade practice what they preach. ¶4. (C) Comment: The Prime Minister told the Ambassador today that Preval was disappointed at the slow response to his and UN appeals for post-hurricane assistance. This may be one motive for his remarks, which passed in silence over the more than two billion dollars that foreign donors have poured into health, agriculture, education and economic development in the last four years. His backhanded slap at the international community, which continues to scramble to help Haiti in its worst time of need since the hurricane of 2004, showed the President playing to the widespread belief among Haitians that the international community, working through NGOs, does not put aid money to the best use. Preval clearly knows Haiti's major international donors will stick by his side regardless of his public statements. We sense that his words have not swayed public opinion one way or another. The PM acknowledged to the Ambassador that she was uncomfortable with Preval's comments. While the President has not appeared in public in a month, Prime Minister Pierre-Louis has criss-crossed the country visiting hurricane victims. In any case, Preval finally plans to leave the National Palace to visit the stricken city of Gonaives on October 2. SANDERSON