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Haiti's PM Jean-Max Bellerive speaks during the Ministerial Preparatory Conference on Haiti, in Montreal - Source: Reuters -
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Haiti needs at least five to 10 years of reconstruction help
after its people were bloodied, martyred and ruined by the
devastating earthquake this month, Prime Minister Jean-Max
Bellerive said.
"The people of Haiti will need more and more and more in order to
complete the reconstruction," Bellerive told an international aid
conference, intended to survey immediate needs and then begin
plotting Haiti's long-term recovery.
"I bring you the thanks of a people who have been bloodied,
martyred and ruined but who are standing," he told US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and representatives of 10
other countries.
The conference heard of immediate needs but also began to look
beyond to a strategy to rebuild from the January 12 earthquake that
killed up to 200,000 people and smashed the capital
Port-au-Prince.
"Even in the midst of inconceivable devastation, we must begin to
plan, to give hope where there is despair," Canadian Foreign
Minister Lawrence Cannon told the opening session.
Officials said it was too early to turn this meeting into a
pledging conference and basic questions need to be answered first
such as whether to rebuild on the present site of Port-au-Prince in
light of the geological fault lines.
Aid agencies briefing the 15 nations represented encouraged
decentralization so not everything is based in the capital.
Bellerive said Haitian President Rene Preval had just called him to
press urgently for a further 200,000 tents for people who lost
their homes.
Oxfam called on the meeting to cancel Haiti's foreign debt, which
it said amounted to $1.2 billion.
Bellerive said this was not his main concern although it would
free up resources.
"In the face of the real demands we have, our debt is minimal,"
Bellerive told CBC before the meeting started.
"What we're looking for is a long-term (development)
commitment... At least five to 10 years."
Canada's Harper backed him up: "It's not an exaggeration to say
that 10 years of hard work at least awaits the world in
Haiti."
Haiti's neighbour on the island of Hispaniola, the Dominican
Republic, proposed to donors last Monday the creation of a $14
billion five-year assistance program for Haiti.
Donor conference
Clinton, speaking to reporters on her plane before taking off for
Montreal, said she expected a donors conference where pledges would
be made would likely occur in 30 to 60 days, and a Canadian
official said it would likely be in March.
Asked earlier about complaints that the US military had dominated
the relief, she said effective aid delivery would not have
succeeded without additional military assets.
"It's just easier for the United States to get there first because
Haiti is our neighbour. We appreciate the very positive endorsement
of our efforts that we have heard, not just today from the foreign
minister, but over the course of the last 10 days," she said.
Clinton said in response to a question that the United States was
looking at the possibility of increased immigration from Haiti as
one of many options, but Bellerive said in Montreal that Haiti
should be able to settle its own people.
"We don't want to create an exodus," he said.
Tragically, Bellerive said the government had received signals a
quake might be coming but did not act.
"We must admit that our geological technicians had warned us of the
possibility of an earthquake but dealing with social conflicts,
such as the fight against poverty, meant we didn't have the time or
the means to take the measures needed to limit the damage," he
said.
The United States and other countries have been quick to
demonstrate their willingness to move fast to help Haiti, in part
to avoid the kind of criticism of relief efforts after the 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when some were
slow to act.
