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Haiti protesters denounce aid corruption, hoarding
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Hundreds of Haitian earthquake survivors protested in a suburb of the wrecked capital on Sunday, accusing a district mayor of corruption and hoarding food aid provided by relief groups, witnesses said.
The protest in the Petionville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince was one of the largest since the January 12 quake that killed more than 200,000 people and left over 1 million homeless. It reflected still simmering anger among survivors over problems in the massive international relief effort.
Aid agencies from around the world have moved tons of rice and other food into Haiti but distributions to the hungry and homeless have been slow and sometimes chaotic.
Banging on plastic buckets and waving branches and palm fronds, the protesters surged past piles of earthquake rubble -- and a woman bathing by the side of the road -- to the city hall in Petionville, where they accused Mayor Lydie Parent of hoarding aid.
"I am hungry, I am dying of hunger. Lydie Parent keeps the rice and doesn't give us anything. They never go distribute where we live," one protester said.
Parent was not immediately available for comment.
Most of the demonstrators were women. Aid agencies are doling out food to women to prevent men from dominating distribution sites, and because they believe women are more likely to share it with children and relatives.
Donor nations have poured tens of millions of dollars into the impoverished Caribbean nation and some Haitians have blamed corruption for the sometimes sluggish distribution of aid.
Sacks of donated rice have turned up in local street markets. Aid officials said it was inevitable that some aid would find its way to the black market in Haiti, which was ranked 10th from the bottom of Transparency International's latest corruption rating of 180 nations.
More at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61703220100208
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Hundreds of Haitian earthquake survivors protested in a suburb of the wrecked capital on Sunday, accusing a district mayor of corruption and hoarding food aid provided by relief groups, witnesses said.
The protest in the Petionville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince was one of the largest since the January 12 quake that killed more than 200,000 people and left over 1 million homeless. It reflected still simmering anger among survivors over problems in the massive international relief effort.
Aid agencies from around the world have moved tons of rice and other food into Haiti but distributions to the hungry and homeless have been slow and sometimes chaotic.
Banging on plastic buckets and waving branches and palm fronds, the protesters surged past piles of earthquake rubble -- and a woman bathing by the side of the road -- to the city hall in Petionville, where they accused Mayor Lydie Parent of hoarding aid.
"I am hungry, I am dying of hunger. Lydie Parent keeps the rice and doesn't give us anything. They never go distribute where we live," one protester said.
Parent was not immediately available for comment.
Most of the demonstrators were women. Aid agencies are doling out food to women to prevent men from dominating distribution sites, and because they believe women are more likely to share it with children and relatives.
Donor nations have poured tens of millions of dollars into the impoverished Caribbean nation and some Haitians have blamed corruption for the sometimes sluggish distribution of aid.
Sacks of donated rice have turned up in local street markets. Aid officials said it was inevitable that some aid would find its way to the black market in Haiti, which was ranked 10th from the bottom of Transparency International's latest corruption rating of 180 nations.
More at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61703220100208