World Bank cancels remaining Haiti debt

Source: Reuters

World Bank cancels remaining Haiti debt
Fri May 28, 2010 12:13pm EDT

WASHINGTON May 28 (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Friday it has written off $36 million of Haiti's remaining debts to the lender with the help of contributions from 13 countries.

With the decision, Haiti has nothing further to pay to the World Bank, the institution said. The debt was owed to the World Bank's fund for its poorest borrowers, the International Development Association, or IDA.

Canceling the debt will free up funds -- which would have been spent on servicing the IDA debt -- for rebuilding after Haiti's devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

The Bank said funding to write off the debt was received from Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

"Relieving Haiti's remaining debt is part of our effort to pursue every avenue to help Haiti's reconstruction efforts," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2818522520100528?type=marketsNews

:eyes:

I guess I'm glad these thieves are "forgiving" Haiti a debt they never should have owed in the first place.

Seriously, constant negativity no matter what will kill you.

Haiti has so much to deal with, this is a major load off their backs.

but it took a devastating earthquake and hundreds of thousands of peoples lives to make the World Bank relieve them from their debt. I would also like to know what conditions were demanded of Haiti to make this possible. You know nothing comes for free.

that contributed to the funding to write off the debt? Anyone know why?

Contributors:

Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

and thats bad, evil and so un-American. :patriot:

:shrug:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100525/pl_afp/haitiquakeaiduscongress_20100525231525

It upsets them when they can't post their slogans.

but please, don't let that confuse you.

:fistbump:

I want to see who that money goes to.

:thumbsup:

for Baby Doc's return.

He can start looting all over again and doesn't have that pesky bank to worry about.

They need an executive in country, don't they?

Here's a delightful blast from last February:

Haitian despot’s family to get ‘stolen’ millions
Court rules $4.6 million in Swiss bank accounts can't go to aid groups

updated 11:15 a.m. CT, Wed., Feb. 3, 2010

GENEVA - In an embarrassment to Switzerland's government, the country's top court said Wednesday that at least $4.6 million in Swiss bank accounts previously awarded to charities must be returned to the family of Haiti's ex-dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

The decision was unrelated to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, killing at least 150,000 people, but the amount of money contested could feed more than a million Haitians for two weeks.

The court's decision was reached hours before the quake but only published Wednesday, prompting the Swiss government to issue an emergency decree to keep the money frozen in a Swiss bank until a new law can be passed allowing it to be donated to aid groups working in Haiti.

"This is a public relations disaster for Switzerland," said Mark Pieth, a Swiss professor with a long resume in international corruption cases such as the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.

In the decision, the Federal Supreme Court reversed a lower court's ruling that the money should have gone to aid groups working in the impoverished nation because the statute of limitations on any crimes committed by the Duvalier clan would have expired in 2001.

Image as a dictators' investment haven

Delays are common in Switzerland between court verdicts and their public announcements, but the release of the decision could not have come at a worse time. Beyond depriving Haiti's relief efforts of additional money, the ruling also strikes a blow at Switzerland's long-standing efforts to shed its image as an investment haven for the world's dictators.

"We assume that this money doesn't belong to the Duvalier family," said Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Swiss justice minister.

"We've blocked the money again today to prevent that it goes somewhere that it shouldn't for political reasons. We really hope that this money finally goes back to the country."

Many Haitians accuse Duvalier and his entourage of robbing millions from public funds before he was ousted in 1986. Duvalier is believed to be living in exile in France and has always denied wrongdoing.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35218297/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

http://repeatingislands.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/05/michele.jpg

Michelle Duvalier, ex-wife of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" ("Baskethead") Duvalier
From last May:

Haiti to recover some assets from Duvalier

Frontline reports that after decades of legal maneuvering, lawyers acting on behalf of the people of Haiti have finally established a claim over a small part of the assets believed to have been stolen by the nation’s former president Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Between 1971 and 1986, Duvalier, his ex-wife Michelle Bennett Duvalier, and three people acting as agents are believed to have appropriated about $540M from the Haitian public treasury, most of it from relief money given to Haiti by international aid organizations and foreign governments. While extreme poverty strangled the island nation, with 90% of the population subsisting on less than $150 annually, the Duvaliers used the funds to finance a lavish life style that included a $1M yacht, a luxurious villa in France, and well-publicized shopping trips to Miami and New York.

Lawyers have recovered $6.5M frozen in one of Duvalier’s Swiss account, a small but symbolic amount that Pierre-Yves Morier, a lawyer at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in charge of asset return, calls “a victory in the fight against impunity and corruption.” “We need corrupt leaders to realize that they can’t get away with crimes,” says Marilyn Allien, Haiti’s representative for the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in Port-au-Prince. “The return of these illicit assets demonstrates that despite the time lapsed, dictators continue to be responsible for their crimes and cannot benefit from their stolen assets.”

The efforts to return the money to Haiti started in 1986, shortly after Duvalier fled the country, with a request from the new Haitian government to Switzerland for legal assistance to track down any money Duvalier had stolen from public funds and hidden in Switzerland. They located $6.5 million in a suspicious Swiss bank account of the Liechtenstein-based Brouilly foundation, set up by Duvalier’s mother through a Panamanian company. It proved difficult, however, to establish that the money didn’t rightfully belong to the Duvaliers and the investigation came to a halt in 2002. In May 2008, the new Haitian government supplied evidence of a criminal investigation against former president Duvalier and the funds were scheduled for release to the government. The release of the funds has been delayed by an appeal from the Duvalier family, but lawyers believe it is only a matter of months before the funds are in the government’s control. The $6.5 million is designated to go to social and humanitarian projects, most likely to a hospital or a water treatment facility. “Making sure that the money helps the poorest of the poor is very important to us,” says Allien of Transparency International. “We want to see direct effects on the living conditions of the people who suffered rather than having it go to infrastructure projects with uncertain benefits.”

For more on the asset recovery efforts go to http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/2009/05/haiti-the-long-road-to-recovery.html

(Photo is from Vintage Nic’s photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/93759346@N00/3453140391/

Shopping trip: Haitian first lady Michele Duvalier aka "Madame President" at New York with bodyguards. Spent a reported $1.7 million in classy shops of New York, Paris and London.)


http://repeatingislands.com/2009/05/27/haiti-to-recover-some-assets-from-duvalier/