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France/Caribbean

Haiti – Interview given by Michel Barnier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the “C’est arrivé demain” programme on “Europe 1” (excerpts).

Paris, September 26, 2004

THE MINISTER – (...) I devoted the last point of my speech at the Ambassadors’ Conference to Haiti, reiterating that, for France, all the major challenges are concentrated in Haiti: poverty (...) – Haiti is the world’s fourth poorest country –, ecological damage caused by considerable deforestation, and that of French influence in these parts of the world where everyone speaks French. (...)

Yesterday morning we sent a special plane to the country carrying equipment which the Prime Minister, M. Latortue, had spoken to me about (...).

(...)

We can’t remain indifferent to that country and I want simply to tell you that we aren’t indifferent to it. I was very shocked during my two visits to Haiti, my last one was in the wake of a natural disaster, a very severe erosion which killed several hundred people. (...)

THE MINISTER – At the practical level, we’re sending several planes with extremely simple equipment: gloves for the people who have to deal with the very many bodies in Gonaives, camp beds, penicillin and emergency equipment the NGOs need.

Looking beyond the current emergency, the country has to be rebuilt. (...) Several hundred million euros are available in Brussels. Over the past few months I’ve been trying hard to get these funds disbursed. But when you have the money, it isn’t that easy to convert it into projects. (...)./.