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QUITO: A South American summit Tuesday pledged US$300 million in aid for Haiti, saying the country's government should be in charge of relief efforts and other nations should keep out of Haiti's internal affairs.
Haitian President Rene Preval attended the emergency meeting of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) in Ecuador's capital Quito and thanked its host, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.
The summit in its final statement said members agreed to create a US$100 million fund to help road building, farming, health and sanitary projects that Preval said were the highest priorities in his quake-ravaged country.
The 12 Unasur members also said they would also request a long-term, low-interest US$200 million loan for Haiti from the InterAmerican Development Bank, that Unasur would "underwrite and guarantee".
At the suggestion of Peruvian President Alan Garcia, the final statement stressed Unasur would back efforts to keep all humanitarian assistance in Haiti "under the leadership" of the Haitian government.
Without addressing or criticizing, as had been expected, the US military's leadership role in relief efforts, the summit stressed that international players in Haiti should conduct themselves with "absolute respect for (Haitian) national sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs."
Correa questioned why the relief effort in Haiti was often led by non-governmental groups, while Argentina's foreign minister said all aid should be coordinated with the United Nations.
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro pointed to the "hegemonic and abusive way the US army is dealing with Haiti."
Preval tried to defuse the issue, telling the summit there were "many countries helping Haiti in different ways and participating, above all, with some military presence."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a leading critic of the US aid operation in Haiti, was due to address the summit but canceled at the last minute without immediate explanation.
Correa, the current Unasur chair, said the aim of the summit was to shore up Haiti's institutions so it would not be so reliant on outside powers.
"Without government and institutions, the country cannot move ahead - unless it is a colony, which we will not permit," he said.
Besides Preval, Garcia and Correa, the gathering was also attended by President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, while Bolivia sent its vice president. Other member countries, including Argentina and Brazil, sent foreign ministers or other high-ranking representatives.
Chile's representative Juan Gabriel Valdes announced that President Michelle Bachelet would visit Haiti on February 20 to meet with Preval and Haitian women's organizations.
Valdes said the United Nation's Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) had asked Bachelet to become "the international spokeswoman for the women and children of Haiti."
The Quito meeting came nearly a month after the 7.0-magnitude temblor on January 12 that devastated much of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince and killed more than 200,000 people. An estimated 460,000 people remained in makeshift camps throughout the city.
The Bolivarian Alliance, a separate, leftist group of nations that includes Venezuela and Ecuador as well as Cuba, Nicaragua and others, last month criticized the "excessive" US force of some 20,000 soldiers in Haiti.
Colonel Gregory Kane, the US Joint Task Force Haiti operations officer, said Friday that the US military had been "welcomed by the government of Haiti." He vowed it would stay in the Caribbean country as long as required.
- AFP/sc
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