Bush, Clinton visit Haiti in push for aid
They aim to raise money and attention, to remind others that the suffering goes on.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton toured Haiti's rubble-filled capital yesterday to raise aid and investment for a country still reeling from the Jan. 12 earthquake.
It is the first joint visit to the impoverished Caribbean nation for the two former leaders, who were asked by President Obama to lead the U.S. fund-raising effort.
After meeting with President Rene Preval on the grounds of the collapsed national palace, they walked through the tarps-and-tent city on the adjacent Champ de Mars, the national mall filled with 60,000 homeless quake survivors living in squalor.
Both men, surrounded by Secret Service agents, Haitian police, and U.N. peacekeepers, waded into the giant encampment to shake hands with earthquake survivors.
Clinton said they hoped to get all the aid agencies working together to make the most of the huge global outpouring of support. "We have to get the whole universe of people who want to help Haiti operating on the same page," he said.
Bush told reporters their purpose was to see the devastation firsthand and "remind the American people there is still suffering and work to be done here." He said they also wanted to encourage entrepreneurship in Haiti to create jobs and grow the economy.
"Hopefully, our visit will remind people that Haiti needs help," Bush said.
Lucharles Jean-Laudius, one of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the earthquake, welcomed the visit as a sign that the United States would continue to supply aid. He feared that the recent withdrawal of U.S. troops was a sign the world was losing interest in their plight.
"But if the presidents are coming, it's because they want to help," said Jean-Laudius, 34, who lives under a plastic tarp with his wife and two children near the national palace. "That's a good thing."
Clinton and Bush visit as the country struggles to feed and shelter victims of the magnitude-7 quake, which killed an estimated 230,000 people. An additional 1.3 million quake survivors are homeless, with many living in camps prone to dangerous flooding in the April rainy season.
The visit aims to spotlight the dramatic need ahead of a critical March 31 U.N. donors conference in New York, where Haitian officials will ask for $11.5 billion in reconstruction help.
Aid was already being announced yesterday. The inter-American Development Bank announced it had agreed to forgive its $479 million share of Haiti's $1.2 billion in foreign debt while offering $2 billion in new financing. And the European Union said it would donate $1.36 billion in development aid to Haiti in the years ahead.
The nonprofit Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has raised $37 million from 220,000 individuals.
The two former presidents have arguably shaped Haiti's history as much as anyone alive today. Clinton presided over a refugee crisis born of the 1991 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president. He returned Aristide to power in 1994 with a force of 20,000 U.S. troops.
Bush is remembered by many Haitians - especially the thousands in Port-au-Prince's teeming slums - as the U.S. leader whose administration chartered the plane that flew Aristide back into exile during a 2004 rebellion. Pro-Aristide protesters outside the national palace yesterday chanted, "Down with Bush."