VZCZCXRO4631
OO RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0636 1911735
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101735Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0126
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 2360
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 2079
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1904
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UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000636 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
S/CRS 
INL FOR KEVIN BROWN, DIANNE GRAHAM AND MEAGAN MCBRIDE 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV HA PREL
SUBJECT: HAITI MONTHLY: POLITICAL, JUNE, 2009 
 
¶1. (U) This message is sensitive but unclassified -- please 
protect accordingly. 
 
. (U) Summary: This is a monthly report on various topics of 
interest which do not merit a full reporting cable. End 
summary. 
 
¶3. (SBU) DISCUSSIONS REPORTEDLY CONTINUE ON TAIWANESE 
ASSISTANCE TO TE HAITIAN PARLIAMENT.  Two months after 
Senate Pesident Kely Bastien led a delegation to Taiwan,discussions reportedly 
continue between Taiwan and the 
Haitian Parliament on Taiwan's possible construction of a 
complex of legislative buildings to house sessions of 
Parliament and offices for senators, deputies, and staff. 
Senator Bastien first announced the project upon his return 
from Taiwan in May, and unconfirmed rumors are circulating in 
Parliament that Taiwan has offered to spend as much as USD 50 
million ) a figure that we judge is almost certainly 
exaggerated ) on the buildings and that every senator and 
deputy will have his or her own office.  We have not seen an 
official announcement from Taiwan on the project.  This is 
the latest example of Taiwan's robust assistance program in 
Haiti that includes food donations, technical assistance 
educational exchanges and road building. 
 
¶4. (U) PUBLIC SPEAKS OUT ON LOCAL ISSUES.  At the request of 
Chamber of Deputies President Levaillant Louis Jeune, USAID 
local government implementing partner, LOKAL, and local 
leaders organized ''town hall'' meetings in early June on a 
draft decentralization law currently before Parliament.  The 
town hall, held in Louis Jeune's district of Desdunes, 
Artibonite Department was attended by hundreds of residents 
who highlighted the importance of employment, sanitation, 
potable water and improved infrastructure as critical to 
their communities' development.  The draft local government 
framework law (''Loi Cadre'') is currently before Parliament 
for review.  The law, if enacted, would define local 
governmental authority, including authorizing greater local 
government control of revenue generated locally and 
streamlining multiple layers of local government 
representation.  It will likely produce lively debate and 
take considerable time before passing. 
 
¶5. (U) HOSPITAL ON STRIKE.  Doctors and health workers at the 
Hospital of the State University of Haiti went on strike 
beginning the week of July 6 to protest sanitary and working 
conditions.  Since auxiliary workers have not been paid for 
months, garbage has accumulated, causing unsanitary 
conditions including, according to doctors quoted in the 
press, ''bad odors and flies'' and syringes and blood vials 
discarded in hallways.  This is the latest in a series of 
health sector strikes that began late last year over unpaid 
wages.  It is symptomatic of government mismanagement and 
under financing of the public sector.  Public school teachers 
have also frequently gone on strike to protest wage arrears. 
TIGHE