[Haiti] Church in Haiti keeps hope alive amid violence and poverty

From Ekklesia

Haiti is hampered by widespread escalating violence and political instability, Bishop Jean Zache Duracin of the Episcopal Church in Haiti told an Anglican gathering in Iowa, USA, last week.

The past three years have been filled with murders and kidnappings and the "population is terrorized by armed gangs," Bishop Duracin said. Much of the capital of Port au-Prince is under the control of armed gangs, he declared.

More than 1,600 people were murdered between March 2004 and November 2005 according to one source, he said. There is an average of 40 kidnappings a week and people possess more than 170,000 illegal small arms.

According to reports, the Haitian police registered at least 27 murders and 43 kidnappings in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area between 12 December 2005 and 3 January 2006 alone.

In the midst of this recurring and worsening violence, Duracin said, there has been no socio-economic progress and there is "endemic" weakness in the country's infrastructure. The unemployment rate is 80 percent. More than 55 percent of the population is illiterate.

"We don't have enough schools," he said, but the church tries to fill that gap and has some of the best schools in the country.

About 42 percent of children younger than five years are malnourished, according to Duracin. "And the health-care system in very bad

Still Haiti has "great potential," Bishop Duracin told the overseas council of the Episcopal Church USA..

"Haiti remains a country full of hope because it has eight million able bodies willing to work, eight million consumers - the largest consumer market in the Caribbean, a vibrant youth population, a hospitable location, some beautiful beaches, a rich history and culture, a warm climate," he said.

It needs political stability, forgiveness of its external debt and massive investment in its infrastructure and in job creation. It also needs a "massive redistribution of wealth and services," Duracin said. One percent of the population controls half of the nation's wealth.

Haiti's often-delayed elections are crucial to the country's future, he added. Haiti's United States-backed interim government recently announced a fourth delay in elections scheduled for November 2005 and the United Nations urged the government to begin the first round of the elections by 7 February 2006.

Much of the current violence can be traced to the coup in 2004 that forced the country's twice democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from office.

"Peace and stability depend on the outcome of those elections," Bishop Duracin explained.

"Since 2004, our church has been victimized," he told the council. He reported that priests had been shot, had their vehicles stolen and were the victims of other crimes.

Edward Emmanuel Corneille, director of the Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology in Les Cayes, Haiti, was shot and killed in Petion-Ville, just outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, on 5 January 2006.

The Episcopal Church of Haiti is the largest diocese of the Episcopal Church. It has more than 100,000 baptized members in 109 congregations.

The diocese is also working ecumenically. The new Desmond Tutu Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, due to open on 12 February 2006, will be a place where various denominations can gather "to see if the churches together can do something to make peace among the populations of Haiti," Bishop Jean Zache Duracin said.