PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sep 30 (IPS) — Time is running out on a divided Haitian government as it faces a deadline on taking or leaving a tough austerity package in return for key international financial support.

Haitian officials theoretically have until the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual assembly in Washington in November to come to a decision on whether to fully adopt an IMF- and World Bank-backed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).

But the first step in this process will begin early next month, when the fourth IMF mission here in the last year ends its trip. The government is expected before Oct. 2 to sign a letter of intent agreeing to longer-term structural reforms, including a sweeping programme of privatisation.

According to a source close to the discussions that opened here on Sep. 19, the government will not have much room for manoeuvre. Like last year, about half of the projected 4.6 billion gourde budget (approx. 300 million u.s. dlrs) for the new fiscal year starting in October is slated to come from international sources.

‘’The international financial institutions would be willing to allow up to five thousand million gourdes if the government complies with the reform programme of the IMF. Otherwise we won’t have a cent from the international institutions,’’ said one official who spoke to IPS on condition of anonymity.

The negotiations with the IMF could lead to a credit of 100 million dollars shared between three international financial institutions for the new fiscal year.

Since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned from exile last Oct. 15 the government of Prime Minister Smarck Michel has slowly implemented IMF structural reforms agreed to in August 1994. They include lifting import controls, reforming customs and eliminating ceilings on interest rates.

The government agreed to an IMF stand-by accord (SBA) for some 31 million dollars earlier this year and is now in the process of negotiating a Policy Framework Paper (PFP) and Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) programme.

But the political temperature has risen with the intensification of the reforms and the planned privatisation of state-owned companies, starting with the flour mill, cement factory and electric company.

Demonstrations, including one ‘’against privatisation and foreign occupation’’ on Sept. 19, the one year anniversary of the U.S. military intervention, have become more frequent.

And splits are emerging within the Haitian government. President Aristide has distanced himself in recent weeks from the full structural adjustment programme, saying that the country is ‘’not for sale.’’

Still, the government has mounted a public relations campaign aimed at convincing the grassroots, both here in Haiti and in the diaspora, that the process of ‘’democratisation’’ includes the sale of state assets.

Prime Minister Smarck Michel this past weekend reiterated his position in front of more than 200 delegates of grassroots organizations and trade union leaders invited by the Unit of Democratising Public Institutions (UDEP).

The prime minister effectively declared that privatization of the state institutions was unavoidable. ‘’The Haitian State cannot continue to finance institutions showing a deficit’’, he said.

‘’Those institutions were nationalized in order to allow the illicit enrichment of those close to the Duvalierist regime,’’ he added.

The government campaign appears to be a little late and is considered by some as a weak attempt to calm popular organisations that are against the neo-liberal politic.

Many trade union leaders and popular organizations have rejected the denationalisation project which, they say, would made the economic situation even worse.

A member of the Federation of Union Members (FOS) demanded this weekend a declaration of principle from President Aristide in order to clear the confusion on the government’s position.

The risk of permanent public demonstrations and violence exist, particularly in light of some popular groups strong demands for a cessation of the negotiations between the government and the IMF.

In a press release this week, the Interim Public Security Force (IPSF) reminded Haitians of a controversial ordinance published in 1987 by the military government of Henri Namphy.

The law obliges organizers of all public demonstration to inform the police 48 hours in advance and asks for the organizers’ names, as well as the date, the hour, the duration, the distance to be covered and the objectives of the demonstration.

Recognizing the complexity of the situation, one governmental source told IPS that, ‘’The only real choice is to claim a moratorium on the implementation time frame of the denationalisation programme.’’ (END/IPS/IMC/DC/95)

Origin: Rome/HAITI/ ----

[c] 1995, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved

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