BY ANGEL LARISCY
MIAMI - Hundreds of people died in the latest sinking of a ferry just off the coast of Haiti on September 8. The ferry, the Pride of La Gonave, was making a 12-mile journey from the island of La Gonave to the port of Montrouis, 50 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince. The ferry boat sinking was the sixth such disaster there in the five years.

Survivors, estimated at between 30 and 60 people, recounted how after making the trip from La Gonave to Montrouis, people began to prepare to disembark the ferry. Many of them moved to one side of the boat to get in rowboats that would take them to shore, since there is no dock. It was then that the ferry became unstable and overturned in deep water. Only those on the very top level of the boat were able to swim to safety, while others were trapped inside.

The 60-foot ferry was certified to carry 80 passengers. The owner said he had 260 aboard, but survivors say closer to 700 people were making the voyage. The owner of the boat, Edner Dorival, a businessman from Miami, remarked, "I can't blame anyone except the people themselves."

In Haiti ferries are a convenient and cheap method of transportation. On the island of La Gonave, residents rely on sea transport to get most of their food and fuel. In February 1993, a ferry called The Neptune went down off Haiti's southern coast while carrying 1,000 passengers, 700 of whom died. There is no agency that regulates Haiti's coastal transportation service. Survivors said the boat had no life preservers and some of its doors had been bolted shut, making it impossible for people to escape.

Officials downplay number of deaths
When the disaster first occurred, the U.S. Coast Guard reported they sent ships and helicopters to the scene but left soon after it became clear there were few people to be rescued and there was confusion about the actual death toll.

A U.S. embassy official in Port-au-Prince told the Miami Herald, "First we heard from the Haitian Coast Guard and survivors that there were hundreds of dead. Now our latest information is that the figures may be grossly exaggerated."

Haitian government officials claimed that 400 people swam to safety immediately after the accident. Later they downplayed the reports of overcrowding on the La Gonave. Claiming a government inspector counted 276 people boarding the vessel, the director of Haiti's National Maritime Service, Venel Pierre, said that a recent inspection showed the ship was in "perfect condition to carry 250 to 300 passengers."

Over the next few days, as it became clear that indeed hundreds were dead, U.S. and Haitian officials did very little to expedite the recovery of people trapped inside the ferry. Divers from the Haitian Coast Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, and other members of the United Nations occupying force in the country have been sharply criticized for the slow pace of their recovery efforts.

As of September 14, only 130 corpses had been recovered. At that time estimates were that over a hundred more were still lodged inside the sunken ferry.

On September 16 United States Naval officials announced they would end the recovery of bodies and declared the official death toll to be 133. Survivors continue to assert that more than 500 were killed and still trapped in the boat. The U.S. Navy said raising the ferry is not an option.

Many family members of the dead waited on the beaches for days after the disaster for the bodies to be brought to shore. Haitian president Rene Preval did not visit the scene until the next day. At that time he didn't address or meet with family members and others waiting for bodies to be found. Instead, he gave interviews to the international press. Preval, commenting that it was impossible to deal with such questions in the 15 months he has been in office, said, "It's a catastrophe, and unfortunately it's the state of the country. Today it's this one, and tomorrow it'll be another one and we'll be left asking the same questions."

Residents demand a dock be built
Frustrated by the slowness of the recovery of the bodies and the lack of response from government officials, hundreds protested in the days following the disaster, including blocking Haiti's main highway on September 10 and building barricades of burning tires. "Now's the time!" protesters yelled. "Now's the time to raise the boat! Get the bodies!"

This most recent accident has renewed demands for docks to be constructed to allow ferries to tie up and unload passengers at sites around the island.

"Everywhere is an accident waiting to happen," said photo journalist Tony Savino. Savino traveled to Haiti the day after the ferry sinking on assignment for Time magazine. Savino noted that all methods of transportation on the island, as well as the roads, are underdeveloped and in disrepair.

On his most recent trip to Haiti, Savino said that Haitians remarked how government officials would not spend money to develop the island, instead paying off the banks. "One Haitian told me, `We don't have a government, we have boot lickers,'" said Savino.

Government officials complain of a lack of money and resources to provide docks, regulate the sea ways and improve safety. On August 20 the Haitian government and the U.S. Agency for International Development signed an accord for a loan of about $12 million.

"This accord will allow us to finance the external debt of the government to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other financial institutions," said Planning Minister Eric Deryce on the occasion. "Thus we are going to pay the interest on the debts which have come due for fiscal year 1996-1997, and also those which were not paid in 1996 - 1997. That is the main goal of those funds."

Haitians continue to face an economic crisis with their currency, the gourd, falling in value to the dollar at the same time most items are imported.

Four days after the sinking President Preval visited the scene to report that the recovered bodies would not be turned over to families but placed in a mass grave since decomposition would not allow for identification.

He was greeted with jeers and some family members of the dead broke through security barriers and ran after the president until he was rescued by his security guards and carried on to a boat. "Throw him in the water," yelled the husband of a woman drowned in the boat sinking.

In Miami, the Socialist Workers candidate for City Commission District 5, Rollande Girard remarked, "This reinforces the need to demand that United States and United Nations troops withdraw from Haiti."

U.S. troops invaded Haiti in October 1994 under the guise of returning the ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. "My campaign has also been raising the demand to cancel the Third World debt," Girard noted. "This is an example of how the working people of Haiti are paying for this debt with their lives."  
 
 
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