T&T: No abandonment after the abandonment

SCHOLARSHIPS will be given to Haitians at the University of the West Indies as part of a package of humanitarian aid to that country, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday.

According to Manning, Trinidad and Tobago and Caricom are now moving to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Haiti following the removal of that country's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Manning also said that Caricom held the view that Aristide was forced to leave his country against his will last Sunday morning.

Speaking at yesterday's weekly post Cabinet press conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain, Manning said:

"And the humanitarian question is the question that is uppermost in our minds. We have always supported the Haitian people and we do not propose to abandon them at this time."

Last night he told the Express that "food, clothing and other requirements" would be sent to Haiti.

No, we just abandoned the Haitians the last time. This is the irony of PM Manning's statement: T&T could have welcomed 200 Haitians in the 1990s but didn't want them. This time around, Caricom demonstrated that they were not willing to sacrifice their soldiers for Haiti; so they abandoned Haiti cloaking themselves in talk of constitutional process and rule of law. So it goes.