Moontown

Scam emails began appearing online within days of the January 12 earthquake, including some with logos for genuine charities. One for the British Red Cross was traced to a computer in Nigeria, the BBC reported.

Another group, calling itself the M E Foundation, emailed the BBC photos of Haiti projects it said it was involved with — but which turned out to be of disaster relief activities from the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

British charity SOS Children said the photos were cut and pasted from their website.

“The problem is it’s not just about exploiting a donor or a charity, really they’re exploiting the victims,” said its boss Andrew Cates.

“They’re taking money people want to give to the victims of these natural disasters and they’re stealing it.

“So I don’t feel that they’re robbing me, I feel that they’re taking from the mouths of children we’re trying to help and that is something which is very difficult not to get angry about,” he added.

Another scam email was sent by a charity calling itself Help the World — when the BBC called the mobile number it gave, its reporter was told it focused on repairing schools.

But the London address given turned out to be a jazz and blues bar, it said.

Political leaders and celebrities made passionate appeals for help and themselves donated to the relief effort quickly organized in the wake of a tragedy that has killed at least 217,000 people and left 1.2 million homeless.

The result was an unprecedented deluge of aid from the private sector, the United Nations and non-governmental groups, although part of that relief was not initially getting to those who most needed it.

Despite efforts to coordinate the massive aid effort, tens of thousands remain homeless, sheltering in makeshift camps across the capital as the rainy season approaches.

Additionally, AMR’s American Eagle will begin new service into Haiti from Puerto Rico starting March 12.

US carriers suspended operations in Haiti following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12.

Delta Air Lines, the world’s largest airline, canceled its flight from New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport to Port-au-Prince.

A Delta spokesman said on Tuesday in an email that the carrier was working with Haitian authorities to reinstate commercial service as quickly as possible, and hoped to be able to announce a date shortly. (Caribnet)

Reading a brief statement in the National Assembly during the budget debate on Monday, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said it is a well established fact that in 1936, the governments of the federative republic of Brazil, Great Britain and the Netherlands identified the tri-junction point at which the boundaries of British Guiana (now Guyana) Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) and Brazil meet.

“In spite of that conscious act, successive governments of Suriname have sought to illegally annex Guyana’s territory including by an unsuccessful armed invasion in 1969 that ended when the GDF expelled Surinamese military personnel from the area,” Minister Rodrigues Birkett said.

She describes the public statements currently being reported upon in the Surinamese press as confirmation that in the year 2000 when Suriname violated Guyana’s exclusive economic zone and forcibly removed the CGX rig from Guyana’s waters, the then Govt of Suriname also had formulated plans for the invasion of the New River Triangle.

“Such an act would have also been in breach of international law just as the tribunal that heard the maritime dispute between Guyana and Suriname ruled that the removal of the CGX rig by Suriname, constituted a threat of the use of force in breach of the UN convention on the laws of the sea, the UN charter and general international law,” Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said.

Given the confirmation of the stated hostile plans of Suriname in 2000, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said she met with the Surinamese Ambassador in Georgetown and registered Guyana’s concerns not only of the admitted invasion instruction but also the failure of the current government to ‘reassure Guyanese and the international community that the use or threat of the use of force is not an option that Suriname currently embraces.’ (Caribnet)

During the inauguration of the event, Figueras made reference to the development of tourism in Cuba, which in 1990 was 23rd among places preferred by travellers for their vacation.

Foreign tourists and some Cubans rest at the beach of Varadero. AFP PHOTO

He pointed out that the country could place itself in the fourth or fifth position on that list, if the US government allowed its citizens to travel to Cuba freely.

While addressing some 70 photographers, models and journalists from over 10 nations, the expert also highlighted the inclusion of Cuba among the 27 most important tourist destinations in the world for diving, according to the World Tourism Organization.

He added that, for this type of nautical activity, the island has 39 International Diving Centers with 200 instructors and guides, 66 vessels, 1,000 universally acknowledged immersion spots and 10 hyperbaric chambers to guarantee the safety of divers.

With regard to the most recent date on this sector, Figueras stated that over the last two decades the island received 29 millions tourists, half of that figure from Europe, eight million from Canada, 4,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 800,000 from the United States.

Among the nation’s tourist areas, he mentioned Havana, Varadero, Jardines del Rey, Camagüey, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, the south-central coast and the Canarreos (Isle of Youth and Cayo Largo), where 91 per cent of investment, income and amount of tourists is concentrated.

Likewise, the highlighted the country’s lodging capacity, where 107 four and five-star hotels operate, which represents 66 per cent of the national hotel capacity and that by the end of 2009 had 50,000 rooms. (CARIBNET)

PARAMARIBO, Suriname — Prosecutors here are seeking jail terms up to 10 years for four suspects in an alleged human trafficking case. While the main suspect should get 10 years, his co-defendants should receive sentences of 8 years for their role in a conspiracy to traffic several youngsters from Suriname to Trinidad and Tobago in 2009. Three other suspects were already slapped with prison terms ranging from two-and-a-half to three years, several weeks earlier.

The two men and two women have pleaded not guilty, claiming they were no part of the alleged criminal ring to exploit the youngsters. Three suspects gave evidence before a court here that they only acted on instructions of the main suspect.

Court documents reveal that under pretence of being recruited for an international culinary training in Trinidad and Tobago, a number of young people, including men and women, were lured to Port of Spain, after paying a certain amount of money to the suspects.

The victims were told that after completing the course the organization would take them to the Netherlands where they would be furnished with well-paying jobs in the hospitality industry.

Upon arrival in Trinidad, however, the victims were held captive and their passports seized, while they were forced to sleep and feed on the floor, and commit indecent and sexual acts. On several occasions they were forced to call their parents in Suriname to send money for the suspects, telling the parents they were doing fine.

Ultimately several parents became suspicious and threatened to go to the police, forcing the suspects to release the youngsters. Several victims reported the case to the authorities, and a criminal investigation followed.

A number of suspects were arrested here while four suspects fled from Trinidad to Curaçao. They were subsequently extradited to Suriname.

Defence lawyers will present final arguments at the next hearing.

During the past several years, Suriname authorities have stepped up anti-human trafficking efforts after US government reports cited human trafficking as a major human rights violation in the country. New legislation came into effect with maximum jail terms of 20 years, while police and immigration officers and other officials received training to detect cases of human trafficking.

A special Trafficking in Person Unit, led by a prosecutor, was established and a nationwide awareness campaign has been launched to inform the public and special interest groups. Since then the number of human trafficking cases before the courts has increased and a number of suspects have been sent to jail. (Caribnet)

The figure for reconstructing homes, schools, streets and other infrastructure in Haiti came in a report by the Washington-based pan-American development bank assessing the damage from the January 12 quake.

The report said the damage was estimated at between eight and 14 billion dollars, which factoring in Haiti’s population and economic output, would make it the most destructive natural disaster in modern history.

The IDB assessment came after a 7.0-magnitude-quake leveled parts of the Caribbean nation of nine million, already the poorest in the Americas before the disaster.

The quake killed at least 217,000 people and left the capital, Port-au-Prince largely in ruins. (Caribnet)