CHICAGO (CMC):

United States (US) civil rights activist, the Rev Jesse Jackson, was expected to leave yesterday for a three-day visit to Haiti to examine the humanitarian crisis emerging in the Caribbean country.

A statement yesterday from Jackson's Chicago-based organisation, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, said he would be accompanied by a delegation of ministers and concerned Haitians. The statement said they plan to meet with Haitian citizens, religious leaders, government officials and members of non-government groups.

Long-term solutions

"His goal is to bolster immediate humanitarian aid and devise long-term solutions to the problem of rising prices and curtailed supplies of staples, such as rice, that led to recent riots across Haiti," the statement said.

At the same time, Jackson lamented what he described as the "disparity" in how the US government treats Cuban and Haitian refugees. Jackson said while the US readily welcomes Cuban refugees, it neglects Haitians.

"When Haitian children's parents die at sea, they are sent back," he said. "We subsidise Cubans to come to the United States, but we ship Haitians out," he continued. "We should change our policy and measure human rights by one yardstick."

Jackson also charged that US immigration policy is "racist," giving preferential treatment to Cuban refugees, but not Haitian refugees who have "darker skin colour".

"The Cuban immigrants are called political refugees, and they are welcomed in the United States," he said. "The Haitian immigrants are called economic refugees, and they are sent back," he added. "There is a distinction without a difference." Thousands of Haitians have been fleeing to the US since 1991 to escape wide-scale violence and economic hardship.

Ideas presented

Last week, almost a dozen Haitians drowned off the coast of the Bahamas as they sought to escape the rising food crisis in the French-speaking Caribbean country. Jackson's visit comes as a high-powered Organisation of American States (OAS) delegation wrapped up a visit to Haiti on Friday.

The delegation, which was headed by Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, presented proposals and offered ideas on the kind of assistance needed to tackle the food crisis the Caribbean nation faces.

An OAS statement Friday said the delegation met with President Réne Preval and other political leaders, as well as community and business leaders, to offer support as representatives of the Group of Friends of Haiti.