- Thread starter Gerritt_From_Canada
- Start date
Angry Haitians attack UN troops
From the news reports I have been reading, it sounds as if the UN is saying:
"Cholera did not come in with UN peacekeepers and the violence is because of the upcoming election."
If this is what they really think, given some of the data to the contrary, then I'm apt to question their sanity and/or competence. If, on the other hand, they are saying this in an attempt to not make the situation any worse, then I might be willing to understand.
Perhaps the UN would be better to say:
"We will fully investigate the source of the disease once the epidemic is under control. At this time, let us all do everything in our power to care for the sick and prevent further spread of the disease."
Of course, I am projecting my own worldview onto the situation. But if someone out and out denied the truth, I'd be inclined to riot, too.
"Cholera did not come in with UN peacekeepers and the violence is because of the upcoming election."
If this is what they really think, given some of the data to the contrary, then I'm apt to question their sanity and/or competence. If, on the other hand, they are saying this in an attempt to not make the situation any worse, then I might be willing to understand.
Perhaps the UN would be better to say:
"We will fully investigate the source of the disease once the epidemic is under control. At this time, let us all do everything in our power to care for the sick and prevent further spread of the disease."
Of course, I am projecting my own worldview onto the situation. But if someone out and out denied the truth, I'd be inclined to riot, too.
ok Haiti has as much chance of getting any sort of reparations from the UN as it has of getting the billons from France.
Along with the forty acres and a mule
I agree they are on dodgy ground with the first one but the violence? Maybe.
I think mountainannie pointed out that the violence 'coincidentally' started in 3 towns at the same time.
That took organisation and organisation in Haiti takes money.
The violence, so I hear, is intended to cause a postponement of the election.
Who would benefit from this?
There are a few possibilities.
"All Elements of Society Are Participating"- Impressions of Cap Haitien's
Movement Against the UN
“All Elements of Society Are Participating” – Impressions of Cap Haitien’s Movement Against the UN | Mediahacker
Photos posted here:
P1040420 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
CAP-HAITIEN ? The first barricade looked harmless enough. Foot-long rocks
piled next to each other in a line.
But as the bus driver slowed down, flying rocks landed in the street ?
thrown by youths crouching in the bushes up the hill.
?We don?t really have a country! The police don?t do anything!? a nun
sitting across from me complained after the bus driver negotiated, with a
little cash, our way past.
The man next to her said the country will always be mired in problems until
a leader like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro takes power.
We must have passed a dozen more barricades, most unmanned.
After Limbe, where cholera has killed at least 100 people, we came to the
biggest ?barikad? yet in the highway. Thick trees lay across the road and
hundreds of people, a few holding machetes, blocked the way.
The bus driver once again descended to negotiate, but didn?t appear to be
making any progress. Most passengers grabbed their belongings and got out.
I decided to go too. As I gathered my things, there was a debate among the
remaining passengers:
?He?s a blan (foreigner), he?s going to get hurt.?
?No no no, he speaks Creole, he?ll be fine.?
?They?re going to think he?s MINUSTAH. They?re not logical.?
MINUSTAH is the acronym for the UN peacekeeping mission. As I stepped off
the bus, people standing at the road called me over and urged me not to go.
It was the third day of so-called ?cholera riots? against foreign troops
blamed for introducing the disease into the country.
Someone said the protesters are violent ?chimere,? a word for political
gangs. I explained that it?s my job as a journalist to go talk to them.
Then two Haitian journalists who were on the bus pushed their way through
the crowd and wrapped their arms around me. Everyone agreed, finally, that
together with the two guys I could get through the barricades.
Elizer and Duval were coming back home to Cap Haitien. They were scared for
me, saying under no circumstances should I talk with protesters or take
photos. I reluctantly agreed to follow their instructions.
I wondered if perhaps the UN peacekeeping mission was right in saying these
were protests were organized by a politician or gang. ?Enemies of stability
and democracy,? MINUSTAH mission head Edmond Mulet called them. So far, I?d
only seen young men in the street.
But as we passed through each barricade, everyone ? young girls and rotund
market women mingling with demonstrators yelled out, ?MINUSTAH ou ye??
I yelled back, ?Non, mwen se yon journalis Amerikan.? The suspicious stares
softened into smiles and understanding looks. After passing the third
barricade that way, we started laughing.
One teenager who threw a rock at us as we approached on motorcycle said, ?pa
gen pwoblem? ? no problem ? after I held out my press badge.
As we arrived on the outskirts of Cap Haitien proper, the streets were
deserted except for people gathered around barricades. One was still
flaming. At another, dozens of men milled around a burnt out car.
?Press! Press!? I called out, and they beckoned me through the crowd, many
hands pushing me forward until I was through.
I was glad when an elderly man walking in the street stopped me. I finally
had a chance to do an interview, against the advice of my companions. I
whipped out my audio recorder. He was Amos Ordena, the local section?s
elected Kazek ? an official dispute mediator.
?The population has information that MINUSTAH introduced cholera,? he told
me. ?So many people have died. They?re obligated to hold fast, to
demonstrate, so that the authorities will take responsibility. They?re
asking MINUSTAH to leave the country.?
Asked if the protests are by a single group or the general population, he
said all elements of society are participating in ?the movement.? He said
MINUSTAH are not firing weapons in self-defense, in the air to disperse
protesters, but firing at people. He heard that at least one person had died
earlier in the day.
We finally turned off the main road and walked into an alleyway. Elizer?s
modest home was at the end (his lost his wife, children, and house in the
capital in the earthquake). One of his brothers, blind and handicapped, lay
on the floor beneath a television showing a soccer match. He smiled and
introduced himself when I walked in.
Elizer reminded me to use hand sanitizer. Then his frail mother, beaming at
us, served us fresh mais moule (corn) and papaya juice.
A neighbor of Elizer called up TV reporter Johnny Joseph, who came to meet
me and help me get to the house where I was planning to stay. Elizer refused
to accept any money for all his trouble.
Before leaving with Johnny, I spoke to Aristil Frito, a 24-year-old student
standing outside talking with his neighbors. ?The objective of the movement
is clear: they?re asking for the departure of MINUSTAH.?
He said irresponsibility by the leaders of the country had led to this
situation. In a more developed country, without so many young unemployed
people in the street, the protests might have been more peaceful, he said.
?But the real solution is for people to live in a climate of peace, in
dialogue. Today all Haitians should work together finish with hunger and
poverty,? he said. ?The best solution is the promotion of social dialogue.?
Johnny and I hopped on a motorcycle taxi, taking backstreets to bypass the
barricades. We passed a five-foot deep trench dug in a narrow dirt road.
Johnny said a MINUSTAH vehicle fell into the trench Wednesday and people
threw bottles at them. The troops opened fire, killing an innocent bystander
whose body was taken downtown, he said.
MINUSTAH blamed the death on local gangs.
At one junction, a young man in a purple shirt and black cap blocked our
path and stuck out a knife as his friends looked on. I realized my press
badge was tucked into my shirt. I pulled it out as Johnny talked the man
down.
?You need to have your badge out,? the young man told me, glaring. ?It?s a
principle.? That?s been the only instance of serious hostility directed at
me since I arrived in Cap Haitien.
So it?s bewildering to read the reporting of CNN?s Ivan Watson, who claimed
that armed rioters control the city. He told viewers while being filmed on
the back of a fast-moving motorcycle that it?s only way to move about the
city amidst ?violent protests.?
He doesn?t use that adjective to describe the actions of UN troops, accused
of killing at least three demonstrators since Monday.
?They shot many people. We took them to the hospital. We?re asking MINUSTAH
to leave the country,? a middle-aged man who declined to give his name told
me.
He stopped bicycling past an intersection barricaded with coffins to stop
and share his anger. ?We have bottles, we don?t have guns to shoot them, but
they?re shooting us. We have to defend our rights, MINUSTAH is a thing that
doesn?t work in this country.?
Another of Watson?s reports claimed that Christian missionaries were forced
to speed on a bus away from out-of-control-mobs, like in a Hollywood-style
chase scene.
High drama = high ratings.
As I walked towards the downtown?s central public square on Wednesday,
finally nearing the house, I saw several dozen people facing Haitian police
in full riot gear standing in their way.
They said they had no beef with foreigners generally ? only MINUSTAH.
Theodore Joel said they respected the Haitian police, because they?re
brothers and family ? though two police stations were reportedly set on fire
during the first day of protests.
?Those soldiers are tourists! The money that?s invested in MINUSTAH ? they
could invest that money in education. They could invest in constructing
hospitals, in cleaning up the country. but they?re paying those soldiers
instead. We don?t have guns like in 1803? but each time we put our heads
together, we?re marked in history.?
Thursday marked 203 years since the Battle of Verti?res, where Jean-Jacques
Dessalines led the final major assault on French armies to drive them off
Haitian soil. They renamed the city: from Cap Francois to Cap Haitien.
While many expected demonstrations to continue in commemoration of Haiti?s
independence struggle, the streets were quiet. No further confrontations
were reported. I walked around downtown Cap on my own, trying to find an
Internet connection to send out a radio story.
I?m asking everyone I meet here ? from local journalists, vendors, men at
the barricades, to a local magistrate ? if these protests were organized by
a gang or political group.
The unanimous answer is no ? people are fed up with UN peacekeepers and the
cholera outbreak is the straw that broke the camel?s back. The magistrate
said he understands and respects the people demonstrating, but he wishes the
barricades weren?t impeding the transportation of medical supplies to fight
cholera in his commune, where people are dying in the street.
As the head of MINUSTAH warned that ?every second lost? because of protests
means more suffering and death from cholera, the anti-UN demonstrations
continued in Port-au-Prince on Thursday.
CNN?s Watson led his report this way: ?Like cholera itself, Haiti?s protests
against the United Nations spread Thursday to the capital, Port-au-Prince,
as angry people took to the streets demanding the global body get out of
their country.?
Seems that for Watson, these protests are like a disease. It continues: ?a
planned protest began peacefully in the center of the city but turned
violent as it moved toward the presidential palace, with one woman overcome
by tear gas, witnesses said.?
Again, the protesters are the ones implicated in the violence. But
a timeline-report released by International Action Ties, an independent
human rights monitoring group, said the demonstrations were largely peaceful
after returning to Champs de Mars plaza.
UN troops and Haitian police fired at least thirty tear gas canisters into
the Faculty of Ethnologie and surrounding tent camps, the report said,
sending children and old women fleeing into the streets. Police ignored the
group?s pleas to stop firing.
Are protests against the UN meant to destabilize the country? Are Haitians
who?ve taken to the streets being used, like puppets, by powerful
politicians for their own ends? Are the protests violent?
The foreigners I?ve talked to say yes. A few American liberals living in
Haiti tell me they fear the protests are violent and meant to cause chaos,
echoing the statements of MINUSTAH and reporters like Watson. Some Haitians
in the professional middle class don?t want to participate.
But most Haitians I?ve spoken with say no. They say this is the inevitable
outcome when troops who operate in Haiti with seeming impunity may have
introduced a deadly, misery-multiplying disease into the country. It?s an
angry, popular movement ? protesting however they can, emotions running high
? against a five-year-old foreign occupation.
What do you think? We?ll see how this plays out in the next nine days, ahead
of the Nov. 28 election. Stay tuned.
You can also read Landon Yarrington?s account of how the protests began,
which the magistrate disputes. Video posted by Pierre Durohito De Venchy of
the first three days of protests:
YouTube - Haiti Cap-Haitien Minustha
Movement Against the UN
“All Elements of Society Are Participating” – Impressions of Cap Haitien’s Movement Against the UN | Mediahacker
Photos posted here:
P1040420 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
CAP-HAITIEN ? The first barricade looked harmless enough. Foot-long rocks
piled next to each other in a line.
But as the bus driver slowed down, flying rocks landed in the street ?
thrown by youths crouching in the bushes up the hill.
?We don?t really have a country! The police don?t do anything!? a nun
sitting across from me complained after the bus driver negotiated, with a
little cash, our way past.
The man next to her said the country will always be mired in problems until
a leader like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro takes power.
We must have passed a dozen more barricades, most unmanned.
After Limbe, where cholera has killed at least 100 people, we came to the
biggest ?barikad? yet in the highway. Thick trees lay across the road and
hundreds of people, a few holding machetes, blocked the way.
The bus driver once again descended to negotiate, but didn?t appear to be
making any progress. Most passengers grabbed their belongings and got out.
I decided to go too. As I gathered my things, there was a debate among the
remaining passengers:
?He?s a blan (foreigner), he?s going to get hurt.?
?No no no, he speaks Creole, he?ll be fine.?
?They?re going to think he?s MINUSTAH. They?re not logical.?
MINUSTAH is the acronym for the UN peacekeeping mission. As I stepped off
the bus, people standing at the road called me over and urged me not to go.
It was the third day of so-called ?cholera riots? against foreign troops
blamed for introducing the disease into the country.
Someone said the protesters are violent ?chimere,? a word for political
gangs. I explained that it?s my job as a journalist to go talk to them.
Then two Haitian journalists who were on the bus pushed their way through
the crowd and wrapped their arms around me. Everyone agreed, finally, that
together with the two guys I could get through the barricades.
Elizer and Duval were coming back home to Cap Haitien. They were scared for
me, saying under no circumstances should I talk with protesters or take
photos. I reluctantly agreed to follow their instructions.
I wondered if perhaps the UN peacekeeping mission was right in saying these
were protests were organized by a politician or gang. ?Enemies of stability
and democracy,? MINUSTAH mission head Edmond Mulet called them. So far, I?d
only seen young men in the street.
But as we passed through each barricade, everyone ? young girls and rotund
market women mingling with demonstrators yelled out, ?MINUSTAH ou ye??
I yelled back, ?Non, mwen se yon journalis Amerikan.? The suspicious stares
softened into smiles and understanding looks. After passing the third
barricade that way, we started laughing.
One teenager who threw a rock at us as we approached on motorcycle said, ?pa
gen pwoblem? ? no problem ? after I held out my press badge.
As we arrived on the outskirts of Cap Haitien proper, the streets were
deserted except for people gathered around barricades. One was still
flaming. At another, dozens of men milled around a burnt out car.
?Press! Press!? I called out, and they beckoned me through the crowd, many
hands pushing me forward until I was through.
I was glad when an elderly man walking in the street stopped me. I finally
had a chance to do an interview, against the advice of my companions. I
whipped out my audio recorder. He was Amos Ordena, the local section?s
elected Kazek ? an official dispute mediator.
?The population has information that MINUSTAH introduced cholera,? he told
me. ?So many people have died. They?re obligated to hold fast, to
demonstrate, so that the authorities will take responsibility. They?re
asking MINUSTAH to leave the country.?
Asked if the protests are by a single group or the general population, he
said all elements of society are participating in ?the movement.? He said
MINUSTAH are not firing weapons in self-defense, in the air to disperse
protesters, but firing at people. He heard that at least one person had died
earlier in the day.
We finally turned off the main road and walked into an alleyway. Elizer?s
modest home was at the end (his lost his wife, children, and house in the
capital in the earthquake). One of his brothers, blind and handicapped, lay
on the floor beneath a television showing a soccer match. He smiled and
introduced himself when I walked in.
Elizer reminded me to use hand sanitizer. Then his frail mother, beaming at
us, served us fresh mais moule (corn) and papaya juice.
A neighbor of Elizer called up TV reporter Johnny Joseph, who came to meet
me and help me get to the house where I was planning to stay. Elizer refused
to accept any money for all his trouble.
Before leaving with Johnny, I spoke to Aristil Frito, a 24-year-old student
standing outside talking with his neighbors. ?The objective of the movement
is clear: they?re asking for the departure of MINUSTAH.?
He said irresponsibility by the leaders of the country had led to this
situation. In a more developed country, without so many young unemployed
people in the street, the protests might have been more peaceful, he said.
?But the real solution is for people to live in a climate of peace, in
dialogue. Today all Haitians should work together finish with hunger and
poverty,? he said. ?The best solution is the promotion of social dialogue.?
Johnny and I hopped on a motorcycle taxi, taking backstreets to bypass the
barricades. We passed a five-foot deep trench dug in a narrow dirt road.
Johnny said a MINUSTAH vehicle fell into the trench Wednesday and people
threw bottles at them. The troops opened fire, killing an innocent bystander
whose body was taken downtown, he said.
MINUSTAH blamed the death on local gangs.
At one junction, a young man in a purple shirt and black cap blocked our
path and stuck out a knife as his friends looked on. I realized my press
badge was tucked into my shirt. I pulled it out as Johnny talked the man
down.
?You need to have your badge out,? the young man told me, glaring. ?It?s a
principle.? That?s been the only instance of serious hostility directed at
me since I arrived in Cap Haitien.
So it?s bewildering to read the reporting of CNN?s Ivan Watson, who claimed
that armed rioters control the city. He told viewers while being filmed on
the back of a fast-moving motorcycle that it?s only way to move about the
city amidst ?violent protests.?
He doesn?t use that adjective to describe the actions of UN troops, accused
of killing at least three demonstrators since Monday.
?They shot many people. We took them to the hospital. We?re asking MINUSTAH
to leave the country,? a middle-aged man who declined to give his name told
me.
He stopped bicycling past an intersection barricaded with coffins to stop
and share his anger. ?We have bottles, we don?t have guns to shoot them, but
they?re shooting us. We have to defend our rights, MINUSTAH is a thing that
doesn?t work in this country.?
Another of Watson?s reports claimed that Christian missionaries were forced
to speed on a bus away from out-of-control-mobs, like in a Hollywood-style
chase scene.
High drama = high ratings.
As I walked towards the downtown?s central public square on Wednesday,
finally nearing the house, I saw several dozen people facing Haitian police
in full riot gear standing in their way.
They said they had no beef with foreigners generally ? only MINUSTAH.
Theodore Joel said they respected the Haitian police, because they?re
brothers and family ? though two police stations were reportedly set on fire
during the first day of protests.
?Those soldiers are tourists! The money that?s invested in MINUSTAH ? they
could invest that money in education. They could invest in constructing
hospitals, in cleaning up the country. but they?re paying those soldiers
instead. We don?t have guns like in 1803? but each time we put our heads
together, we?re marked in history.?
Thursday marked 203 years since the Battle of Verti?res, where Jean-Jacques
Dessalines led the final major assault on French armies to drive them off
Haitian soil. They renamed the city: from Cap Francois to Cap Haitien.
While many expected demonstrations to continue in commemoration of Haiti?s
independence struggle, the streets were quiet. No further confrontations
were reported. I walked around downtown Cap on my own, trying to find an
Internet connection to send out a radio story.
I?m asking everyone I meet here ? from local journalists, vendors, men at
the barricades, to a local magistrate ? if these protests were organized by
a gang or political group.
The unanimous answer is no ? people are fed up with UN peacekeepers and the
cholera outbreak is the straw that broke the camel?s back. The magistrate
said he understands and respects the people demonstrating, but he wishes the
barricades weren?t impeding the transportation of medical supplies to fight
cholera in his commune, where people are dying in the street.
As the head of MINUSTAH warned that ?every second lost? because of protests
means more suffering and death from cholera, the anti-UN demonstrations
continued in Port-au-Prince on Thursday.
CNN?s Watson led his report this way: ?Like cholera itself, Haiti?s protests
against the United Nations spread Thursday to the capital, Port-au-Prince,
as angry people took to the streets demanding the global body get out of
their country.?
Seems that for Watson, these protests are like a disease. It continues: ?a
planned protest began peacefully in the center of the city but turned
violent as it moved toward the presidential palace, with one woman overcome
by tear gas, witnesses said.?
Again, the protesters are the ones implicated in the violence. But
a timeline-report released by International Action Ties, an independent
human rights monitoring group, said the demonstrations were largely peaceful
after returning to Champs de Mars plaza.
UN troops and Haitian police fired at least thirty tear gas canisters into
the Faculty of Ethnologie and surrounding tent camps, the report said,
sending children and old women fleeing into the streets. Police ignored the
group?s pleas to stop firing.
Are protests against the UN meant to destabilize the country? Are Haitians
who?ve taken to the streets being used, like puppets, by powerful
politicians for their own ends? Are the protests violent?
The foreigners I?ve talked to say yes. A few American liberals living in
Haiti tell me they fear the protests are violent and meant to cause chaos,
echoing the statements of MINUSTAH and reporters like Watson. Some Haitians
in the professional middle class don?t want to participate.
But most Haitians I?ve spoken with say no. They say this is the inevitable
outcome when troops who operate in Haiti with seeming impunity may have
introduced a deadly, misery-multiplying disease into the country. It?s an
angry, popular movement ? protesting however they can, emotions running high
? against a five-year-old foreign occupation.
What do you think? We?ll see how this plays out in the next nine days, ahead
of the Nov. 28 election. Stay tuned.
You can also read Landon Yarrington?s account of how the protests began,
which the magistrate disputes. Video posted by Pierre Durohito De Venchy of
the first three days of protests:
YouTube - Haiti Cap-Haitien Minustha
it seems they aren't asking to have the UN out of haiti
they only want one faction out
wouldn't it be in the best interests of the un and haiti to agree
and maybe replace that faction with others?
this would cut down alot of serious trouble that is gonna get worse if things don't change soon
they only want one faction out
wouldn't it be in the best interests of the un and haiti to agree
and maybe replace that faction with others?
this would cut down alot of serious trouble that is gonna get worse if things don't change soon
The MINUSTAH stopped being part of the solutions awhile back, and are now part of the problem, maybe even the major one. By leaving, order will be restored.
I am not a total UN fan by any means - BUT!!!!!!
Firstly, we have had a few days of mild manifestations - perfectly normal for Haiti especially before an election.
Order is in relatively good order in Haiti. Crime is low, it is a peaceful place, generally. Things have taken a step back this year but when you consider the situation a few years ago, things are still way better in terms of street violence.
Last year we worked on the streets at night and did not use security. Because we did not need to use security. To say that there is no order in Haiti is just plain wrong. To suggest that order needs to be restored is disingenuous at best.
Again, what we have now are some regular politically inspired manifestations that will go away after the elections. There is no civil war. The street are quiet in Cap Haitian once again. Port au Prince too. (A little bit of trouble on Champ Mars tonight so I just heard)
The admittedly bumbling bureaucracy that is the UN is the only reason I can do what I do. For all their sins they have established an environment where people can go about their daily business as usual.
Things are much tougher than they were for people living in tents but that is not the entirely the fault of the UN.
If the UN left town now then order would dissipate rapidly - I can guarantee this.
Among other things I am involved in employing people - people with families whose kids go to school and who eat well. People who have a future.
That would be lost if the UN went away right now.
Just for the sake of discussion -
There is no civil war in Haiti entirely because the UN are there.
No Haitian army.
The PNH are growing in number and are generally pretty good at what they do.
Not too corrupt from what I have seen and not too trigger happy either.
They are being trained up by the UN Police guys - retired police officers from the US and Canada etc.
The money?
Yup, that is not pretty, agreed.
Of course it doesn't matter to those who are already dead, dying and soon to die where the bacteria came from, but there's a big lesson to be learnt about the environmental impact of the humanitarian relief efforts and peacekeeping in Haiti.
UN worries its troops caused cholera in Haiti
It's like some of the medical errors in our healthcare system where 24,000 patients die from mistakes. A veil of secrecy covering the problems serves no one.
UN worries its troops caused cholera in Haiti
It's like some of the medical errors in our healthcare system where 24,000 patients die from mistakes. A veil of secrecy covering the problems serves no one.
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When Aristide came back into power in 1994 after the coup d'etat, he abolished the Haitian Army, which was the one source of power that could overthrow him. Instead he distributed arms to his supporters, called the chimeres, the poor, and disenfranchised primarily in Cite Soleil. The business of running cocaine through the country to the US became a big business, with few security measures at the airport. Port customs were completely corrupt.
Although Haitians are generally a peaceful people... seen in the fact that there are only one quarter of the murders there that there are here in the DR. and the fact that in most small towns in Haiti there is now, as there usually always was... except perhaps during the height of Papa Doc, a complete absence of the State... so that whatever order there is maintained by the community.... given all that... under Aristide the chimeres became a force for chaos. Rape became common for the first time in Haiti. Chimeres were given carte blanche to pillage the belongings... houses.. stalls.. etc.. of the classes above them.
(and I say all those with a great sadness since I was a great fan of Aristide when he first came to power .. and when I came here seven years ago, I still held the opinion that he was the saviour of his people .. but then I started actually talking to people on the ground and learning more about his reign of terror)
I spoke, for instance, with a Haitian who used to go to his church.. and after the service, he would walk the congregation through the middle class neighborhoods and point to the houses and say "you want to know why you are poor?.. Look there" He was defrocked by his Salesian order for "promoting class warfare" .. Many high officials from his administration are in jail in the US for narco trafficing. Changing Perspectives: Aristide´s gang of drug dealers
After Preval was elected in 2006.. it took the UN about a year to disarm the chimeres.. to get into Cite Soleil and restore order. That was the first glimpse of real peace that the country had seen in years.. people started going out to Champs de Mars at night, Universities resumed.. calm returned.
Preval, who was a former protege of Arisitide.. some would say even a puppet during his first term, was expected to support the chimeres, Lavalas.. Aristide's party, and bring him home. Instead, he simply steered a course towards calm. And his hand picked Election council has consistently banned Aristide's party. The government of Haiti will not renew his passport so he remains in South Africa, in a comfortable exile, supported by the people of South Africa.
Many will say that Preval has been an ineffective President but it should be remembered that he is the FIRST Haitian President who ever retired peacefully to his home in Haiti. All the others went into exile or were killed.
So while there has been an effort to train the Haitian police force, there is no Haitian army.
Many of the complaints about the UN have been about the fact that they have not done enough to maintain order since their mandate is not for police enforcement but general civil order. They have not prevented the kidnappings (which were mostly against wealthy Haitians from the diaspora) nor have they prevented the rapes .. which are now erupting again
Aristide, and his many supporters from the Left in the US (who have been really quite sadly misinformed) has always called for the removal of the UN troops.......
For more on Aristide's reign, I recommend NOTES from the Last Testament,
Fans of Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti | Facebook a very well written book by a journalist who worked for Reuters before and during the fall of JBA.
Batten down, Pedro!
Ms Doucet, although a journalist, is writing a commentary here
Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops | Isabeau Doucet | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops
The crisis in Haiti follows decades of economic exploitation and gifts with
chains attached ? no wonder its citizens are angry
Isabeau Doucet
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 November 2010 11.30 GMT
A UN peacekeeper at a refugee camp in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince, where
there has been an outbreak of cholera. Photograph: Andres Martinez
Casares/EPA
You may have heard about the civil unrest in Haiti over recent days, on the
heels of a hurricane that thwarted efforts to contain a cholera epidemic
that is now a national emergency. All this may fit the image often painted
of this much-maligned country: crushing poverty, endemic corruption, the
threat of violence so constant that international peacekeepers are required
to stop Haitians tearing each other apart.
Well, the poverty and the corruption may be true. But on Thursday,
demonstrations calling for the departure of the UN troops, known
as Minustah, will be held throughout Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, by
students, grassroots organisations, opposition groups excluded from the
elections, and ? most importantly ? citizens united by a common cause: that
Haiti's escalating nightmares must end now.
As deaths from the cholera outbreak soar past 1,000, fear is taking hold in
neighbourhoods that have been so deprived of any civic investment that
sanitation infrastructure often amounts to little more than open sewers
filled with rubbish and human excrement.
Despite the billions of dollars in international aid that flowed into this
country before the earthquake, these neighbourhoods can be found in any town
or city across Haiti. Ten months and more billions later, things are much
worse, and after suffering in relative silence, with elections just a
fortnight away, many here, it seems, have now had enough.
Chants such as "We refuse to vote while living under tarps", have been
replaced with "UN peacekeepers and cholera are brothers". The difference now
is that in some parts of the country the songs are accompanied by burned-out
cars, flaming tyres, broken glass and the coffins of cholera victims
blocking movement, forcing aid workers to suspend operations and leaving
people to die in the street.
Many accuse the Nepalese UN troops of dumping cholera-infected fecal matter
into the Artibonite river, and are now demanding the departure of all UN
forces. Officials claim the protests are a politically motivated attempt to
disrupt an election timetable they continue to cling to in the face of
disaster. If the vote is ultimately postponed, as it surely should be, the
international media will no doubt dismiss Haitians as unfit for democracy,
still in the grips of Duvalierest dictatorship or too deeply entrenched in
anarchy to organise and manifest their popular will.
It's a familiar pattern ? in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world's
attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs ? homosexuals,
hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian ? having brought the disease to the
US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now
ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while
Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world
must take its share of the blame.
The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water,
sanitation or medical infrastructure?
A decade ago, money was in place to address the country's failing water
system. In 2000, a $54m (?34m) loan from the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) should have given the Haitian government means to rehabilitate
its urban and rural water systems, but US foreign policy objectives of
destabilising the democratically elected Aristide government got in the
way. Sources have suggested the US government asked the IDB to block the
loan, as well as others totalling $146m for investment in health, education
and sanitation infrastructure, while electoral disputes were worked out, yet
the aid freeze continued after they were resolved. A UK study from 2002
still rated Haiti's water as the worst in the world.
An independent investigation should be carried out on the Minustah latrines,
but ultimately it could have been anyone ? conditions were ripe for cholera
because international policy towards Haiti hasn't changed in decades.
Economic exploitation, political intervention, NGO gifts with chains
attached, media misrepresentation, the same mistakes have been made over and
over again. Sadly, even an earthquake doesn't seem to have changed that.
It's little wonder Haitians are manifesting their anger in increasingly
heated protests.
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
Isabeau Doucet is a journalist based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She has been
writing about the conditions in camps and the reconstruction process for
Haiti Liberte, CSMonitor, and producing for Al Jazeera. She is a graduate
student in Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Ms Doucet, although a journalist, is writing a commentary here
Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops | Isabeau Doucet | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Why desperate Haitians want to kick out UN troops
The crisis in Haiti follows decades of economic exploitation and gifts with
chains attached ? no wonder its citizens are angry
Isabeau Doucet
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 November 2010 11.30 GMT
A UN peacekeeper at a refugee camp in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince, where
there has been an outbreak of cholera. Photograph: Andres Martinez
Casares/EPA
You may have heard about the civil unrest in Haiti over recent days, on the
heels of a hurricane that thwarted efforts to contain a cholera epidemic
that is now a national emergency. All this may fit the image often painted
of this much-maligned country: crushing poverty, endemic corruption, the
threat of violence so constant that international peacekeepers are required
to stop Haitians tearing each other apart.
Well, the poverty and the corruption may be true. But on Thursday,
demonstrations calling for the departure of the UN troops, known
as Minustah, will be held throughout Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, by
students, grassroots organisations, opposition groups excluded from the
elections, and ? most importantly ? citizens united by a common cause: that
Haiti's escalating nightmares must end now.
As deaths from the cholera outbreak soar past 1,000, fear is taking hold in
neighbourhoods that have been so deprived of any civic investment that
sanitation infrastructure often amounts to little more than open sewers
filled with rubbish and human excrement.
Despite the billions of dollars in international aid that flowed into this
country before the earthquake, these neighbourhoods can be found in any town
or city across Haiti. Ten months and more billions later, things are much
worse, and after suffering in relative silence, with elections just a
fortnight away, many here, it seems, have now had enough.
Chants such as "We refuse to vote while living under tarps", have been
replaced with "UN peacekeepers and cholera are brothers". The difference now
is that in some parts of the country the songs are accompanied by burned-out
cars, flaming tyres, broken glass and the coffins of cholera victims
blocking movement, forcing aid workers to suspend operations and leaving
people to die in the street.
Many accuse the Nepalese UN troops of dumping cholera-infected fecal matter
into the Artibonite river, and are now demanding the departure of all UN
forces. Officials claim the protests are a politically motivated attempt to
disrupt an election timetable they continue to cling to in the face of
disaster. If the vote is ultimately postponed, as it surely should be, the
international media will no doubt dismiss Haitians as unfit for democracy,
still in the grips of Duvalierest dictatorship or too deeply entrenched in
anarchy to organise and manifest their popular will.
It's a familiar pattern ? in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world's
attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs ? homosexuals,
hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian ? having brought the disease to the
US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now
ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while
Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world
must take its share of the blame.
The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water,
sanitation or medical infrastructure?
A decade ago, money was in place to address the country's failing water
system. In 2000, a $54m (?34m) loan from the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) should have given the Haitian government means to rehabilitate
its urban and rural water systems, but US foreign policy objectives of
destabilising the democratically elected Aristide government got in the
way. Sources have suggested the US government asked the IDB to block the
loan, as well as others totalling $146m for investment in health, education
and sanitation infrastructure, while electoral disputes were worked out, yet
the aid freeze continued after they were resolved. A UK study from 2002
still rated Haiti's water as the worst in the world.
An independent investigation should be carried out on the Minustah latrines,
but ultimately it could have been anyone ? conditions were ripe for cholera
because international policy towards Haiti hasn't changed in decades.
Economic exploitation, political intervention, NGO gifts with chains
attached, media misrepresentation, the same mistakes have been made over and
over again. Sadly, even an earthquake doesn't seem to have changed that.
It's little wonder Haitians are manifesting their anger in increasingly
heated protests.
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
Isabeau Doucet is a journalist based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She has been
writing about the conditions in camps and the reconstruction process for
Haiti Liberte, CSMonitor, and producing for Al Jazeera. She is a graduate
student in Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18, 2010
2:08 PM
CONTACT: Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
press@ccrjustice.org
Haiti Government Directed to Stop Evictions without Safe Shelter for
Earthquake Survivors
Inter-American Commission Issues Directive in Response to Rights Groups?
Request
WASHINGTON - November 18 - This week, the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) directed the Haitian State to stop evicting earthquake
survivors from displacement camps unless they are provided safe and adequate
shelter. The directive is in response to a formal request filed by human
rights advocates who testified in October about an epidemic of forced
evictions from the camps. The request was filed November 2, 2010 by
the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Institute for Justice &
Democracy in Haiti (IDJH), Bureau des Avocats
Internationaux, theInternational Human Rights Law Clinic at American
University?s Washington College of Law and the disaster law
center You.Me.We.
?We want the hundreds of thousands of Haitians threatened with forced
evictions to know that these evictions violate Haitian and International law
and that they are entitled to human rights protections,? said Nicole
Phillips, IDJH Staff Attorney and Assistant Director for Haiti Programs at
the University of San Francisco School of Law. ?We hope that the
International Community will also respect these recommendations and assure
that their actions do not directly or indirectly support unlawful
evictions.? Ms. Phillips said that the recommendations would be translated
into Haiti Creole and released at a Port-au-Prince press conference on
November 22, 2010.
The IACHR calls on the Haitian State to implement a moratorium on forced
evictions; to provide remedies to camp residents who are forcibly evicted;
to provide adequate alternative shelter to people forced out of a camp; to
train the police and other government agents on human rights standards that
prohibit forced evictions; to protect people inside the camps, particularly
women and children, from violence and other abuses that are often associated
with unlawful eviction; and to ensure that international organizations have
access to the camps.
?This is a significant victory for the people of Haiti," says Kathleen
Bergin, You.Me.We. Director, and law professor at South Texas College of
Law. "Forced evictions pose a grave risk of serious and irreparable harm
when displaced people have nowhere else to go, especially now in light of a
growing cholera epidemic. We fully expect the Government of Haiti to
respect its obligations under international law and comply with the
Commission's directive.?
?The directives are a modest but important step forward by the international
community,? said CCR legal director William Quigley. ?There are over a
million women, men and children who are homeless in Haiti right now, safe
housing is just one human rights protection that is critically needed right
now.?
Data from international monitoring agencies indicates that nearly 40,000
camp residents have been evicted, and another 144,000 face an on-going
threat of eviction. According to the group's filing, entire settlements
have been destroyed and the police have terrorized and beaten residents who
refuse to vacate their camps. In many cases, people in camps targeted for
eviction are being denied food, clean water and medical care.
Said Jennifer Goldsmith and Laura Karr of the International Human Rights Law
Clinic at American University Washington College of Law, ?The Commission?s
directive to the Haitian government to abide by international law provides
an important impetus to the government to increase its efforts to craft
long-term housing solutions that are consistent with international human
rights standards.?
?The Commission?s directive is a small but significant victory for Haitian
people in stopping forced evictions,? said BAI managing attorney Mario
Joseph. ?We hope that the Government of Haiti will adopt these comprehensive
recommendations immediately and issue a moratorium on forced evictions.?
###
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and
protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who
represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal
and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a
positive force for social change.
___________
November 18, 2010
2:08 PM
CONTACT: Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
press@ccrjustice.org
Haiti Government Directed to Stop Evictions without Safe Shelter for
Earthquake Survivors
Inter-American Commission Issues Directive in Response to Rights Groups?
Request
WASHINGTON - November 18 - This week, the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) directed the Haitian State to stop evicting earthquake
survivors from displacement camps unless they are provided safe and adequate
shelter. The directive is in response to a formal request filed by human
rights advocates who testified in October about an epidemic of forced
evictions from the camps. The request was filed November 2, 2010 by
the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Institute for Justice &
Democracy in Haiti (IDJH), Bureau des Avocats
Internationaux, theInternational Human Rights Law Clinic at American
University?s Washington College of Law and the disaster law
center You.Me.We.
?We want the hundreds of thousands of Haitians threatened with forced
evictions to know that these evictions violate Haitian and International law
and that they are entitled to human rights protections,? said Nicole
Phillips, IDJH Staff Attorney and Assistant Director for Haiti Programs at
the University of San Francisco School of Law. ?We hope that the
International Community will also respect these recommendations and assure
that their actions do not directly or indirectly support unlawful
evictions.? Ms. Phillips said that the recommendations would be translated
into Haiti Creole and released at a Port-au-Prince press conference on
November 22, 2010.
The IACHR calls on the Haitian State to implement a moratorium on forced
evictions; to provide remedies to camp residents who are forcibly evicted;
to provide adequate alternative shelter to people forced out of a camp; to
train the police and other government agents on human rights standards that
prohibit forced evictions; to protect people inside the camps, particularly
women and children, from violence and other abuses that are often associated
with unlawful eviction; and to ensure that international organizations have
access to the camps.
?This is a significant victory for the people of Haiti," says Kathleen
Bergin, You.Me.We. Director, and law professor at South Texas College of
Law. "Forced evictions pose a grave risk of serious and irreparable harm
when displaced people have nowhere else to go, especially now in light of a
growing cholera epidemic. We fully expect the Government of Haiti to
respect its obligations under international law and comply with the
Commission's directive.?
?The directives are a modest but important step forward by the international
community,? said CCR legal director William Quigley. ?There are over a
million women, men and children who are homeless in Haiti right now, safe
housing is just one human rights protection that is critically needed right
now.?
Data from international monitoring agencies indicates that nearly 40,000
camp residents have been evicted, and another 144,000 face an on-going
threat of eviction. According to the group's filing, entire settlements
have been destroyed and the police have terrorized and beaten residents who
refuse to vacate their camps. In many cases, people in camps targeted for
eviction are being denied food, clean water and medical care.
Said Jennifer Goldsmith and Laura Karr of the International Human Rights Law
Clinic at American University Washington College of Law, ?The Commission?s
directive to the Haitian government to abide by international law provides
an important impetus to the government to increase its efforts to craft
long-term housing solutions that are consistent with international human
rights standards.?
?The Commission?s directive is a small but significant victory for Haitian
people in stopping forced evictions,? said BAI managing attorney Mario
Joseph. ?We hope that the Government of Haiti will adopt these comprehensive
recommendations immediately and issue a moratorium on forced evictions.?
###
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and
protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who
represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal
and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a
positive force for social change.
___________
NOTE: Haitianalysis .. along with Institute for Justice and Democracy are US based groups which have been very vocal for the return of JB Aristide.
Brian Concannon, head of IJDH, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti was Aristide's attorney and has consistently called for his return.
One might consider them the "loyal opposition"...
Author Diebert, in his Notes from the Last Testament, implies that many of these groups have been supported through the US $9 million which were on deposit for the State of Haiti and were released to Arisitide when he went into exile in the US in 1994.... much of which was used for lobbying efforts inside the US Congress for his return.
(Deibert notes that while Aristide has a broad base in Haiti, he is very much more popular with the US Left)
suck quietly on grains of salt while reading
Selling Subordination as Stabilization – a new IAT report | International Action Ties
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2010/11/11/selling-subordination-as-stabilization
Brian Concannon, head of IJDH, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti was Aristide's attorney and has consistently called for his return.
One might consider them the "loyal opposition"...
Author Diebert, in his Notes from the Last Testament, implies that many of these groups have been supported through the US $9 million which were on deposit for the State of Haiti and were released to Arisitide when he went into exile in the US in 1994.... much of which was used for lobbying efforts inside the US Congress for his return.
(Deibert notes that while Aristide has a broad base in Haiti, he is very much more popular with the US Left)
suck quietly on grains of salt while reading
Selling Subordination as Stabilization – a new IAT report | International Action Ties
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2010/11/11/selling-subordination-as-stabilization