Last week, the
United Nations peacekeeping mission fired tear gas and rubber bullets
into a crowded refugee camp,
leaving at least six
hospitalized and others suffering respiratory
problems. Citizen organizations plan
demonstrations for today, the sixth
anniversary of the U.N. armed presence in Haiti. The march
is part of growing protests against the military forces which have
amassed in Haiti since the
January 12 earthquake and the lack of attention to displaced people's
needs.
On May 23, students at
the School of Ethnology of the State University of Haiti held another in a series of protests on the central Champs de Mars Boulevard. The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, by its French acronym) and Haitian police went into the school, firing tears gas and rubber bullets while the students threw rocks.
Then at about 3:00, MINUSTAH troops began firing in the internally displaced people's camp in the downtown parks around Champs de Mars, where many thousands of people are crowded into tight
quarters. The
firing continued
for hours, according to residents interviewed for this article and other reports. Camp residents reported that babies
and small children choked on the gas and passed out, as did at least two
women with preexisting heart conditions. Three doctors with Partners in
Health at the University Hospital reported treating at least six victims of rubber bullet rounds.
Two children were wounded in the face, one of them requiring about ten
stitches, according to one of the doctors.[1]
When the attack began, camp residents, including many
elderly and infirm people, andbabies and small childrenfled. "I saw one woman running with
her twins that are three or four months old," said Eramithe Delva. "She had one in
each arm,
and with every step as she ran they banged against her chest. Is this what they want
for us?" Many
spent the night in the streets, for fear of returning to the camp.
Residents interviewed said they had no idea why MINUSTAH fired on them.
MINUSTAH has since issued an
apology for entering in the School of Ethnology. The
statement did not mention the attack on the camp.
Demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and other areas of the country have become a
daily occurrence. Most of them protest the government's handling of
the disaster and
the heavy political and military presence of foreign powers since
January 12. Within
days after the earthquake, 12,600 U.N.
troops, 20,000 U.S. troops, 2,000
Canadians, 600 French, and more from other
countries amassed there.
Rural organizer Selina Pierre-Louis said, "We
don't know what these soldiers came to do. They have batons and guns in
their hands. They zoom up and down in their huge vehicles all day. We're
not at war and we're not armed. We need technical support, we need
reconstruction,
we need psychological help. They're not doing anything to help the rebuilding. They're just adding to our trauma."
Troop levels overall have
abated since the first months after the
earthquake. The most recent figures on
MINUSTAH's web site show that just over
9,000 MINUSTAH forces remain there. The mission's cost for the
current fiscal year is $611.75 million.[2]
The Security Council-approved MINUSTAH was
established on June 1, 2004 with a triple mandate of ensuring a
"secure and stable environment," promoting a
constitutional political process, and strengthening human rights. Francky Etienne Remy, who
owns a small craft shop in Jacmel, said,
"The Haitian police are totally ineffectual so
MINUSTAH fills a vacuum."
Yet MINUSTAH troops have repeatedly been accused of killings, arbitrary arrests, and human rights violations throughout the duration of the
mission. (See, for example, the reports of Harvard
Law Student Advocates for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.) These charges include an attack by MINUSTAH forces in Cite Soleil on April 15, 2005, killing several[3]; an attack on July 6, 2005, resulting in an uncertain
number of deaths[4]; the killing of at least five,
and possibly many more, people in Cite Soleil in December 22, 2006[5]; and the shooting death of a young man at the funeral of a
prominent priest on July 14, 2009[6].
In February, 2008, the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight
Services released its findings from an investigation into accusations against Sri Lankan MINUSTAH troops. It found that acts of sexual exploitation and
abuse of children were "frequent" and occurred "at virtually every
location where the contingent personnel were deployed."[7]
MINUSTAH forces have also been shot at and
killed. MINUSTAH
claims it has suffered 152 troop fatalities.[8]
Beyond charges of unnecessary force, others like the student, small farmer,
worker, and popular organizations who are organizing today's march, oppose MINUSTAH because they claim the mission undermines Haitian
sovereignty. The May 26 press statement for the
march, signed by ten organizations, states, "After the January 12 catastrophe, the
occupation has been strengthened with other foreign soldiers and MINUSTAH, on the
pretext that they are helping us... [T]hey did nothing to help prevent more than 300,000 people
from dying under rubble... Now on the sixth anniversary of the occupation, we are
taking to the streets of Port-au-Prince to get the country out from under the rubble of MINUSTAH."[9]
Community organizer Nixon Boumba with the
grassroots organization Democratic Popular Movement said in an
interview, "We're asking for Haitians to be
the true actors in their future, and for an end to the occupation to
allow the country to have dignity and autonomy for the development and
transformation of the country. We need schools, we need people in the camps
attended to. After
January 12 there have been a lot of
opportunities to resolve the problems in the country. Instead, Canada, France, the U.S., Brazil, and others have acted like
imperialists, strengthening their power and trying to undermine our chance
to change the quality of our country. The U.S. wants Haiti to serve as a military base for the Caribbean, to control
resistance from Latin America. And they want to prevent a massive emigration toward the U.S. and Canada."