[Peace-discuss] On the ground in Haiti

[Morton K. Brussel]

Written by Canadians--

ZNet | Haiti

Bel Air
Betrayed by the UN

by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff; January 08, 2006
  Our second day in Haiti brought us to the slum of Bel Air, an area  
extremely different than other areas of Port au Prince. Not far from  
the glistening Palais Nationale, Bel Air is a poor neighborhood which  
has been hit hard since the February 2004 coup. It's own residents  
describe a campaign of political .cleansing" happening here. Bel Air  
has been the site of several massacres. On June 4 2005, CIVPOL  
(UN .Civilian. Police . now known as UNPOL) forces killed 14 people.  
On February 25 2005 14 people were killed by police as Brazilian UN  
soldiers looked on. Our brief visit today gave us a good idea of the  
impact that this cleansing has on people's daily lives.

UN Brazilian MINUSTA (Mission Nations Unies de Stabilization en  
Haiti) forces are omnipresent here, sitting at checkpoints behind  
roadblocks on the street and patrolling around. Directly adjacent to  
one of the checkpoints sits one of the taller buildings of the area -  
a building which has been occupied by MINUSTAH. Military camouflage  
netting is draped from the windows, and soldiers peer down at the  
street.

As we walk by and snap photos, one soldier comes running out of a  
building. He stops us and demands to see our press passes. American  
independent journalist Kevin Pina explains that this is the first  
time they have done this. Their efforts to control the press seem to  
have gone up a notch. As the soldiers write down our names it becomes  
clear that they don't want journalists roaming freely here. They  
invite us on a press tour in Fort National, another area of Port au  
Prince. Journalists who go on these tours are escorted around by  
armed guards, speak to the people the UN want them to speak to and  
see what they want them to see. We decline.

Perhaps the MINUSTA have good reason to be nervous for the world to  
see what they have been doing in places like Bel Air. Later in our  
visit, we have a chance to meet with Robert Montinard, the  
coordinator of a group called Zakat Enfant. He explains to us that  
his group has been a bridge between the UN and the community.  
Unfortunately it is a bridge that is quickly burning.

After a meeting between community leaders and UN officials to discuss  
human rights abuses in the community, Zakat Enfant signed a contract  
with the UN to help them implement their program - DDR: Disarmament,  
Demobilization, and Reinsertion. The deal was that youth in the  
neighborhood would give up their arms, and in return they would not  
be arrested or harassed (unless they do something else wrong) and the  
UN would provide badly needed social programs. Bel Air is a  
neighborhood where many children can go up to 3 days without food and  
do not have a chance to go to school or have access to health care.  
It sounds nice, except there's one problem . the UN isn't holding up  
their part of the deal.

Since the beginning of the program, dozens of people have given up  
their guns, but all they've gotten in return is a passcard with their  
picture on it, part of the UN's program of social control. Eloi, for  
example, is a local kid we met who traded in his gun under DDR. In  
return, all he got was his plastic UN photo id which will  
theoretically allow him to get through the UN checkpoints unbothered.

2 people who returned their arms have already been arrested and the  
promised social programs have yet to appear. As Robert says,  
"Christmas passed without even one candy for the kids".

Now Robert is between a rock and a hard place. On the one side UN  
officials are pushing him to continue with the program, on the other  
side, the increasingly frustrated community sees Robert and Zakat  
Enfant as traitors and are taking out their anger on them. Robert  
tells us he cannot walk around freely in his own community anymore.  
And what of his group, Zakat Enfant? The organization was supposed to  
help kids traumatized by war, and give them workshops in non- 
violence, but they have been sold-out by the UN and rendered useless.

Others are very clear about who's to blame for Haiti's current  
troubles. Samba Boukman, the local spokesperson for Lavalas, is frank  
with us. He blames the US, France, and Canada for the crisis in  
Haiti. He wonders why Canada is working against the Haitian people,  
but he has his theory - Canadian companies are doing business with  
the elite "civil society" group 184. It would seem that democracy in  
Haiti is not in their best interests. Canada is lending its complete  
support to MINUSTA, and MINUSTA has turned Bel Air into a veritable  
occupied zone. As Robert had explained before, "If we're in prison,  
if we're poor, if we're dying, it's France, USA and Canada. It's not  
the military's fault. They know nothing. They're just there following  
orders. It's the diplomats, the ambassadors, the politicians who are  
doing this".

We have arrived in Haiti in a chaotic and uncertain time. We were  
expecting to be here days before the presidential elections,  
scheduled for January 8th, but now postponed indefinitely for the  
fourth time. The elections are laughable, especially in the way they  
are being framed by the authorities. Today, the UN security council  
called an urgent session to debate the continuing postponements of  
Haiti's elections. The Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP), funded by  
USAID and CIDA, have put the blame on the UN and OAS, who have been  
quick to shift it back to them. All sides deny their complicity in  
this royal failure.

As the big shots play hot potato, the reaction on the streets is  
quite different. No one is surprised, although tensions are high.  
Haitians know quite well that they are being asked to participate in  
"selections" rather than elections. Samba Boukman says he is  
registered to vote anyway. He explains the Lavalas position is that  
true elections can not proceed unless the thousands of political  
prisoners being held in Haiti are released, the repression of people  
in poor neighborhoods comes to an end, disarmament is complete and  
political exiles are allowed to return to the country. All of these  
issues are completely lacking from the Canadian discourse. In fact,  
Paul Martin has denied there are any political prisoners in Haiti,  
and Canada just wants to push forth with any elections, come hell or  
high water. Although Boukman is not optimistic that his demands will  
be met, he sees elections as the only way the people can move forward  
peacefully.

As we leave Bel Air, we see graffiti on the side of a building that  
translates roughly as "expensive life + social exclusion = civil  
war". As Robert Montinard explains, the violence that has plagued Bel  
Air is violence that is borne of misery and poverty. It's a cycle  
that won't be broken by treachery and unkept promises from the UN,  
the US, France and Canada.

(Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff are two activists and independent  
journalists from Montreal. They will be filing written and audio  
reports from Haiti throughout the month of January, specifically  
focusing on the role of Canada in the country's current crisis. They  
can be reached at montrealtohaiti at resist.ca)
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