It’s not often that Haiti comes up in the news, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to draw attention to the “aid” it has already been receiving up until this point. Following the 2004 coup in Haiti, the UN established a mission in Haiti called MINUSTAH. The US component of MINUSTAH is the Department of State’s CIVPOL program, which sends contractors over to train up a national police force. If this sounds kind of similar to what’s being done in Afghanistan, it’s probably because one of the same companies, DynCorp, was given the contract to do it. Unfortunately, the results have been very similar as well:
– Tuesday, 26 October, Fort National, Port-au-Prince. Individuals reported to be members of the police burst into a house and kill at least seven people;
– Wednesday, 27 October, Carrefour Péan, Port-au-Prince. Four young men are killed in the street in broad daylight by individuals wearing black uniforms and balaclavas. Witnesses identify their vehicles as police patrol cars.
– Martissant, October. A 13-year-old street child is arrested near the National Theatre by the naval police. At the police station, he is questioned about the hiding places being used by the “chimères” (armed groups said to be supporters of former President Aristide) are hiding and brutally beaten by police while handcuffed and blindfolded.
– Martissant, 20 October. A man is arrested in front of witnesses by individuals wearing black uniforms and balaclavas. They put a plastic bag over his head before brutally beating him. He is being detained at a police station in the capital.
These abuses continued all the way through 2008, when they were awarded with a contract to expand their mission. They proceeded to do so right over some nearby homes:
According to Cite Soleil mayor Charles Joseph and a DynCorp foreman at the site, funding for the base expansion is provided by the State Department’s U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a very unorthodox use of development aid.
Lawyer Evel Fanfan, the president of the Association of University Graduates Motivatd For A Haiti With Rights (AUMOHD), says that about 155 buildings would be razed if the base expansion goes forward.
“They started working without saying a word to the people living there,” Fanfan said. “The authorities have not told them what is being done, if they will be relocated, how much they will be compensated or even if they will be compensated.”
Most of the buildings targetted are homes, but one is a church.
“They have begun to build a wall around the area to be razed,” explained Eddy Michel, 37, an assistant to Pastor Isaac Lebon who heads the Christian Church of the Apostle’s Foundation, which serves some 300 parishioners. “They have already built a 10-foot high L-shaped wall, which cuts us off from the road. Once they complete the rest of the wall, the remaining ‘L’, we will be completely enclosed and we fear the destruction will begin.”
I’m still waiting to see what happens with the new aid being sent after the earthquake, but President Obama has named a new USAID administrator who appears to be handling things well.
Update:
No contractors for the relief effort at least:
The deployed soldiers were coming from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and more forces from the 3,500-strong 2nd brigade would be heading out on Friday.
“Things are in motion,” Tallman added. “We’re getting folks there as fast as we can to provide humanitarian assistance.”
It was still unclear if the entire brigade would be deployed, he said.
The military had ordered the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to Haiti along with a hospital ship, destroyers, several Coast Guard cutters and transport planes as part of a major operation to bolster relief efforts after Tuesday’s massive quake.