News
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Haiti Report for January 12, 2006 – Part 1 |
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The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haiti and international media prepared by Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY. It does not reflect the opinions of any individual or organization. This service is intended to create a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation. To make a donation to support this service: Konbit Pou Ayiti, 7 Wall Street, Gloucester, MA, 01930. IN THIS REPORT: Spike in Kidnappings for Profit: His release came as abductions surged in the capital, a month before national elections scheduled for Jan. 8. “We registered 30 cases of kidnappings for the whole of November and 30 cases just for the first week of December,” police spokesman Frantz Lerebours told reporters Wednesday. Observers believe the real figures could be up to 10 times higher, since many families prefer not to report cases and instead negotiate directly with kidnappers. Last week, 14 schoolchildren, a U.S. missionary and a Haitian journalist were among about two dozen people who were taken hostage and then released for ransom in the area. The freshly released Cantave said gang members beat him and at one point threatened to kill him, criticizing the Lavalas party leadership’s choice for the presidential elections. (AP, 12/8) Police and an 8,860-strong U.N. peacekeeping force have pledged to restore security. The peacekeepers have been trying for months to penetrate the vast Cite Soleil slum, where gangs stash many of their hostages. A Canadian peacekeeper was shot dead near Cite Soleil in an apparent kidnap attempt five days before Christmas. Eight to 10 people are abducted every day in this Caribbean nation of 8 million, more than any other country in the Americas, said Judy Orihuela, an FBI spokeswoman in Miami. That surpasses even Colombia, which for years has had the world’s highest kidnapping rate. Since April, 28 U.S. citizens have been reported kidnapped in Haiti, Orihuela said. Michael Lucius, chief of the Haitian Judiciary Police, said he doubts politics are involved. “This is purely criminal activity. Gangs are raising cash to spend during the holiday season,” he said. (AP, 12/26) The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere has a booming fast-cash industry: kidnapping. Ralph Charles knows this firsthand. In November he was held for two days in the slum of Cité Soleil, a square mile crammed with 200,000 people and unmanageable crime outside Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. Charles, the owner of a soccer team, says his kidnappers never bothered with disguise. “I’m a big guy with a bad temper, but I kept my cool. They had guns bigger than me. They have lots of them,” he says. The ring has hundreds of collaborators, including teenagers, and they get what they want. Charles shelled out several thousand dollars for freedom, but his was one of many payoffs. On the average day, 10 kidnappings occur; 20 on Christmas weekend alone. Security experts estimate that the criminals net $100,000 a day. Everyone looks to the well-equipped 9,006-member United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, led by Brazilian troops, as the guarantor of security. But the U.N. force, which was deployed in June 2004, is assigned to defend Haiti’s constitution, not to take up arms against criminals. “When they leave, I will leave too,” says Jean-Buteau Sévère, 34, who returned to his dicey Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Bel Air only after the Brazilians set up an outpost there. The gangs and private armies are likely to collude in controlling the streets—and thus the votes—in the walkup to the election. And unless that situation is eliminated, few experts believe any kind of humanitarian aid can be effectively dispensed, dooming the incoming government, regardless of who leads it. (TIME, 1/1) Two members of the Organization of American States (OAS) and one of their spouses kidnapped in Haiti have been freed, the group has said. The employees and a Haitian woman were seized in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Thursday afternoon. All three had been treated well, the OAS said in a statement on its website. The officials were working towards presidential elections, scheduled for 8 January, which have been postponed for a fourth time. The two OAS employees – a Guatemalan and a Peruvian – and the wife of one of them were abducted while driving on a road near the international airport on Thursday. They were a short distance away from the Cite Soleil neighbourhood, where several kidnappings and shootings have taken place. On Thursday, police said 20 people were arrested on suspicion of participating in kidnappings, and at least two hostages were freed in the operation. (BBC News, 1/1) Alain Maximilien, the ‘’Haitian Hillbilly’’ radio disc jockey who was kidnapped last week in Port-au-Prince, was released Sunday evening after being held hostage in a slum for four days. His friend, the American documentarian Frank Eaton, who had been kidnapped with him, was released Saturday afternoon. The men were snatched together Wednesday at 8 p.m. outside Eaton’s apartment in Petionville, a relatively upscale neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Both were forced to go to what Maximilien described as a ‘’lair’’ in the lawless Port-au-Prince slum of Cité Soleil, alternately bullied with guns and cajoled for the next few days — as family members, friends and U.S. government agencies tried to negotiate their release. The kidnappers first demanded a $2 million ransom for each man, a sum Maximilien’s father, Leslie Maximilien, described as a ‘’crazy amount.’’ The Associated Press reported the pair were freed following four separate ransom payments totaling more than $40,000 — along with 10 pairs of sneakers and a radio. What made the cases of Maximilien, 33, and Eaton, 30, especially worrisome was that they were sequestered for longer than 48 hours. Maximilien, 33, a Haitian American, and Eaton, 30, from Winston-Salem, N.C., were working together on a video for a Haitian musician and on their way home when they were abducted. Maximilien said his green Chevy truck was surrounded by armed men who took the wheel and drove them to Cité Soleil. When asked why he thought he was targeted, Maximilien said, ``I would pretty much guarantee you it’s because I’m white in a big gigantic car.’’ Still, for all the psychological terror endured, Maximilien said after seeing the captors’ living conditions, he understood their motivation. Maximilien said he is not worried about being kidnapped again. ‘’I’m basically like a fish that got thrown back,’’ he said. ``They’re not going to hook me again. That’s their policy.’’ (Miami Herald, 1/2) Haiti’s police chief blames Colombian drug dealers and political groups for a wave of pre-election kidnappings that has turned the Haitian capital into one of the region’s most lawless cities. Police chief Mario Andresol said the violence was aimed at destabilizing the government as the troubled Caribbean country struggles to hold its first election since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in an armed revolt in February 2004. “It is clear that the increase in violence and kidnappings is in part politically motivated,” Andresol told Reuters in an interview. He promised to arrest the masterminds but did not identify any suspects. At the same time, he said Colombian drug traffickers had taken refuge in Cite Soleil, Haiti’s largest and most dangerous slum and the place where most kidnapping victims appear to be taken and held until their relatives pay out money. “Since it has become more difficult to conduct their drug activities, Colombian traffickers have turned to the kidnapping activity in Cite Soleil where they took refuge,” Andresol said, accusing the Colombians of running the shacks where kidnapping victims are held. The Haitian police do not give out any official statistics on the number of kidnappings. But a police inspector-general said on condition he not be identified that around 1,900 people had been held for ransom in the last 10 months. The police official said dozens of officers from Haiti’s notoriously corrupt police force were involved. Police chief Andresol said his force, which now numbers 6,000 police, did not have the weapons, training or expertise needed to go after gangs in no-go zones like Cite Soleil. “You cannot ask the police to intervene in situations which require military action,” he said. “They could be massacred.” (Reuters, 1/6) Rev. Jean-Juste Diagnosed with Leukemia and Still in Prison: A prominent priest and vocal supporter of deposed President Jean-Bertand Aristide, the Rev. Jean-Juste hasn’t been shy about criticizing the transitional government in sermons and on radio shows. Whatever his politics, though, he should have the right to express his opinions in a country that is trying to build a democracy. Yet he is only one of many government critics languishing in Haitian jails, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune being another. Meanwhile, notorious thugs and violent gangs run free. Last year the Rev. Jean-Juste spent seven weeks in jail accused of inciting violence, only to be released after a judge found that the charges were baseless. Now he has been jailed for more than five months in connection with a murder in Haiti committed while he was visiting Miami. Amnesty International has designated him a prisoner of conscience, ``detained solely because he has peacefully exercised his right to freedom of expression.’’ Early this month a U.S. doctor examined Rev. Jean-Juste and said he may have leukemia. Haitian authorities said their doctors found no cancer. Last week, a prominent Harvard Medical School professor visited the Rev. Jean-Juste in prison and took blood samples that were analyzed in Miami. Dr. Paul Farmer, who runs hospitals in Haiti, confirmed that the Rev. Jean-Juste has developed chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer that could develop into a more-virulent strain. If he is to have any chance against this disease, the Rev. Jean-Juste needs treatment in the United States, and that treatment needs to start now. He cannot hope to live with a compromised immune system in Haiti’s National Penitentiary, where medical care and hygiene are virtually nonexistent. U.S. diplomats should use their considerable influence to persuade the Haitian government to release the Rev. Jean-Juste and to facilitate his access to treatment in the United States. Haiti’s fledgling democracy doesn’t need its best known political prisoner to die in jail. (Miami Herald, 1/2) An outspoken Haitian priest who many believe would be a top contender for the country’s presidency if he had not been jailed is suffering from leukemia and should be released, a U.S. doctor said on Thursday. Paul Farmer, a Harvard Medical School doctor renowned in Haiti for leading the fight against AIDS, said he had taken a blood sample from the imprisoned priest, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, and found he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The disease can be managed for a long time if conditions are right and chemotherapy is available, Farmer told Reuters in an e-mail, “but it would be difficult in prison.” Farmer said tuberculosis was epidemic in most Haitian prisons and people suffering from the priests’s form of leukemia are susceptible to skin, lung, kidney and other types of infections. Farmer visited Jean-Juste over Christmas. (Reuters, 1/5) A jailed Roman Catholic priest, whose supporters say is suffering from cancer and should be released for treatment in the United States, was taken from his jail cell Tuesday to a medical testing laboratory in the capital. Authorities took the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste to the laboratory, and U.N. peacekeeping troops stood guard outside the clinic. Haitian police officials accompanying the priest declined comment. Mario Joseph, the lawyer for Jean-Juste, said he was told they were taking Jean-Juste to confirm a leukemia diagnosis. The lawyer said he doesn’t believe there are any plans to immediately release him for medical treatment outside of Haiti. ‘’If he is sick they need to release him,’’ Joseph said. Jean-Juste was in the laboratory for 30 minutes before he was escorted out and driven away in a convoy that included U.N. peacekeepers and police. He was then taken to another lab for more tests before he was returned to his cell in an annex of the national penitentiary. (AP, 1/10) Foreign Aid to Haiti: “The capability is there” to build a Haitian police force in that time to replace the nearly 8,900 UN troops and police, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In contrast, most foreign policy experts believe Haiti needs a decade to rebuild its tiny and corrupt police force. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also wants a lengthy commitment. “I hope this time the international community will go in for the long haul and not a quick turn-around,” Annan said when the peacekeepers were deployed here in 2004. “It may take years.” The United States pays more than one-fourth the costs of the peacekeeping mission and holds enormous sway over its size and duration. In further warning signals, Washington last summer rebuffed UN requests for a commando unit to help the Brazilian-led peacekeepers rout armed groups. And the Pentagon has yet to answer an SOS to loan the UN mission 10 helicopters for logistics during the presidential elections. Since Aristide’s departure, the United States has pledged a half-billion dollars in aid here, a windfall to this impoverished, shattered nation. “The reality is that the U.S. cannot be effective in Haiti if we’re seen as the only interested power,” said the U.S. diplomat. “We’ve done it before and it hasn’t worked.” (Newsday, 1/3) The interim government signed a framework agreement this Tuesday with the German government valued at eight million Euros. Interim Prime Minister Gérard Latortue welcomed the signing of the agreement and said he was pleased to see a resumption of this type of activity with the federal Republic of Germany. According to Mr. Latortue, this agreement will enable the Haitian government to promote local development, improve living conditions for the population and provide greater support to the deprived areas. Germany plays a large role in Haiti’s economic and social development program at various levels, said Gérard Latortue, emphasizing that the German contribution amounts to 25% of the funds provided by the European Union. (AHP, 1/10) AP Fires Journalist Also Working for NED: After another freelance journalist raised questions this week about Alexandre and the NED, she denied she was an employee of the organization. She said she had made trips into the Haitian countryside to establish links between the NED and Haitian non-governmental organizations and was reimbursed for her expenses. When told later that the NED confirmed her employment, she continued to maintain she did not work for the organization. The NED said it was unaware when it hired Alexandre that she worked for the AP or any other media organization. (AP, 12/30) UN Peacekeepers Fire Upon and Injure Haitian Police: Cite Soleil, where gunbattles between peacekeepers and gangs take place almost daily, remains the most insecure place in Haiti. Haitian police do not enter the slum, which a battalion of 1,500 Jordanian peacekeepers in armored vehicles has pledged to reclaim from the gangs. “Even though this incident is appalling, the tight collaboration between U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police will continue,” Onses-Cardona said. (AP, 12/8) UN Peacekeepers and Cite Soleil: Director of the UN Mission of Stabilization in Haiti Juan Gabriel Valdès denounced a “campaign of hatred and lies” going on, he said, on radio stations against the UN mission in Haiti. In some declarations, the mission is accused of laxness and even of being accomplices with abductors for not intervening forcefully against the shantytown of Cité Soleil. “This campaign undermines the MINUSTAH, the UN and the international community at the same time”, Valdès declares. He considers this practice is intolerable and unacceptable. Another leader from the UN mission declared anonymously that operations will be led as soon as this week in the shantytown of Cité Soleil. These will not be blind operations, he indicated, underlining that UN soldiers will also be present in residential neighborhoods Pétion-Ville since the geography of kidnapping has changed. He is also indignant that attacks take place non stop against the MINUSTAH despite General Bacellar’s death. During his press conference on Sunday, Juan Gabriel Valdès announced that a joint MINUSTAH, UNPOL, PNH operation was led in the town of RaKèt not far from Cité Soleil. “3 hostages were released and one individual was arrested during this operation, Valdès said, affirming that the UN mission’s actions will be taken in accordance with principles of the respect of human rights. He once again declared that the solution to the problem of crime cannot be only military. It must also contribute to fight poverty, he said. During a recent declaration on the private radio station Vision 2000, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Reginald Boulos declared he was aware that there will be innocent victims if the MINUSTAH intervenes in Cité Soleil. But a fund will be set in place to assist victims’ parents, he promised, adding that even without an intervention, there would be victims. (AHP, 1/8) At least three individuals were reportedly killed and several others injured Sunday and Monday during military operations conducted by MINUSTAH troops in Cité Soleil. According to area residents, bodies were taken away to an unknown destination. They accused the UN’s MINUSTAH of having launched these lethal operations in the shantytown to satisfy the demands of the private sector. Several sources have said that the Brazilian General Bacellar, found dead of a gunshot wound Saturday, committed suicide because of the intense pressure exerted against him demanding that he intervene brutally in Cité Soleil. (AHP, 1/9) The UN has for the first time admitted that a number of innocent civilians may have become “collateral victims” and killed during a controversial raid by peacekeeping forces in Haiti. The admission will likely add to the tension inside the capital city, Port-au-Prince, already wracked by violence and chaos – and the recent suicide of the UN military commander – as it prepares for a crucial election. The summary of an internal inquiry, passed to The Independent, says a number of people may been caught in crossfire between UN peacekeepers and armed gang members, headed by a well-known leader, Emanuel “Dread” Wilme. The report claims that UN troops fired only in self-defence. The raid involving 400 peacekeepers took place last July in the Cite Soleil slum with the stated intention of cracking-down on gangs responsible for ongoing violence and kidnappings in the capital. Many of the gangs are supporters of former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Mr Aristide, democratically elected and with overwhelming support among the poor, was ousted two years ago following an uprising organised mainly by members of the business elite who had received support from the US. Video footage taken after the raid showed the bodies of numerous apparently unarmed victims. Independent witnesses said up to 23 people were killed – among them the wife and two young sons of Fredi Romelus, a Cite Soleil resident who told reporters that UN troops opened fire on his home. “ They surrounded our house… and I ran thinking my wife and the children were behind me. They couldn’t get out and the [UN] fired into the house,” he said. The admission by the UN mission (MINUSTAH) that civilians may have been killed “given the length of the operation and the violence of the clashes” will do nothing to ease the fraught situation in Haiti, where a presidential election has been repeatedly delayed. The delays have been blamed on the violence and problems with distributing voter identification cards. Despite its admission that civilians may have been shot, the UN claims the majority of those died last July were actually killed by other gang members in reprisal for collaborating with the UN or elsecelebrating the death of Mr Wilme. It described the video footage a “manifest example” of disinformation. Kevin Pina, the Haitian-based journalist who heads a team that shot the footage, dismissed the UN’s claims. “I personally handed a copy of that video to [the UN special envoy, Juan] Valdes at JFK airport. He described it as propaganda and lies without even looking at it. They are predisposed to saying this. They do not want to look at the evidence.” (The Independent, 1/10) Wealthy Business Owners Call Strike to Send Message to MINUSTAH: “We believe the political management of the U.N. has not decided yet to provide the security environment that they were meant to provide,” Boulos said at a news conference. “The general population is tired, very tired of this insecurity,” he said. “Elections cannot take place in this kind of environment.” Most Haitian businesses are small, independent shops and it was unclear what, if any, effect the chamber president’s call for a general strike would have on the economy of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Boulos, a leading member of a coalition that supported the rebels in the February 2004 overthrow of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, has personal experience with kidnapping: His wife, Mouna, was abducted and held for nine days in November 2003. (AP, 1/5) CALL FOR A GENERAL STRIKE: To demonstrate its disapproval of both the government’s and MINUSTAH’s handling of the insecurity, to honor the memories of all of the victims of this climate of terror, and to demand that proper elections be held in the country, the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry calls upon the entire population of metropolitan Port-au-Prince to observe a general protest strike this Monday, January 9, 2006. All of us are affected by this lawlessness. We must stand together against it. Laborers, merchants, public functionaries, white-collar workers, industrialists, the unemployed, parents, school children, students and teachers-let us all participate in this day of protest to demand of Mr. Juan Gabriel Valdés: 1) that he give clear and precise orders to the troops under his command that CITÉ SOLEIL, like BEL AIR, be liberated from these gangs who prey upon the population, so that its people-today living as hostages-may finally be able to return to their normal lives. The people of CITÉ SOLEIL deserve to live in peace! 2) that he order his troops to provide proper assistance to the Haitian National Police, and to collaborate closely with them in the investigation, arrest and bringing to justice of the “chimères,” the kidnappers and other criminals who are terrorizing the metropolitan area. The Haitian people have suffered enough! 3) that he take concrete and forceful measures to bring security to the metropolitan area permanently-rather than the sporadic and fleeting relief currently being provided. Our future as a nation depends upon it! (Haitian Chamber of Commerce, 1/8) Progressive organizations denounce the private sector work-stoppage, Haiti Support Group press release: Progressive organizations working with the Haitian poor to help them resolve the many problems they face have denounced the work-stoppage called by the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. The country’s largest business association has urged businesses to stay closed and parents to keep their children out of school today, 9 January, to protest a wave of kidnappings and to pressure the United Nations peacekeeping mission to take more aggressive measures against the gangs that operate in Port-au-Prince slum areas. Batay Ouvriye, a workers’ organization that has helped organize unions of workers from the capital’s slum areas for over ten years, issued a statement “firmly opposing” the ‘strike’ call. Batay Ouvriye, while highly critical of the performance of the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH) and the “directionless violence” carried out by the gangs, declares that the Haitian bourgeoisie is the cause of much of the insecurity and instability in the country. “The group which sent out this appeal has never been in the least solidarity with all the mobilizations of workers and popular organizations who’ve been attempting to fight against the rising cost of living and gas prices, or in support of the small merchants and cooperative members whose money was stolen, etc. Quite the contrary, they benefit from the misery spreading amongst the popular masses from day to day.” Another progressive organization, Mouvman Demokratik Popilè (MODEP, the Democratic Popular Movement) that has been active in the Collective to Mobilize Against the High Cost of Living’s recent campaign, also denounced the private sector for its professed concern for the Haitian people. The MODEP statement declares, “We are living in a society where a small group of people has its hands on all the wealth and, as a result, the vast majority live in poverty…This situation means that in slum areas all over the country, people are dying of hunger and others are living on the edge.” The MODEP also reminds people that private sector’s Group of 184 platform was heavily involved with one of the gangs that has been active in the violence in Cite Soleil, and that a leading bourgeois personality is implicated in the kidnappings that have terrorized the capital’s inhabitants. The MODEP statement declares, “actors that participate in and feed the climate of insecurity are not capable of combating it.”. Both Batay Ouvriye and MODEP alert the population to the private sector’s attempt to use the situation to further its own interests, and instead call on the people to organize themselves to address their own interests. Batay Ouvriye declares, “We can find the way to vanquish the terror and repression that both the gangs and the MINUSTAH are leading against us in the form of a truly popular resistance with the workers in central position.” The MODEP states, “The people and progressive organizations must get ready to fight for their own interests by combining the struggle against insecurity with the struggle against the high cost of living and unemployment, so that society is transformed for the benefit of the poor masses.” (Haiti Support Group, 1/8) Activities were for the most part brought to a standstill this Monday in Port-au-Prince by a general strike called by the employer sector to compel MINUSTAH and police officials to take strong action against kidnappings and insecurity. At the same time, activities proceeded as usual in the two other largest cities of the country: Cap-Haitian (in the North) and Les Cayes (in the South), where the strike call was not followed. In Port-au-Prince, large businesses, gasoline pumps, commercial banks, public transport, the civil service and schools did not operate for the most part. Most school directors had already advised their students, however, that classes would resume on January 10 following the anticipated first round of the presidential elections which had been scheduled for January 8. On Sunday evening, heavy gunfire from automatic weapons was heard throughout the capital, as if to get people in the mood for the strike, according to some residents. Activities were also shut down in large part in Jacmel (in the Southeast) with the exception of tap-tap drivers who were operating regional itineraries. In Cap-Haitian, the strike call was not followed. Public transport and informal commerce functioned normally. A very few shops and public offices failed to open their doors. The same situation was observed in Les Cayes where all activities functioned with the exception of commercial banks, which remained closed. In Petit-Goâve, the strike was had mixed results. Residents who said they were opposed to the insecurity said however that they do not intend to march to the orders of the private sector which never fails, they said, to raise prices for necessities even though these businesses benefit from a three year tax exemption. The residents also found it absurd that the strike called for January 9 was organized by the pro-government sector. The president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Haiti, Réginald Boulos, said he was satisfied with the results of the strike. He appealed to his supporters to remain mobilized in expectation of future actions. In the capital, the reduced number of drivers who provided public transportation service accused the police of having made life difficult for them in order to get them off the streets. They also accused sectors of the business community of being responsible for the upsurge in insecurity. “They denounce the insecurity in order to try to make people believe that the elections are not possible”, said one driver, alleging that many kidnappings today have political objectives and are not only being committed in the populist districts. The wife of a well known business man in the capital who was abducted on December 30 in Bois Morquette (Pétion-Ville), was set free Sunday after her family paid at least three ransoms. Foreign sources in Port-au-Prince indicated that Ms. Carine Rouzier was held hostage for the past 10 days in the Pétion-Ville area. (AHP, 1/9) Brazilian Commander of UN Peacekeepers Found Dead: The Brazilian head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti, found shot to death over the weekend, committed suicide, police said on Wednesday. Lt. Gen. Urano Bacellar died from a gunshot fired into his mouth and had gunpowder on one hand, Brasilia police chief Laerte Bessa said, citing autopsy results. “We concluded it was suicide,” Bessa told Globo television. The United Nations favors appointing another Brazilian to head the force. Brazil has suggested two people for the job, Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho Siqueira, commander of Brazil’s sixth military region, and Gen. Jeannot Jansen da Silva Filho, deputy head of the army’s logistics department. (Reuters, 1/11) UN Casualties: Gunmen shot and killed a Canadian police officer with the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti on Tuesday, a U.N. official said. The officer, who was not identified, was shot on National Route 1 not far from Cite Soleil, a large slum in the capital Port-au-Prince, said Marc Jaquet, a spokesman for the police contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping force. (Reuters, 12/20) A Jordanian peacekeeper taking part in a U.N. mission in Haiti was gunned down during the holiday weekend in a Port-au-Prince slum, the United Nations said on Monday. The peacekeeper, identified as Capt. Yousef Mubark Muflih Algader, was killed during an attack on Saturday by unidentified gunmen in the slum of Cite Soleil, said the U.N. communications office in Haiti. The Jordanian captain was shot in the head as he was patrolling the volatile slum. He became the 10th U.N. peacekeeper killed since the deployment of the U.N. mission. Controlled by street gangs, some of which remain loyal to Aristide, large parts of the slum of Cite Soleil are no-go zones for the 8,000 U.N. troops and international police in the troubled Caribbean country. (Reuters, 12/26) Dominican Republic and Haiti Relations Tense; Haitians Die in Van: Today between 500,000 and one million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, having crossed over the 243-mile (391-kilometer) border in recent decades. Nobody knows for sure how many Haitians or Dominicans of Haitian descent have been killed in recent months. Haitian human rights organizations say the murderous attacks that began in May are claiming scores of victims. The Dominican authorities deny that anything out of the ordinary is occurring, and claim that non-governmental organizations are exaggerating the situation. In September, Dominican president Leonel Fernandez told reporters that if murders were taking place, then it was an inevitable consequence of poverty in the border regions, and nothing to do with race. But frequent Dominican media reports, and alerts issued by Haitian and Dominican human rights organizations, suggest that worsening racial tensions in the Dominican Republic are continuing to claim lives. Two recent reports in Dominican newspapers provide an example of the incidents that have been occurring with increasing frequency over the last six months. The current situation began to worsen following the murder – allegedly by Haitian immigrants – of a Dominican merchant in the town of Hatillo Palma in the north-western department of Montecristi on 9 May. In response, groups armed with machetes and sticks began attacking people believed to be Haitians. Properties were looted and set on fire in a number of localities. During the pogroms, Dominicans attacked a group of Haitians sleeping in a small house, beheading two of them and seriously wounding two more. In the days that followed, hundreds of Haitian immigrants fled the persecution, and crossed the border into Haiti at Dajabón-Ouanaminthe. Then in subsequent weeks, the Dominican Army started rounding up people believed to be Haitians and forcibly deported them. During May and June as many as 4,000 people were forced out of the Dominican Republic into Haiti, and thousands more have been deported since then. Human rights activists say the recent wave of deportations are all the more worrying, because they have been accompanied by statements by public officials that are encouraging a climate of xenophobia against Haitians and Dominico-Haitians. For example, in mid-May, José Ramón Fadúl, the Dominican Secretary of State for Labour, stated that he supported “cleansing the area of foreign workers in conformity with the law”. Then, in August, Armed Forces Minister, Sigfrido Pared, stated that the continual immigration of Haitians is “an attack” on the Dominican Republic’s sovereignty. Colette Lespinasse, the coordinator of the Haitian platform to support refugees and repatriated people (GARR), denounced the recent forced deportations and attacks, saying the situation amounted to “ethnic cleansing.” (LatinAmerica Press, 12/1) A report on the border situation between the DR and Haiti prepared for Dominican President Leonel Fernandez by the United States Southern Command, is recommending the creation of a specialized military body whose only mission will be to guard the frontier. In order to guarantee the success of such a task, the report recommends that more soldiers should be assigned to frontier duties, that new military bases are constructed along the frontier, that a new aviation unit is created and attached to the border patrol, and, finally, that the salaries of those on border patrol should be doubled. While the report is supposed to be confidential, the Diario Libre reports that it has seen parts of it, and the proposal seems to include the creation of a specialized, air cavalry unit, equipped with helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. There is also mention of improved ground transport vehicles and improved military installations. The report was hand delivered to President Leonel Fernandez by General John Craddock, the head of the United States Army Southern Command. It was drawn up by a group of United States experts on frontier issues who spent several weeks studying the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A government source told Diario Libre that the report is confidential since some of the suggestions are long term concerns of the armed forces, and some of these have already been included in the 2005 budget. One of the suggestions is to create a joint initiative by several of the state’s security organizations, such as the DNI, the Armed Forces and the DNCD. (DR1, 12/5) Protesters angry over the treatment of Haitian migrants in neighboring Dominican Republic clashed with police during a visit by the Dominican president, and at least three people were wounded by gunshots. Haitian police fired automatic weapons in the air as hundreds of demonstrators threw rocks and burned tires outside the presidential palace, seeking to block the motorcade of Dominican President Leonel Fernandez as he left a meeting with Haiti’s interim prime minister and president. (AP, 12/12) Several people were injured on Monday when riot police in Haiti clashed with students protesting a visit by the president of neighboring Dominican Republic, witnesses said. The demonstrators, who gathered outside the presidential palace, called Dominican President Leonel Fernandez a criminal and demanded an end to abuse of Haitian migrants. “You are not welcome! Go back home!,” chanted the crowd of students, who also burned tires. “The Haitian people cannot welcome Fernandez when Haitians are being killed and treated like animals in the Dominican Republic because of Fernandez’s racist policy,” said Jean Wilson Junior, a student leader. Witnesses said several protesters were injured, including two who were shot. They said police also hit the rock-throwing students with batons. Fernandez acknowledged Haitians had been the victims of “extremists” and promised his government would do all it could to end the abuses. “We have publicly expressed in the Dominican Republic that we deplore that situation. We have said that in a civilized country only the justice system has the authority to judge and punish crimes that are committed,” said Fernandez as he stood next to Haitian President Boniface Alexandre at the palace. (Reuters, 12/12) The Dominican Republic has demanded an apology from Haiti over violent protests that disrupted a visit to the neighboring country earlier this week by Dominican President Leonel Fernandez. “The foreign ministry, in the name of the Dominican government, is expecting a formal apology from Haitian authorities for the acts of violence and vandalism in the neighboring country directed against President Leonel Fernandez and the Dominican people,” the ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday. (Reuters, 12/14) “Cowboy part II” is the name given to the National Army operation that began today on the Haitian border from Montecristi to Jimani. The operation aims to crack down on arms, drugs and merchandise smuggling, and the crossing of illegal immigrants. This information was confirmed by Armed Forces Minister, Admiral Sigfrido Pared Perez, as reported by El Caribe. Yesterday, a contingent of 205 soldiers and 20 officers was stationed in Dajabon, with trucks, all-terrain vehicles, ambulances, machine guns and rifles. Also expected are several helicopters and other weapons. Orders have been given to respect citizens’ rights. (DR1, 1/5) The Dominican Armed Forces are mobilizing fast along the border with Haiti, while all border posts have been placed under red alert, due to tensions in Haiti. General Plutarco Medina, chief of the Third Brigade of the Dominican Army, based on San Juan de la Maguana, confirmed the red alert due to the death of Brazilian General Urano Teixeira Da Matta Barcellar. Medina noted that 25 posts along 119 kilometers on the border are on alert, although he noted that the area is quiet. The Dominican-Haitian border lacks signs in most of its 390 kilometers from north to south of La Hispaniola, has few official checkpoints, while traffic of people and goods is huge. Admiral Sigfrido Pared Pérez, secretary of the Dominican Armed Forces, said on Sunday night that Border Guard is working fast to guarantee strict control of entry and exit on the Haitian border through Dajabón, Jimaní, Elías Piña and Pedernales. Border Guard members will receive rigorous training and will function as a superior command made up of generals from different forces, headed by a general who will be the coordinator and liaison between that military institution and the General Staff. (Prensa Latina, 1/10) At least 24 Haitians suffocated to death in the back of a van thought to have smuggled them into the Dominican Republic, local media reported on Wednesday. The bodies were found in the van by members of the Dominican armed forces, Radio Popular said. An army spokesman said the driver and owner of the van had been arrested and an investigation was underway. (Reuters, 1/11) _______________________________________________ |
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