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Months after Haiti's interim government stepped down, the United Nations MINUSTAH force and the Haitian police continue heavy-handed incursions into Port-au-Prince's poor communities.
The Port-au-Prince slums have been plagued with violence since the February 2004 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, after which the United States, France, and Canada put an interim government in place. As reported in the Miami University humans rights study (http://www.law.miami.edu/cshr/CSHR_Report_02082005 _v2.pdf) ex-FAdH (Haitian military) refashioned themselves as interim police units and began launching assaults on impoverished supporters of the ousted popularly elected government.
While Haiti once again has an elected government (Preval/Alexis) the interim government's economic framework and many of its policies remains in place. Members of the former military remain within the Haitian police and government positions are filled with partisans of the organizations that ousted Haiti's elected Aristide government. Political prisoners, such as Fanmi Lavalas activist Rene Civil, remain in jail.
On Friday, December 22, 2006 MINUSTAH, along with a detachment of Haitian police, led a large raid into Cité Soleil. The assault was launched with 400 UN soldiers along with a column of armored cars. Cité Soleil and other poor slum neighborhoods continue to experience running gun battles between urban youth/gangs and UN forces. Local slum dwellers accuse the UN and Haitian police of carrying out massacres. A recent study published in the British Medical journal The Lancet, using random spacial sampling in the greater Port-au-Prince area, found that approximately 8,000 killings and 35,000 sexual assauts had occured during the 22 months of the interim government.
AUMOHD, a Haitian Human Rights Advocacy Group, explains:
"We were appalled to learn today of the high risk operation carried out by the MINUSTAH Troops jointly with the Haitian National Police. We wish to go on record as deploring this kind of approach to managing criminal activity. The reports we received from the ground were that more than 20 people were killed and a school was totally destroyed. We have seen the effects of MINUSTAH incursions before in Cité Soleil with huge holes going through walls of houses fired from 20mm canons. This is more like fictitious war movies than a civilized government using non-violent conflict resolution with a small band of alleged criminals. The risk is to the innocents who live in these areas."
Yahoo news reports:
"At least nine people were killed in Haiti's largest slum on Friday during a raid by security forces targeting armed gangs blamed for a recent surge in kidnappings and other crimes in the capital Port-au-Prince...A Reuters photographer counted nine bodies from the clashes that ensued and eyewitnesses counted four others dead...As many as 30 people were wounded, humanitarian aid workers said. All of the casualties were believed to be civilians. 'The foreigners came shooting for hours without interruption and killed 10 people,' Johnny Claircidor, a resident of Bwa Nef, told Reuters. 'Then Belony's gang members started to exchange fire with them,' he said. 'I personally counted 10 bodies,' Claircidor said. The spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Sophie De la Combe, declined to provide a toll. 'No one was killed or injured on our side, but it's difficult for us to know for now how many bandits could have been killed or wounded,' said De la Combe. The U.N. operation, conducted jointly with the Haitian police, was launched at about 3 a.m. and was led by Brazilian peacekeepers. 'The operation was conducted to address the current insecurity caused by the recent wave of kidnappings in the capital Port-au-Prince,' said Jean Saint-Fleur, the director of Haiti's Administrative Police. He too said he was unable to give an official death toll from the Cite Soleil fighting. 'They came here to terrorize the population,' Rose Martel, a slum dweller, told Reuters, referring to the police and U.N. troops. 'I don't think they really killed the bandits, unless they consider all of us as bandits,' she said."
At least nine killed in raid against Belony's gang in Haiti
At least nine killed in raid against Belony's gang in Haiti
About 400 U.N. soldiers in armored vehicles, backed by Haitian police forces, stormed a district called Bwa Nef in the volatile slum of Cite Soleil in a move to dislodge the heavily armed gang.
At least nine people were killed in Haiti's largest slum on Friday during a raid by security forces targeting armed gangs blamed for a recent surge in kidnappings and other crimes in the capital Port-au-Prince.
It was one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the chaotic Caribbean country in more than a year and came hours after the U.N. chief envoy to Haiti, Edmond Mulet, said the government had given the go-ahead for a crackdown on areas controlled by gangs.
About 400 U.N. soldiers in armored vehicles, backed by Haitian police forces, stormed a district called Bwa Nef in the volatile slum of Cite Soleil in a move to dislodge heavily armed gang members led by a young man known as Belony.
A Reuters photographer counted nine bodies from the clashes that ensued and eyewitnesses counted four others dead. As many as 30 people were wounded, humanitarian aid workers said. All of the casualties were believed to be civilians.
"The foreigners came shooting for hours without interruption and killed 10 people," Johnny Claircidor, a resident of Bwa Nef, told Reuters. "Then Belony's gang members started to exchange fire with them", he said. "I personally counted 10 bodies," Claircidor said.
The spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Sophie De la Combe, declined to provide a toll. "No one was killed or injured on our side, but it's difficult for us to know for now how many bandits could have been killed or wounded," said De la Combe.
The U.N. operation, conducted jointly with the Haitian police, was launched at about 3 a.m. and was led by Brazilian peacekeepers. "The operation was conducted to address the current insecurity caused by the recent wave of kidnappings in the capital Port-au-Prince," said Jean Saint-Fleur, the director of Haiti's Administrative Police.
He too said he was unable to give an official death toll from the Cite Soleil fighting. "They came here to terrorize the population," Rose Martel, a slum dweller, told Reuters, referring to the police and U.N. troops. "I don't think they really killed the bandits, unless they consider all of us as bandits," she said.
Two wrong don't make it right ..............Deux mal pa fe ou bon
Bon, kisa nou vle? nou di ke prezidan-a pa fe anyin, li kite kidnaper met peyi. Yo pran mesure konnye-a pou combat yo, epi nap rele, desideman kisa nou vle? Ler yon moun ap fe omelette fok gin zeu ki kase. Tout de meme en faisant la guerre au kidnapper il faut s'attendre a des blesses et de tues. C'est triste que ca arrive a la Noel, mais alors, il en est du devenir, du futur de la nation, car la paix doit regner dans le pays.
TiCam ... Don't get me wrong here ... under no circumstance I am defending Kidnappers ... but this operation under MUNISTAH and PNH has no structure where even the innocent are getting kill under this operation ...
What does a Five years kid getting shot at during this operation has anything to do with Kidnappers?
You want to get kidnappers... Get the Kidnappers, Get the bastard .. but this thing has to have a structure where the innocent are not been kill like dogs ...
How do you know that those who are killed aren't kidnappers?
So you want to tell me this kid in the picture been drag by his family after the MUNISTAH & PNH operation is a kidnapper and deserved to be shot at ...
Haitian women carry an injured boy during a military operation in Port au Prince, December 22, 2006. At least nine people were killed in Haiti's largest slum on Friday during a raid by security forces targeting armed gangs blamed for a recent surge in kidnappings and other crimes in the capital.
Is that what you are telling us TiCam?
I am not defending Kidnappers... this thing needs structure where the innocent do not get caught in this cross fire where you can distinguish between friend & Foe ...
How do you know that those who are killed aren't kidnappers?
I don't and I would not know. It is a well known fact that very young children carry and use dangerous weapons. However had they been kidnappers, we would have seen the government spokesman gloating while delivery the news. They would have make a lot of noises around that.
What occurs is happening, the armed forces have surrounded cite soleil. They hope like that to control the gangs... for the remaining of december, a retrieve which will not last long. If no strong action is followed up to uproot those gangsters then it would have been B.S. right?
So you want to tell me this kid in the picture been drag by his family after the MUNISTAH & PNH operation is a kidnapper and deserved to be shot at ...
Is that what you are telling us TiCam?
I am not defending Kidnappers... this thing needs structure where the innocent do not get caught in this cross fire where you can distinguish between friend & Foe ...
And the MUNISTAH UN Force are not Haitian ..
Le 9 août dernier le président René Préval a déclaré « si vous ne remettez pas votre arme, vous serez mort ! » et tous les secteurs de la société applaudissaient cette déclaration. Le nécessaire a été fait maintenant car les bandits se montraient beaucoup plus agressifs, il est donc de bon aloi de les dérouter. Quant aux enfants je le regrette infiniment qu'ils ont été présent sur les lieux lors des escarmouches. Il faut reconnaitre ces bandits peuvent recourir a n'importe quel stratagem pour se protéger et meme se servir des enfants comme boucliers.
At least nine killed in raid against Belony's gang in Haiti 
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