Multilateral Murder posted by Richard Seymour

Rejoice! A new UN head has taken charge of the situation and Haiti. Well, that's what you want, isn't it? The UN managing humanitarian situations, delicately holding the balance between opposing forces - between rapist and rapee, murderer and murderee, torturer and victim etc. As the BBC reports, the last guy didn't do the job very well, and various people have died in 'crossfire' this and 'gang war' that. About time they took charge of the situation.

Not quite:

In the capital's vast slums, where support for Aristide's Lavalas Family Party is strongest, residents complain that police in black masks regularly execute young men. But since the alleged attacks usually occur at night in places also terrorized by heavily armed gangs -- often pro-Lavalas ones -- it has been difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Now, U.N. Civilian Police and a U.N. human rights team are investigating at least three alleged attacks by police.

Meanwhile:

In many Latin American countries, death-squads work hand in hand with the police, but discretely, and function mostly at night. In Haiti, the collaboration between official and unofficial repressive forces is conducted openly and in broad daylight.

Such was the case in the Port-au-Prince slum of Belair on Aug. 10. Several Haitian National Police (PNH) vehicles led dozens of hooligans armed with guns, machetes, axes and clubs into the Belair districts of Solino and Ti Chery. Residents immediately began running toward the UN military outpost on Rue Tiremasse, vainly hoping that they might find some safety there. But many did not react quickly enough. The police and mob attacked swiftly and viciously.

“More than 12 people were hacked to death by machetes or riddled with police bullets,” said Sanba Boukman, the leader of Belair’s Lavalas-affiliated popular organizations.

Didine Joseph, a 16-year-old girl who was four months pregnant, was macheted to death. “It was poignant because the fetus lived for several minutes after she was killed,” Boukman explained. “It could be seen kicking in her belly. It was really sad. Corpses lay in the streets and dogs fed on them. The situation is horrible.”

The massacres keep coming. And all in the name of profit:

Accordingly, says Wood a “basketcase” like Haiti will be competing for textile scraps, which he equates with “highly labour intensive” work that only desperate third-worlders are equipped to do: “There hasn’t been a machine invented that can sew a garment better than a human on a machine.”

(Last two sources from the brilliant Alphonse, who has been tirelessly labouring to tell the story of the ongoing horror in Haiti).

The democratically elected leader of Haiti, Aristide, was not perfect. He was opposed by many genuine, grassroots and radical forces who urged serious reforms to end sweatshops, for instance. However, it is worth pointing out that the United States deliberately bled Haiti dry as a prelude to proceeding with a coup that ousted Aristide in February 2004. Following the kidnapping and expulsion of Aristide, a collection of former genocidaires and sweat-shop bosses took control under a UN mandate. Under the rubric of the UN, France (the former colonial master in Haiti) and America (the present one) enjoyed a sweet post-Iraq making up, and sent troops in to make the place a friendly place to fist-fuck - by which I mean, invest in.

(Previous Haiti stuff here, here and here).