Haiti: the mildest hint of criticism... posted by Richard Seymour

...will probably have Amnesty International branded 'extremist'. Here is their latest press-release:

According to eye-witness accounts provided to Amnesty International, at least one civilian died and another was injured last Thursday in the locality of Ouanaminthe (on the Haitian-Dominican Republic border), after shots were allegedly fired from a convoy consisting of a Dominican truck accompanied by vehicles from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

The crowd was demonstrating as the bodies of more than 20 Haitians -- who died after being illegally trafficked to the Dominican Republic – were being taken to the Ouanaminthe cemetery to be buried.

The demonstrators wanted to prevent the burying of the bodies in a mass grave without a proper identification of the victims or a formal ceremony. They threw rocks at the truck transporting the bodies and at MINUSTAH vehicles escorting it. According to the eye-witnesses, none of the civilians demonstrating was armed.

Furthermore, a second person was reportedly injured when hit by a MINUSTAH armoured vehicle. There are also reports that several MINUSTAH peacekeepers were injured.

Two journalists from a local radio station were physically prevented from covering the events and had their tape recorders confiscated by MINUSTAH personnel.

Amnesty International is calling on MINUSTAH officials and the Haitian government to launch an urgent, independent investigation into this incident and to make the conclusions public. Those found responsible for using or ordering excessive force should be brought to justice.

MINUSTAH has been deployed in Haiti since June 2004. According to reports, MINUSTAH officials recently admitted that an internal investigation concluded that a number of unarmed civilians may have been killed during a UN operation in Cité Soleil on 6 July 2005. Amnesty International urges UN officials to make public its findings.

Scroll back up to that bit about being "illegally trafficked to the Dominican Republic". What's that all about? you wonder. Well, as I mentioned last year, one thing that has really thrived under the UN occupation has been the trade in Haitian slave workers, mostly children, in the Dominican Republic: they are used for domestic service, prostitution or rural labour. Of course, Haitians are uniquely positioned to be exploited, as MediaLens noted shortly after the coup:

The United States is Haiti's main commercial 'partner' accounting for about 60% of the flows of exports and imports. Along with the manufacture of baseballs, textiles, cheap electronics, and toys, Haiti's sugar, bauxite and sisal are all controlled by American corporations. Disney, for example, has used Haitian sweatshops to produce Pocahontas pyjamas, among other items, at the rate of 11 cents per hour. Most Haitians are willing to work for almost nothing.

Pochohantas pyjamas, boys and girls - that's what the killing is for.

Speaking of killing, eyewitness reports suggest that UN troops have attacked St Catherine's Hospital in Cite Soleil, presumably one of the UN's increasing number of "anti-gang raids". In fact, the reports appear to be confirmed by Aaron Lakoff, who visited the hospital some days ago and noticed "that the exterior and interior walls of the hospital were covered with bullet holes. In a shocking image that will never leave my mind, there was a large bullet hole in a glass window looking in on cribs in the children's ward. Eyewitnesses told us that at around 11pm the previous night, the hospital came under heavy fire, and the perpetrators were MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) troops". For the UN's part, it can only consider itself at war with "gang members", universal code in Haiti for armed supporters of Aristide fighting against the coup government.

Meanwhile, Lavalas party member Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International last year, has predictably been acquitted of the trumped up charges against him, but still insist on keeping him in prison for "weapons possession" and "conspiracy". This coming from the government that conspired in a bloody coup to bring down the democratically elected government is almost admirable for its brutal, ruthless chutzpah. Hardly a surprise, however, as Lakoff notes:

The Group of 184 is led by a shady cast of characters. Their spokesperson, Andy Apaid Jr., is the owner of Alpha Industries, the largest garment producer in Haiti. In his factories, more aptly called sweatshops, workers toil to produce clothing for Montreal-based Gildan Activewear. Most are women between the ages of 18-30 years old, and are paid a measly 75 Gourdes (Less than $2 US) per day.

Another important Group of 184 player is Reginald Boulos, head of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. According to the Haiti Information Project, Boulos was also implicated in the death of 60 children after his company, Pharval Pharmaceuticals, produced a poisonous cough syrup distributed throughout poor neighborhoods of the capital. . Patrick Elie, a Haitian activist we met the other day, recounts to us how he applied for a job with a pharmaceutical company in Canada. When he told his prospective employers that he used to work for the Boulos family in Haiti, they replied, “You know, those guys are killers...”

So...

So how does a group of rich maquiladora-owners and mad scientists maintain even a shred of credibility on the international scene? Through plenty of funding and support from the USA, France, and Canada.

Since the 2004 coup d'etat, Canada has lent its explicit support to the Group of 184, not only in sending 500 soldiers to aid in the process of ousting Aristide, but also by funding many of the opposition groups in the Group of 184 via CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). Seemingly progressive Canadian NGO's such as Alternatives and Rights and Democracy have helped maintain the Group of 184's credibility by affirming that they are indeed a 'civil society' group.

Through this support for the Group of 184, Canada has also supported de facto all the institutions that are committing human rights abuses in post-coup Haiti, including the interim Haitian government. Thousands of political prisoners continue to sit behind bars without charges since the coup, while Paul Martin has denied their very existence as such. At the same time, known killer and coup leader, Guy Phillipe, who was trained by the CIA in Ecuador, is running for president. The Canadian Embassy in Haiti, who was quick to support the removal of Aristide, has had little to say about this.

And, as they have been doing for some time, coup leaders are demanding that the MINUSTAH troops get tougher with "the gangs", while still threatening a capital "strike" if they don't get their way. It occurs to me, however, that there may be a certain amount of panic among Haiti's elite. If, two years after the coup, they still haven't put down the resistance and still cannot control the society, they are in trouble. The apparent favourite to win the frequently deferred Haitian elections is Lavalas member and Aristide ally Rene Preval. Unlike in 1991, it seems that Haitian society is equipped to fight the death squads and their UN guarantors. If this is correct, then it means that they will turn to more and more desperate measures: the last thing they want is a Lavalas president greeting Mr Aristide as he lands at Port Au Prince airport. One expects the atrocities to intensify - those 'gang' hospitals heard the last of it.

Finally, a number of people e-mailed this to me over the last few days: the 'security company' Consultants Advisory Group, it appears, has been shopping whistleblowers who report human rights abuses so that they can be detained. Read the whole report for some enlightening background...