[Bloquez l'empire!] Bel Air: Betrayed by the UN

[aaron at resist.ca]

Bel Air: Betrayed by the UN

by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff

January 6, 2006 - Port au Prince, Haiti

Our second day in Haiti brought us to the slum of Bel Air, an area extremely 
different than other areas of Port au Prince. Not far from the glistening 
Palais Nationale, Bel Air is a poor neighborhood which has been hit hard since 
the February 2004 coup. It's own residents describe a campaign of political 
.cleansing" happening here. Bel Air has been the site of several massacres. On 
June 4 2005, CIVPOL (UN .Civilian. Police . now known as UNPOL) forces killed 
14 people. On February 25 2005 14 people were killed by police as Brazilian UN 
soldiers looked on. Our brief visit today gave us a good idea of the impact 
that this cleansing has on people's daily lives.

UN Brazilian MINUSTA (Mission Nations Unies de Stabilization en Haiti) forces 
are omnipresent here, sitting at checkpoints behind roadblocks on the street 
and patrolling around. Directly adjacent to one of the checkpoints sits one of 
the taller buildings of the area - a building which has been occupied by 
MINUSTAH.  Military camouflage netting is draped from the windows, and soldiers 
peer down at the street.

As we walk by and snap photos, one soldier comes running out of a building. He 
stops us and demands to see our press passes. American independent journalist 
Kevin Pina explains that this is the first time they have done this. Their 
efforts to control the press seem to have gone up a notch. As the soldiers 
write down our names it becomes clear that they don't want journalists roaming 
freely here. They invite us on a press tour in Fort National, another area of 
Port au Prince. Journalists who go on these tours are escorted around by armed 
guards, speak to the people the UN want them to speak to and see what they want 
them to see. We decline.

Perhaps the MINUSTA have good reason to be nervous for the world to see what 
they have been doing in places like Bel Air. Later in our visit, we have a 
chance to meet with Robert Montinard, the coordinator of a group called Zakat 
Enfant. He explains to us that his group has been a bridge between the UN and 
the community. Unfortunately it is a bridge that is quickly burning.

After a meeting between community leaders and UN officials to discuss human 
rights abuses in the community, Zakat Enfant signed a contract with the UN to 
help them implement their program - DDR: Disarmament, Demobilization, and 
Reinsertion. The deal was that youth in the neighborhood would give up their 
arms, and in return they would not be arrested or harassed (unless they do 
something else wrong) and the UN would provide badly needed social programs. 
Bel Air is a neighborhood where many children can go up to 3 days without food 
and do not have a chance to go to school or have access to health care.  It 
sounds nice, except there's one problem . the UN isn't holding up their part of 
the deal.

Since the beginning of the program, dozens of people have given up their guns, 
but all they've gotten in return is a passcard with their picture on it, part 
of the UN's program of social control.  Eloi, for example, is a local kid we 
met who traded in his gun under DDR.  In return, all he got was his plastic UN 
photo id which will theoretically allow him to get through the UN checkpoints 
unbothered.

2 people who returned their arms have already been arrested and the promised 
social programs have yet to appear. As Robert says, "Christmas passed without 
even one candy for the kids".

Now Robert is between a rock and a hard place. On the one side UN officials are 
pushing him to continue with the program, on the other side, the increasingly 
frustrated community sees Robert and Zakat Enfant as traitors and are taking 
out their anger on them.  Robert tells us he cannot walk around freely in his 
own community anymore.  And what of his group, Zakat Enfant?  The organization 
was supposed to help kids traumatized by war, and give them workshops in 
non-violence, but they have been sold-out by the UN and rendered useless.

Others are very clear about who's to blame for Haiti's current troubles. Samba 
Boukman, the local spokesperson for Lavalas, is frank with us. He blames the 
US, France, and Canada for the crisis in Haiti. He wonders why Canada is 
working against the Haitian people, but he has his theory - Canadian companies 
are doing business with the elite "civil society" group 184.  It would seem 
that democracy in Haiti is not in their best interests. Canada is lending its 
complete support to MINUSTA, and MINUSTA has turned Bel Air into a veritable 
occupied zone. As Robert had explained before, "If we're in prison, if we're 
poor, if we're dying, it's France, USA and Canada.  It's not the military's 
fault. They know nothing. They're just there following orders. It's the 
diplomats, the ambassadors, the politicians who are doing this".

We have arrived in Haiti in a chaotic and uncertain time. We were expecting to 
be here days before the presidential elections, scheduled for January 8th, but 
now postponed indefinitely for the fourth time.  The elections are laughable, 
especially in the way they are being framed by the authorities.  Today, the UN 
security council called an urgent session to debate the continuing 
postponements of Haiti's elections.  The Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP), 
funded by USAID and CIDA, have put the blame on the UN and OAS, who have been 
quick to shift it back to them.  All sides deny their complicity in this royal 
failure.

As the big shots play hot potato, the reaction on the streets is quite 
different.  No one is surprised, although tensions are high. Haitians know 
quite well that they are being asked to participate in "selections" rather than 
elections. Samba Boukman says he is registered to vote anyway.  He explains the 
Lavalas position is that true elections can not proceed unless the thousands of 
political prisoners being held in Haiti are released, the repression of people 
in poor neighborhoods comes to an end, disarmament is complete and political 
exiles are allowed to return to the country.  All of these issues are 
completely lacking from the Canadian discourse.  In fact, Paul Martin has 
denied there are any political prisoners in Haiti, and Canada just wants to 
push forth with any elections, come hell or high water.  Although Boukman is 
not optimistic that his demands will be met, he sees elections as the only way 
the people can move forward peacefully.

As we leave Bel Air, we see graffiti on the side of a building that translates 
roughly as "expensive life + social exclusion = civil war". As Robert Montinard 
explains, the violence that has plagued Bel Air is violence that is borne of 
misery and poverty. It's a cycle that won't be broken by treachery and unkept 
promises from the UN, the US, France and Canada.

(Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff are two activists and independent journalists 
from Montreal.  They will be filing written and audio reports from Haiti 
throughout the month of January, specifically focusing on the role of Canada in 
the country's current crisis.  They can be reached at 
montrealtohaiti at resist.ca)