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Weekend Edition - March 31 / April 1, 2007<br><br>
</font><font size=4 color="#0000FF"><b><u>"The UN Came Here to
Terrorize the Population"<br>
</u></font><font size=6 color="#FF0000">Time For Lula to Stop Doing
Bush's Dirty Work in Haiti<br>
</b></font><font size=3>By Ben Terrall <br><br>
When Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, better known as
'Lula', visits Washington on March 31, he will likely spend most of his
time with President Bush discussing ethanol, a relatively safe subject
for the two leaders. Earlier this month, Brazil and the United States,
the world's two top ethanol producers, announced the creation of an
international forum to help turn biofuels into a globally traded
commodity. Brazil, unlike the U.S., has spent thirty years developing its
ethanol technology, and is producing a surplus of a sugar-based version
of that fuel.<br><br>
Lula has been criticized for following the Bush Administration on foreign
trade policy, but he may be in even more hot water for following Bush on
a foreign military adventure. When President Lula relieved U.S. Marines
in Haiti by having Brazil take the lead of the UN peacekeeping mission
(MINUSTAH) in early 2004, he got Bush, whose troops were spread thin, out
of a tight spot. Lula also earned brownie points for Brazil's bid for a
permanent seat on a potentially-expanded UN Security Council.<br><br>
But all this came at a price. MINUSTAH was the only UN peacekeeping
mission in history deployed without a peace agreement. Its true
purpose was to consolidate a February 29, 2004 coup against the
democratically-elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. This genesis
put MINUSTAH in a quandary from the beginning. In order to fulfill its
mission of supporting the illegitimate, unpopular and brutal Interim
Government of Haiti (led by a Bush supporter flown in from Florida),
MINUSTAH was forced to join the dictatorship's attacks on poor
neighborhoods that would never accept the overthrow of their
democracy.<br><br>
In August 2006, the British Medical Journal The Lancet published a
mortality study that concluded 8,000 people were killed in the first 22
months of the coup. In almost half of the reported deaths, the
perpetrators were identified as security agents of the coup government,
former soldiers or armed anti-Lavalas groups. No murders were attributed
to Lavalas members. Although the government and its paramilitary allies
did the lion's share of the killings, MINUSTAH participated as well. In a
July 6, 2005 raid, MINUSTAH soldiers shot 22,000 bullets (by its own
count) into the thin walls of the poor Cite Soleil neighborhood. Up
to 60 civilians were killed, dozens more wounded, but none received help
from the "peacekeepers."<br><br>
Although a democratic government was inaugurated last May, MINUSTAH
continues to kill civilians. In the early morning of December 22, 2006,
400 Brazilian-led MINUSTAH troops in armored vehicles carried out a
massive assault on the Bois Neuf and Drouillard districts of Cite Soleil
in Port-au-Prince. The military operation, which claimed the lives of
dozens of area residents, took place near the site of the July 2005
raid.<br><br>
"They came here to terrorize the population," resident Rose
Martel told Reuters, referring to UN troops and police. "I don't
think they really killed any bandits, unless they consider all of us as
bandits."<br><br>
The president of the Human Rights Commission of the Haitian Senate
described the December 22 operation as "a crime against
humanity." The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, a Haitian human
rights group, documented more than 20 killed, including children and
elderly.<br><br>
Once again, the UN showed little interest in its "collateral
damage." UN spokesperson Sophie De la Combe could not offer
information on Haitians killed or wounded, just that "no one was
killed on our side."<br><br>
When journalists and human rights groups asked MINUSTAH head Edmond Mulet
about the killings, he attacked the messengers, writing, "I am
appalled to see how some people support criminal, violent, human-rights
violation activities in Haiti and oppose the rule of law. Gangsters,
killers, kidnappers, rapist [sic] of young girls should and will be
brought to justice."<br><br>
But if the UN operation was intended to uphold the rule of law or
bringing alleged criminals to justice, there should have been valid
warrants authorizing MINUSTAH and Haitian Police to make arrests, as
required by Haiti's constitution and international law. Mulet presented
no indication of such warrants, or any evidence that the victims,
including an elderly man killed while en route to work and a pregnant
woman who lost her fetus, were gangsters, killers, kidnappers or
rapists.<br><br>
Human rights activist Seth Donnelly, who investigated the July 6, 2005
Cite Soleil assault, told me, "Mulet's [statement] echoes the
response I received when I interviewed Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno and
Colonel Morneau just days after the July 6 massacre. They told me that a
handful of 'bandits' had been killed and that the UN fired only after
they had been fired upon. These statements were contradicted by evidence
provided by Doctors Without Borders staff at the hospital that treated
the July 6 victims. The MINUSTAH claims were also contradicted by
eyewitness testimony we gathered in affidavits. Among the survivors we
spoke to was a young woman who also lost her baby and a father who
witnessed the killing of his wife and two young children."<br><br>
In early January, Brazilian Major General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos
became the fourth commander of the UN force in Haiti (consisting of 8,360
total uniformed personnel, as of 30 November 2006). Dos Santos said,
"We are going to work in the same way as we have worked before.
Nothing has changed about our mission or our obligations." Since Dos
Santos made that commitment, UN military operations have killed
seven-year-old Stephanie Lubin, four-year-old Alexandra Lubin, and
nine-year-old Boadley Bewence Germain, all guilty of living in the
crossroads of George W. Bush's foreign policy.<br><br>
More and more Brazilians are appalled at their country's role in
MINUSTAH. On February 7 of this year, 6,000 protesters, mostly youth,
marched through Rio de Janeiro's city center to demand the immediate
withdrawal of Brazil's troops from Haiti. By continuing to do Bush's
dirty work in Haiti, Lula has tied his country's destiny to a sinking
ship. Before it is too late he needs to join the rest of the world
in realizing that the Bush Administration's imperial policies are both
morally wrong and unlikely to bring positive results.<br><br>
<i>Ben Terrall is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the San
Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Counterpunch, Lip Magazine, and
other publications. He has visited Haiti four times since the February
29, 2004 coup which forced out the democratically-elected Aristide
government. He can be reached at
<a href="mailto:bterrall@igc.org">bterrall@igc.org<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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