<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<font size="-1">
<div class="entry-date">
October 14, 2014<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/14/the-united-nations-will-fail-haiti-once-again/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/14/the-united-nations-will-fail-haiti-once-again/</a><br>
<br>
<div style="float:right;"><br>
<div id="_atssh" style="visibility: hidden; height: 1px;
width: 1px; position: absolute; z-index: 100000;"><iframe
src="http://ct1.addthis.com/static/r07/sh175.html#"
style="height: 1px; width: 1px; position: absolute;
z-index: 100000; border: 0px none; left: 0px; top: 0px;"
title="AddThis utility frame" id="_atssh372"></iframe></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="subheadlinestyle"><b><big><big>Pull Out the Occupation
Troops</big></big></b></div>
<h1 class="article-title">The United Nations Will Fail Haiti Once
Again</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by KEVIN EDMONDS & AJAMU NANGWAYA</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>On <a
href="http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_res_2119.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_res_2119.pdf']);"
target="_blank">October 15</a>, the United Nations Security
Council will meet to “debate” the extension of the United
Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) which has
acted as an occupying force in the country since the summer of
2004. MINUSTAH was created to put an end to the Multinational
Interim Force (primarily made up of U.S., French, Canadian and
Chilean troops) which occupied Haiti after an internationally
backed coup d’état ousted the democratically elected president
Jean Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas party from power
on February 29, 2004.</p>
<p>During these ten years, MINUSTAH has compiled a horrific
record of human rights abuses, including but not limited to
extrajudicial murder, an epidemic of sexual assault against
Haitian men, women and children, the repression of peaceful
political protests, in addition to unleashing cholera through
criminal negligence which has caused the death of over <a
href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/haiti-cholera-counter"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.justforeignpolicy.org']);"
target="_blank">9,000 people</a> and infecting nearly a
million more. Despite these well documented abuses, the
historical record has shown that the Security Council will
mostly likely renew MINUSTAH for another year without any
thought to damage being done to Haiti. As evidence of how
little resistance there is to the renewal of MINUSTAH’s
mandate in the United Nations, on <a
href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/C.5/68/26"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.un.org']);"
target="_blank">August 21</a>, MINUSTAH’s budget was
extended to June 2015 – clearly signalling that the occupation
is certain to continue.</p>
<p>When one examines the level of instability in Haiti which is
used as the justification for MINUSTAH’s continued presence in
the country, the United Nations’ argument of protecting the
Haitian people from themselves falls flat. Despite the
mainstream media portrayal of Haiti as a lawless and dangerous
country, in 2012, it had a homicide rate of <a
href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Homicide-rates-double-in-Haiti-over-a-5-year-period----UN-study"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.jamaicaobserver.com']);"
target="_blank">10.2 per 100,000</a> people, ranking it as
one of the least violent countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean – in contrast to Washington DC which sat at <a
href="http://homicidewatch.org/2013/06/17/d-c-2012-murder-rate-ranked-8th-among-nations-most-populated-cities/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://homicidewatch.org']);"
target="_blank">13.71 per 100,000</a>. Furthermore, to argue
that it is the presence MINUSTAH which has acted as a
stabilizing force which has kept violence down, the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime <a
href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Homicide-rates-double-in-Haiti-over-a-5-year-period----UN-study"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.jamaicaobserver.com']);"
target="_blank">reported that</a> between 2007 and 2012,
Haiti’s homicide rate doubled from 5.1 to 10.2 per 100,000.</p>
<p>For the fiscal year running from July 1, 2013 to June 30,
2014, <a
href="http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/facts.shtml"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.un.org']);"
target="_blank">$609.18 million</a> was allocated to
MINUSTAH. In the ten years in which MINUSTAH has been
operational, their total budget is over $5.5 billion. If this
same amount had been applied towards human development in the
form of investments in clean water, sanitation, healthcare and
education – Haiti would have the potential reclaim its
sovereignty and self-determination.</p>
<p>We must be clear, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in
Haiti is not based on any principles of humanitarianism, but
rather those of an imperialist occupation which seeks to make
sure that the island’s government can implement and maintain
repressive policies favourable to international investors.
Thus the reasons for MINUSTAH’s continued presence in Haiti
were confirmed thanks to revelations by WikiLeaks. In one of
the most up-front classified cables, from US Ambassador Janet
Sanderson on October 1, 2008, <a
href="https://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/10/08PORTAUPRINCE1381.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://wikileaks.org']);"
target="_blank">stated that</a>, “A premature departure of
MINUSTAH would leave the [Haitian] government…vulnerable
to…resurgent populist and anti-market economy political
forces—reversing gains of the last two years.”</p>
<p>The corrupt and repressive regime of President Michel
Martelly has proudly <a
href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFEQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalresearch.ca%2Fhaiti-is-open-for-business-government-complicity-in-wage-theft-by-foreign-factories%2F5360409&ei=_u06VOytI82nyAS_wIHYCg&usg=AFQjCNFtPegPzgzp_NJ8ZyS3QrZo5bLqBQ&sig2=g71OjaJL3BT1_7oUje0asg"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.google.ca']);"
target="_blank">boasted that</a> “Haiti is open for
business”. Indeed, this is true – however it is the people and
the land that are being sold. Canadian mining companies like
St. Genevive and Eurasian Minerals have taken advantage of
weak laws to prospect new sites covering enormous swaths of
territory (an estimated <a
href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/haitian-senate-calls-for-halt-to-mining-activities/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.ipsnews.net']);"
target="_blank">1/3 of Northern Haiti</a> has been granted
to companies via permit), setting up the potential for
substantial displacement through forced evictions and
environmental destruction. Montreal based Gildan Activewear
(the world’s largest manufacturer of blank T-shirts) has
routinely pressured the Haitian government to block an
increase in Haiti’s abysmally <a
href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2F2014%2F02%2F11%2Fhaitian_garment_workers_low_pay_has_them_still_going_hungry.html&ei=_u06VOytI82nyAS_wIHYCg&usg=AFQjCNGRYI9wcBnmwWabKtlxR0iiLbuXjA&sig2=Y5kJEqt0UYsOJMCZgBXMAg"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.google.ca']);"
target="_blank">low daily minimum wage</a> and have <a
href="http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/node/1040"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://en.maquilasolidarity.org']);"
target="_blank">undermined unionization efforts</a> in their
plants.</p>
<p>MINUSTAH has carried out a series of human rights violations
resulting in a loss of Haitian sovereignty, stability, dignity
and life. Its record of engaging in acts of extrajudicial
murder, sexual assault, suppressing peaceful political
protests, undermining democracy and introducing cholera into
Haiti are more than enough grounds to revoke its mandate. Yet
for geopolitical and economic reasons, this does not happen.</p>
<p>As people of good conscience and principled
internationalists, we collectively have the capacity and the
resources to force an end to the military occupation of Haiti.
However, we will not be able to fulfill this potential and
stand in solidarity with the laboring classes in Haiti, if we
don’t organize <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/campaigntoendtheoccupationofhaiti"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.facebook.com']);"
target="_blank">campaigns in Canada</a> and <a
href="http://haitinominustah.info/2014/06/01/call-to-mobilize-to-end-military-occupation-of-haiti-june-1-october-15-2014/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://haitinominustah.info']);"
target="_blank">across the world</a> that pressure
contributing states to end their provision of military and
police personnel to MINUSTAH’s occupation force.</p>
<p>Our opposition to the military occupation of Haiti ought to
take the form of grassroots-oriented campaigns that educate,
mobilize, and organize membership-based organizations to add
the end to the occupation to their organizational programme.
It is critically necessary to reach out to the people in the
spaces in which they are present, and offer specific actions
that they may carry out to force the withdrawal of the
occupation troops.</p>
<p>We have a moral and political obligation to support the
struggle for self-determination by the popular classes in
Haiti. The successful Haitian Revolution eliminated the
enslavement of Afrikans in Haiti, and lit the fire of freedom
in slaveholding states in the Americas.</p>
<p>The people of Haiti <a
href="http://thoughtmerchant.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/latin-americas-debt-to-haiti-the-untold-story/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://thoughtmerchant.wordpress.com']);"
target="_blank">demonstrated their solidarity</a> with the
colonized peoples in South America by providing a place of
refuge, guns, ammunition, personnel, and a printing press to
Simon Bolivar’s campaign to liberate the region from Spanish
colonialism. The French Revolution and the American Revolution
cannot lay claim to being beacons and agents of emancipation
in the Americas.</p>
<p>As we work to rid Haiti of MINUSTAH’s occupation forces, we
ought to be motivated by the fact that we are continuing a
long and proud tradition of people-to-people solidarity in
support of emancipation in the Americas. Haiti is the
architect and pioneer of this principled political tradition.
We should remember this legacy as we call for the Security
Council to pull out the occupation troops from Haiti.</p>
<p><em><b>Kevin Edmonds </b>is a PhD student and member of the
Toronto Haiti Action Committee and the Campaign to End the
Occupation of Haiti.</em></p>
<p><em><b>Ajamu Nangwaya</b> Ph.D., is an educator. He is an
organizer with the Campaign to End the Occupation of Haiti,
and the Organization of Afrikan Struggles and International
Solidarity.</em></p>
</div>
</font>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>