Haitians to U.N.: Please Leave

[naaman fletcher]

In a recent survey of perspectives on MINUSTAH in Port-au-Prince, 65 percent of respondents wanted the force to leave immediately or within the next year. A large majority was also skeptical of the force’s accountability, a likely testament to incidents that have occurred since the mission’s arrival in 2004.

In 2005, MINUSTAH raids into the impoverished community of Cite Soleil led to the deaths of between 25 and 30 civilians, according to human rights observers on the ground (the U.N. disputes the number of dead and claims victims were gang members). In several incidents, peacekeepers’ use of tear gas, rubber bullets and firearms to break up anti-U.N. demonstrations led to the death and injury of protesters. The apparent rape of an 18-year-old man by Uruguayan peacekeepers–caught on video and circulated widely in September–sparked fresh outrage.

While this latest incident has become the subject of internal investigation, U.N. peacekeepers are typically granted broad immunity from criminal prosecution in the country where they operate. In Haiti, the issue of U.N. accountability is particularly contentious given evidence that the country’s cholera epidemic, which has killed more than 6,000 Haitians since October 2010, originated with U.N. peacekeepers who dumped sewage into the Artibonite river. Haitian organizations have called for reparations to victims and a redirection of MINUSTAH’s nearly $800 million annual budget toward funding for cholera prevention.

Responding to calls for withdrawal, MINUSTAH spokesperson Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg told In These Times that in order for Haiti to become a fully functioning democratic state, MINUSTAH needs to continue building the country’s institutions. But a recent report from the group Harvard HealthRoots charges that MINUSTAH failed in its mandate to support the democratic process when, despite being charged with monitoring the 2010 national elections, it raised no objections to the exclusion of the country’s most popular political party.

http://inthesetimes.org/article/12254/haitians_to_un_please_leave

[ocpagu]

1. I support them.

Please, leave.