Reuters Photo| Hundreds of Thousands demonstrate on July 15, 2006, Aristide's birthday, demanding release of political prisoners, return of President Aristide and a stop to the coup d'etat oppressions

White (the foreigner's) sexual abuse of the poor and powerless in Haiti

Sexual Tourism in Haiti on Film

Arbitrary and Capricious
rules of "justice" and defamatory,
simplistic and unfair mainstream
media reporting apply to the
poor in Site Soley,
Haiti - Site Soley Update
April 19, 2007

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BBC uncovers fresh Haitian child abuse
claims agains UN "peacekeepers"

"We are not Kidnappers"
Site Soley youth activist say: "We are Not The Ones who are the Kidnappers. We did not kidnap the UN soldier as reported. UN wants no peace in Haiti. They want us at war in order for them to stay in Haiti (English translation & Kreyol audio), Ezili Danto Witness Project, interview direct from Haiti, translated by Frantz Jerome, Ezili Danto Witness Project, May 22, 2006

Original Kreyol Audio of Interview

(See Update on Site Soley and Police relationship, Haitian police make goodwill visit to slum, Oct 3, 2006)
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HLLN on USAID/OTI Program Fact Sheet Report: More than 10 million US Dollars spent since May 2004 to decimate the Lavalas Party in Haiti

USAID/OTI Haiti Program Fact Sheet, dated May 22, 2006, states that "Since its inception in May 2004, the OTI program has committed over $10M towards 444 small grants in at-risk communities in Port-au-Prince, Saint-Marc, Petit Goâve, Cap Haïtien, and Les Cayes. This work is already making a difference. OTI activities have not only succeeded in mobilizing these communities towards positive change, but also stabilizing these areas by providing short-term employment to several thousand people and alternatives to at-risk youth and former gang members."

Yet, that's not the common view of the majority poor in Haiti affected by these USAID/OTI/OIM programs............

******
Top Haitian Police Chief, Michael Lucius, indicted for corruption, kidnappings and other crimes, resigns

MINUSTHA Bring More Turmoil to the People of Site Soley

Interview of Site Soley grassroots activist in Haiti: "We did not kidnap the UN soldier as reported. The UN wants war in order to stay in Haiti. May 22, 2006, Ezili Danto Witness Project (English translation & Kreyol audio)

English translation by Frantz Jerome
***********************

Original Kreyol Audio of Interview
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HLLN Collaborator in Haiti: ......... The Site Solèy files are a real headache. The grassroots militants say that they are at peace. Peace so that there is no violence. But apparently MINUSTHA does not want peace to reign in Haiti. Therefore, for the past two days, the 18th, 19th and 20th of May, these past three days, MINUSTHA wanted to bring turmoil to Site Solèy. Indeed there are some comrades, those I refer to as comrades are, General TouTou and Amaral. These guys were calling for mobilization this past weekend. Evens was among those invited by the UN soldiers to come negotiate a compromise. According to the grassroots militants, some of them were kidnapped by MINUSTHA. One of the kidnapped was named Henry; the Brazilian soldiers had kidnapped him and some other militants.

The militants were invited on board an armored vehicle but the condition was that one of the Brazilian soldiers would be left behind until they came back. The other militants made sure to keep the Brazilian soldier with them. If the others were not freed, one does not know what would have happened in Site Solèy, for there was much shooting, burning tires, barricades were erected, Raras took to the streets. We are going to hear one of the grassroots militants of Site Solèy.


Site Soley Youth Activist: ....Evens, the white men (met men sou li) took him unexpectedly and right away, we, as militants in the City (Site Solèy), said that the white men could not go with him. The same way that Guy Phillipe fought against President Aristide, we, in turn, rebelled against the transition government; against this government and demanded the return of President Aristide, which resulted in February 7th.

Haitian Journalist: What did you do to the white men (UN soldiers)?


Site Soley Youth Activist: What we did to the soldiers, we organized a peaceful protest, calling for the erection of barricades to prevent their exit (from Site Solèy) with him (Evens). Fortunately they liberated him (Evens) and we are happy.

Haitian Journalist: We learned that you kidnapped two whites?

Site Soley Youth Activist: They say that we kidnapped the whites. That's in the realm of rumor (not true). We know that we did not kidnap any whites because we staged a peaceful civil disobedience/demonstration.

Haitian Journalist: The white men had decided to go with Evens?

Site Soley Youth Activist: The white men had decided take him. But we decided otherwise and said that we’d rather have their armored tanks crush us alive before we would let them take Evens away. It's the same way we strongly reacted when we recently heard the French ambassador claim, the other day, that there would be no amnesty for those who staged the armed resistance against the transition government these last two years. We say that if there is to be no amnesty for us, there can’t be amnesty for neither Guy Philippe nor Winter Etienne or Ti Wil and many more people, including many in the Bourgeoisie sector as well. If there is no amnesty for those who resisted, there can’t be amnesty for anybody.

Haitian Journalist: But there was a panic in the Site Soley? There was shooting?

Site Soley Youth Activist: There was shooting but it was the whites (soldiers) who were shooting because we erected the barricades to hamper them. Well, it was our decision to die rather than let them leave with Evens.

Haitian Journalist: And why do you think the whites decided to arrest the Site Solèy activist?
Site Soley Youth Activist: The way the whites decided to arrests is in the realm of tasks defined for them by the bourgeoisie.

Haitian Journalist: Is it your understanding that it was the white men that invited him to this trap?

Site Soley Youth Activist: He was trapped by the whites (UN soldiers) in the realm of their alleged "peace work activities and organization for peace." We want to work for peace between ourselves and between us the Haitian population. But, we understand that the whites don’t really want to leave. They’d rather have a country at war, a hot country so they can remain here. And us, as far as we are concerned we don’t want war. We want peace. We want to make real peace.

Haitian Journalist: But yesterday you indeed resisted in the City?

Site Soley Youth Activist: Yes, we truly resisted yesterday so that the whites would set Evens free.

Haitian Journalist: And you are determined to defy in these situations?

Site Soley Youth Activist: Yes, we are determined to protest as long as these situations exist. That is why we ask President Preval that in the name of the struggle we waged that birthed February 7th (elections) we want amnesty for participants at all
levels, at whichever social class.

Haitian Journalist: But as far as you are concerned in the City, you want peace?

Site Soley Youth Activist: We want peace, …we don’t just want peace for only the City. We want peace for the whole country, so that real investments, as President (Preval) has asked for, may come to Haiti. Peace for us all. The same way President Aristide used to ask for peace, peace, peace - that is how we are preaching for peace. Peace for school, peace for… Because there is something that President Aristide had said, there cannot be (good living, inclusion, opportunity, peace) only for an isolated group, there must be opportunity for everyone. There must be an effort at a larger inclusion. That is why we voted on February 7th to include more.

The transition government did not want to give us anything. The transition government was engaged in a witch-hunt, massacres, jamming the prisons full of political prisoners. We are asking President Preval as soon as possible, before Gerard Latortue, to…

Haitian Journalist: As far as disarmament, give us some information, are you ready to disarm?

Site Soley Youth Activist: Well, we are ready for disarmament… They say we are armed, so we are ready to disarm ourselves. But, they must disarm also those living in Montagne Noire, Peguyville, Petionville, Canapevert, Lallue, Pelrin. They must disarm them first, have them surrender their arms. Then they may come to take ours. Because we can’t be body and soul at their mercy. For, the transition government was engaged with them in a witch-hunt, a massacres against us. If we had nothing to resist with but peaceful resistance, we would have perished. Since they say that we, from below, have been involved in kidnapping, we say that we have not been involved in kidnapping.

Haitian Journalist: Explain it to the listeners.

Site Soley Youth Activist: To the listeners I will say that we were not involved in kidnapping, because a kidnapping starts in the heights and comes downtown (to Site Soley). We don’t have anybody working at the (uptown) banks. We don’t have any information on how much money people have. It is the people who live in the more uptown, secluded neighborhoods, for example Handal who was arrested and the other big houses in Petionville that was used to keep kidnapped victims. They choose never to talk about them…

HLLN Haiti Collaborator: There you have it. This gives you a glimpse on the
situation in Site Solèy. The men say that they don't know people who work at the big banks, don't know people who could give them info on people with big bank accounts and assets. Therefore did not know people who would have a lot of money. It is those big men who have a lot of money, they are the ones who know who has more money than them and they are the ones who arrange for a poor gang to kidnap their target.

Let’s get back to the situation in Site Solèy. The Jordanians left their base in Site Solèy and were replaced by Brazilian soldiers. What will be the new attitudes inside Site Solèy now? We plan on meeting with general Toutou, so that he can give us some information about the attitude they will have in the presence of the new United Nations’ soldiers, in Site Solèy.

END OF REPORT (See Update on Site Soley and Police relationship,
Haitian police make goodwill visit to slum, Oct 3, 2006 | Top Haitian Police Chief, Michael Lucius, indicted for corruption, kidnappings and other crimes, resigns )

******SEE a mainstream paper's version:
Haiti gang holds, then releases Brazilian officer, By Joseph Guyler Delva
and Tom Brown |Reuters, May 19, 2006 - Ezili Danto Archives
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-05/msg00013.html

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 18 (Reuters) - A gang that controls Haiti's
largest and most violent slum took a Brazilian army colonel hostage on
Thursday and threatened to kill him to thwart what the gang's leader said was
an attempt by U.N. peacekeepers to arrest him.

Tensions were flaring in Cite Soleil when two Reuters reporters seeking to
interview the gang leader, known as Commander Evens, came across the hostage
in the teeming shantytown.

Brazilian Col. Odair, who declined to give his first name, was being held by
dozens of Evens' young followers.

Several, speaking Creole, said loudly he would be killed if Evens, whom they
believed had been detained by Brazilian peacekeepers, was not freed
immediately.

Odair was set free after being held for at least two hours in barren
storefront painted with images of Ernesto 'Che" Guevara and former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was toppled by an armed revolt in February 2004.
"I'm being held hostage," Odair said softly into his cell phone shortly
before being ordered to sit on a bench and remove his helmet and open his
flak jacket.

One gang member crouching over the colonel put his fingers around his skull
menacingly after Odair removed his helmet.

The colonel was not allowed to speak to the Reuters reporters, though he did
say briefly that there had been a misunderstanding between peacekeepers and
Evens' self-described soldiers.

Several of Haiti's disparate armed gangs have offered to lay down their
weapons after February's election of President Rene Preval, who took office
on Sunday. But none has disarmed so far, and they remain defiant in the face
of the U.N. mission in Haiti, which is comprises about 9,000 soldiers and
civilian police.

Thursday's incident came a day after Jordanian peacekeepers in Cite Soleil --
home to at least 300,000 people -- turned over command of the area to a
Brazilian force.

U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst denied that Evens, who features high on the
Haitian National Police's most-wanted list, had been targeted for arrest.
Wimhurst said the Brazilians had prearranged a meeting which went off as
planned, but led to rumors that Evens had been arrested.

Evens, however, told Reuters he had been bundled into an armored personnel
carrier and held against his will.

"They wanted to arrest me," he said. "They put me into the APC and they
wanted to take me to their base but the population intervened and prevented
that from happening.

"All we want for this country is peace. I don't think the whites want peace.
They should leave," said Evens, calling the U.N. peacekeepers "traitors."
Evens' loyalists, many barefoot and brandishing automatic assault rifles,
danced and fired volleys into the air when he returned to his warren of
shanties.

"If they want peace we want peace too," said one of Evens' followers,
referring to the peacekeepers as he stood guard over Odair. "If they want
war, we are ready for war."

USAID Spent More Than 10 million U.S. Dollars since May 2004 to Decimate Lavalas Party in Haiti, See USAID/OTI Haiti Program Fact Sheet, May 22, 2006
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ETOA-6Q35MS?OpenDocument

HLLN Note on USAID/OTI Haiti Program Fact Sheet, May 22, 2006:

USAID/OTI Haiti Program Fact Sheet report, dated May 22, 2006, states that "Since its inception in May 2004, the OTI program has committed over $10M towards 444 small grants in at-risk communities in Port-au-Prince, Saint-Marc, Petit Goâve, Cap Haïtien, and Les Cayes. This work is already making a difference. OTI activities have not only succeeded in mobilizing these communities towards positive change, but also stabilizing these areas by providing short-term employment to several thousand people and alternatives to at-risk youth and former gang members."

Yet, that's not the common view of the majority poor in Haiti affected by these USAID/OTI/IOM programs. According to knowledgeable Haitian observers in Haiti, the people of Haiti, especially those USAID labels as "at-risk youth and former gang members" are in greater misery since the coup d'etat precisely because USAID programs are used to undermined the Lavalas supporters and reinforce coup d'etat objectives. The people of Haiti, throughout Haiti, are dying of hunger, almost no access to clean water, while being systematically brutalized by USAID/OIT, IOM-type programs. In Site Soley, the Jordanian soldiers even tried to take over the water tower from the residents. In plain daylight the foreign soldiers and their support USAID NGO's are turning Haiti into a giant bordello for foreign sexual pleasures and white corruption. In this USAID's "positive change" Haiti, Haitian national security risk, Prosper Avril gets to sit in the front rows with Jeb Bush at the Boca Raton regime's May 14, 2006 orchestrated inaugural of Haiti's duly elected president. Condemned criminals, like Louis Jodel Chamblain and Guy Phillipe are galloping free in Haiti, while Haiti's former Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune, rots in a USAID-supported Haitian jail.

If one were to asked the "at-risk" Haitian youth or the so-called "former gang members" they would tell you that Haitian participants in these USAID/OTI, IOM programs, who do not provide information against Lavalas or work on behalf of the internationals and their wealthy few in Haiti, are systematically blacklisted, hunted down, jailed, summarily executed, brutalized and certainly denied humanitarian assistance and USAID/OTI "small grants in at-risk communities in Port-au-Prince, Saint-Marc, Petit Goâve, Cap Haïtien, and Les Cayes."

The fact is, young Haitian men are routinely rounded up and crowded into the US/Canada/France/UN Latorture jails, while known human rights abusers in the former Haitian army, FRAPH and their civilian/Group 184 organizations and partners are the ones given USAID "grants", 10-years back pay and jobs in USAID/OTI, IOM programs, are ones given DDR or jobs with the coup d'etat government, coup d'etat police force, jobs at the UN, their NGOS, and in the "international community." At an USAID-sponsored soccer game, entitled Summer Camp for Peace on August, 20, 2005, dozens of Haitian men and women where shot and hunted down and cut to pieces, because they were suspected of being Lavalas supporters. USAID, IOM and the Haitian Secretary of State organized the Summer Camp for Peace program for Youth and Sports especially for the youth of various “hot- neighborhoods” around the city of Port au Prince, Haiti. A UN contingent of soldiers was less than 100-feet away and did not intervene to stop the slaughter of Haitian youths attending the soccer match. ( See. HLLN report on the Soccer Match massacre on Aug. 20 and 21, 2005 http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/soccer1.html)

The police officers eventually arrested for the soccer massacre were released. Neither USAID, IOM, the UN soldiers present, nor the Latortue government has ever been held accountable for the safety of the over 5,000 spectators who were at this "Summer Camp for Peace" USAID/OIM event. The UN has yet to provide answers or results of their investigations. This is the "difference" USAID/OTI/IOM and the coup d'etat governments of the US, France and Canada are making in Haiti. According to grassroots activists in Site Soley, the "international community" and UN soldiers use their "peace negotiations," "youth activities" and "disarmament programs" to trap Haiti's youths, kill them, disappear them or arrest them to be warehoused indefinitely in prisons in Haiti. See "Site Soley Youth Activist say: We are not the ones who are the Kidnappers." May 22, 2006

Kreyol Audio - http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/LK_May_22_1__3_.mp3

English Transcript: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/notkidnappers.html

See also: USAID/IOM Soccer Match Massacre and UN complicity in the killings
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/testimonies/soccer.html

HLLN, May 23, 2006
***********************
USAID/OTI Haiti Program Fact Sheet
*
Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Date: 22 May 2006

ReliefWeb
<http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ETOA-6Q35MS?OpenDocument>

OBJECTIVES
The Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) initiated a program in
Haiti in May 2004 in response to the political turmoil surrounding
the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29,
2004. OTI has provided $18.25M since the program's inception and is
working through the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The Haiti Transition Initiative (HTI) goal is to support a peaceful
transition by helping volatile communities create stability and
progress. The program has the following objectives:

1. Enhance citizen confidence and participation in a peaceful
political transition;

2. Empower citizens and the Haitian government to address priority
community needs;

3. Build cooperative frameworks between citizens and government
entities at all levels; and

4. Promote peaceful interaction among conflicted populations;
HTI works with community-based groups in targeted, conflict-prone
areas to identify small, high impact projects designed to engage a
wide cross-section of the community in its stabilization and
improvement. HTI acts to bridge the gap between the government and
marginalized communities by creating opportunities for dialogue and
collaboration around the rehabilitation of small infrastructure and
socio-cultural activities, especially for youth. IOM works with the
community, helping them to plan the projects, develop partnerships
with local officials and government Ministries, contribute workers,
security, and oversight, and provide ongoing maintenance and
supervision.

ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
Since its inception in May 2004, the OTI program has committed over
$10M towards 444 small grants in at-risk communities in
Port-au-Prince, Saint-Marc, Petit Goâve, Cap Haïtien, and Les Cayes.
This work is already making a difference. OTI activities have not
only succeeded in mobilizing these communities towards positive
change, but also stabilizing these areas by providing short-term
employment to several thousand people and alternatives to at-risk
youth and former gang members.

The program:
- Empowers and builds cohesion of vulnerable communities to actively
participate in positive community change;

- Supports the credibility and capacity of government institutions to
respond to community needs;

- Balances cooperation and communication among local leaders and
groups, Haitian civil society, and government; and

- Isolates potential spoilers of a peaceful transition by responding
to frustrations they could exploit.

OTI also continues to creatively multiply the effects of existing and
new programs. Building on the momentum around activities for at-risk
youth, HTI is integrating sports and culture-related infrastructure
and activities into a larger campaign to promote positive
participation, community cohesion and reconciliation. For example, in
collaboration with community radio stations, OTI provided training
and mentoring to young journalists from volatile areas that will
produce radio stories on experiences in their communities. These
activities are designed in such a way that they highlight the
importance of community commitment to and involvement in peace and
reconciliation.

For further information, please contact:
Katherine Donohue, OTI Haiti Program Manager, 202-712-0498,
kdonohue@usaid.gov

***********************
Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it:
See, the first US occupation and administration of Haiti and how, then too, President Wilson of the US called the US. marines exploits on behalf of New York bankers and multinationals, an exercize in "civilizing" and "developing" the "corrupt,," "failed" and "inept" blacks of Haiti....Charlemagne Pèralte Speaks!

- Inquiry into Occupation and Administration of Haiti," The U.S. Senate Investigates the Haitian Occupation interview Haitians about marine conduct in the guerrilla war against Haitian resistance.

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See Also:
Conclusions and Recommendations by the Commitee of Six Disinterested Americans

The People Were Very Peaceable": The U.S. Senate Investigates the Haitian Occupation

The Truth about Haiti: An NAACP Investigation
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Haiti’s most violent ghetto goes to Warsaw's silver screens
Cité Soleil featured in docudrama

By Martin Wesoly | Dominican Today, Oct. 9, 2006
http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=18405

WARSAW.- Representatives from 48 countries will breathe this capital’s Autumnal air during a celebration of the global art of movies, as Warsaw’s 22nd International Film Festival kicked off last Friday.

The event features this year main competitions are New Films, New Directors, and in International, Regional and Feature-Length Documentary, with 157 films selected from hundreds of entries and from the programs of the leading film festivals, screened in cinemas across Poland’s capital.

Many of the productions’ world premiere took place just weeks or even days ago, at a just concluded festival in Toronto, and earlier ones in Venice and Lugarno.

One of these, Ghosts of Cité Soleil, is competing in the Documentary category is a first feature-length productdion of the Danish filmmaker Asger Leth. His father Jorgen Leth -a director as well- made films in Haiti since the early 1980s and has lived there since 1991, from 1999 to 2005 as a Danish consul in Jacmel.

The movie focuses on the actual events surrounding the last months of Jean Bertrand Aristide's presidency

The story is about two brothers from Port-au-Prince, living on the edge of life in Cité Soleil, considered one of the world’s poorest, roughest, and most dangerous slums. They are the leaders of the local slum gang whose fellows are known as chimères, or ghosts.

One of them wants to fight for the president, dreaming of one day joining Aristide’s Lavalas party, whereas he other wants to live free, out of the political machinery and brutal reality driven by the notorious violence. Instead of being a part of strong-arm militias, helping to quell the resistance to Aristide, he opts to find his way in music, writing rap lyrics. A French relief worker is the love interest, with whom they both fall for.

Director Asger Leth and his crew had an exceptional chance to reach the heart of that Haitian ghetto and get to know gang culture in the months leading up to Aristide’s forced ouster in February 2004.

Last Tuesday the situation took unexpected turn as heavily armed policemen entered the slum, shaking hands and chatting with inhabitants in a gesture of friendship expected to reduce a hatred of locals against the authorities. Cité Soleil, is currently a stronghold of supporters of president Rene Preval's predecessor which in recent years had become a lawless, no-man’s land for anyone but the gang members, who the government has yet to persuade to lay down their arms.

World famous Haitian-born rapper and reggae singer Wyclef Jean also stars as himself in the movie.
Author: Martin Wesoly
**********************************************
Haiti police make goodwill visit to slum
By STEVENSON JACOBS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

(Posted at: SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Haiti_Lawless_Slum.html
Tuesday, October 3, 2006)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Police entered Haiti's worst slum for the first time in nearly three years on Tuesday, strolling past bullet-scarred buildings and shaking hands with onlookers in a goodwill visit aimed at restoring order in the gang-controlled area.

The hour-long tour of Cite Soleil was the latest sign of easing tension between President Rene Preval's new government and gang members blamed for a wave of violence that threatens to destabilize the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Hundreds of people cheered as dozens of heavily armed police walked through the lawless slum, not far from the bullet-riddled shell of the area's old police station - destroyed during a February 2004 revolt that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Smiling and waving, the police chatted with residents and visited a U.N. military base that has served as the slum's only authority since the revolt.

"The people of Cite Soleil have been waiting a long time for police to have a presence in the community. It's a very happy day," police inspector general Jean Saint-Fleur said as U.N. troops atop armored cars kept guard, their rifles trained down dirt alleys.

Saint-Fleur called the police visit "the first steps" at reopening a base in Cite Soleil but declined to say when that would happen.

Many Haitians said they couldn't remember the last time they saw police inside the staunchly pro-Aristide slum, a warren of scrap metal shacks where clashes between militants and U.N. troops are common.

Haitian police were accused of summary executions and arbitrary arrests of pro-Aristide slum dwellers during the 2004-2006 rule of a U.S.-backed interim government.

"We welcome the police back. Maybe now we'll have peace in Cite Soleil," said Gillen Jean, a 26-year-old fruit vendor.

Only a few months ago, the visit would have provoked a clash with area gang leaders accused in scores of kidnappings and killings since the revolt. In May, two policemen were shot to death and their bodies burned after chasing a suspect into the slum's outskirts.

The government recently began negotiating with gang members in Cite Soleil to persuade them to lay down their arms and dozens have so far agreed. The talks came after Preval warned gangsters in August to disarm or face death.

Jean Yves Laguerre, a Cite Soleil community leader, said the visit should improve life in the area.
"Now the police and the people can work together, and those of us who want to leave Cite Soleil can," Laguerre said, describing the slum as "a prison."

**********************************************
**********************************************
Haiti: World Bank Approves $1.25 Million Grant to
Develop Community Programs in Cité Soleil and Bel Air
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - 10:01 PM
Source: http://www.harolddoan.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2381

Press Release - World Bank
Oct. 3 2006

The World Bank approved a $1.25 million grant to support community projects and strengthen community-based organizations in Cité Soleil and Bel Air, two of the poorest and most violence-stricken slums in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The new Post-Conflict Fund (PCF) grant, specifically seeks to help support stabilization in the slum areas by quickly providing improved access to basic services and income-generation opportunities for local residents; and strengthening local community organizations.

“This grant gives residents of Cité Soleil and Bel Air an opportunity to actively participate in the development of their own communities, the hardest hit areas in Port-au-Prince” said Caroline Anstey, World Bank Director for the Caribbean. “We hope that the projects funded by this grant will contribute to improving human security and living conditions for thousands of struggling Haitians residing in these marginalized areas” she added.

Specifically, the Port-au-Prince Area Community Driven Development Pilot Project has three key components:

1. Technical Assistance, Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening of Community Groups/Organizations, towards the planning, management and implementation of participatory community-driven development.

2. Community projects to improve severely deteriorated basic physical infrastructure, while quickly providing income-generation opportunities by rehabilitating streets and drainage canals; rehabilitating potable water supplies; helping to upgrade sanitation facilities; and developing small livelihood/income-generating activities.

3. Project Administration and Management which will finance the costs associated with project implementation, project coordination, supervision, monitoring and evaluation.

The pilot project, which can subsequently be scaled up if proved successful, targets two areas which encompass some 20 different subdivisions with a combined population of about 400,000 inhabitants, of which about 350,000 live in Cité-Soleil. It is expected that some 45,000 family members from poor families will benefit from income generation opportunities created by the project in addition to improving access to basic, socio-economic infrastructure and services.

Furthermore, some 300 representatives of Community Based Organizations and local authorities will be trained in participatory and inclusive community development.

The pilot Community Driven Development Project is part of an accelerated World Bank effort to deliver services to the poorest slums of Port-au- Prince, areas hitherto largely inaccessible due to security concerns. On September 25th, a School Feeding Program financed by the World Bank's Post Conflict Fund began distributing meals to 5,600 school children in Cité Soleil. A similar school feeding program will soon begin in Bel Air.

The World Bank currently has $66 million in ongoing pipeline disbursements in Haiti for transport and territorial development, community driven development and disaster management.

Additionally, the Bank pledged US$61 million in new financing for the period from July 2006 to September 2007 during a donors’ conference held in Haiti on July 25, 2006. The World Bank will participate in the next International Donors' meeting on Haiti due to be held in Madrid, Spain on November 30, 2006.
**********************************************

Ezili Danto's Update on Site Soley:

The Untouchables:

Arbitrary and Capricious rules of "justice" and unfair, defamatory and simplistic mainstream media reporting apply to the poor in Site Soley, Haiti. not to the untouchables living behind lead gates, tropical flowers and UN/US guns, April 19, 2007, Haitian Perspectives

The UN sponsored a mass attack, starting on Dec. 22, 2006 and throughout the first three months of 2007, " to root out gangs" in Site Soley. The initial reasons given by the UN for the attacks was to apprehend kidnappers. More than 400 arrests are claimed to have been made. The number of civilians caught and killed in the crossfires are not reported by the UN. But, the morgue is overflowing with unclaimed corpses that families can't afford to bury. (Haiti's children die in UN crossfire by Sandra Jordan, The Observer) Eventually, Ti Blan and Evens, alleged "gangster" were reported arrested and the international press reported that Site Soley residents are "enjoying more undisturbed nights since U.N. peacekeepers cleared out armed gangs." (Haiti slum residents enjoy new peace, want more by Joseph Guyler Delva, April 18, 2007, Reuters).

Is Marie Daniel Remy, the mother of two little girls slain by UN gunfire as they slept in their beds, 7-year old Stephanie Lubin and 4-year old Alexandra Lubin, enjoying "more undisturbed nights" and "the new peace" since more than 400 UN troops attacked the populous district of Site Soley on December 22, 2006? Everyone in Marie Daniel Remy's house were wounded by gunfire that night, including her husband Mercius Lubin. A pregnant Marie Daniel herself was shot and lost her baby in addition to her two little girls. Marie Daniel's knee was shattered by a powerful UN bullet shot from one of the four UN armoured personnel carriers -APC tanks - shooting into the heavily populated residential area outside her house. She is now partially paralyzed. Her husband, Mercius Lubin, still suffers from his bullet wounds. It took a campaign effort from concerned members in the New York Haitian community to gather funds so this family could at least be able to afford funerals and claim their two little girls from the morgue. Has the UN bothered to notice Marie Daniel Remy and Mercius Lubin's sleepless nights? Site Soley is bulging with stories like that of this pregnant mother who lost all her children, her house, her health, her belongings, everything, to UN gunfire. Are the countless Site Soley inhabitants whose homes were bulldozed and destroyed by UN tanks, enjoying "more undisturbed nights" and a "new peace?" Are the owners of the small vendor businesses and schools destroyed by the UN attacks in Site Soley "enjoying more undisturbed nights" and a "new peace?" (See Photo of Alexandra and Stephanie Lubin at Haitiaction.net and Lakounewyork.com for "Konbit pou lantèman Stephanie ak Alexandra Lubin epi Soutyen pou fanmi Lubin an.")

Many of those over-400 arrested say they are not members of "a gang," or, part of any kidnapping rings. That their only crime is poverty and living in Site Soley. Their parents and neighbors back those claims.

Evens claims he was tortured by police. Ti Blan still maintains he's an activist, not a kidnapper or "gang leader." His pleas, as well as that of over 3,000 political prisoners currently being held indefinitely for years since the bicentennial coup d'etat, are in vain.

In Haiti, there are the untouchables, that is - folks aligned with the 2004 coup-d'etat, and then there's the rest of Haiti.

In an article titled "Haiti slum residents enjoy new peace, want more" about Site Soley, Reuters' reporter, Joseph Guyler Delva, writes:

"Residents of Haiti's largest slums are enjoying more undisturbed nights since U.N. peacekeepers cleared out armed gangs, but they still want to see food, jobs and other hoped-for benefits of the new peace.

U.N. troops have dismantled a number of street gangs in the capital's sprawling slums since the beginning of the year and forced dozens of feared gang leaders to flee.

But residents say a dearth of social and economic programs may yet hamper efforts to achieve durable stability in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas." (Haiti slum residents enjoy new peace, want more by Joseph Guyler Delva, April 18, 2007, Reuters)

Although Haitian activists have, for years, consistently denounced mainstream reporters' use of the term "slum dwellers," or "slum residents," or "chimeres" to describe the up to 450,000 sentient beings - mothers, fathers, boys, girls, babies, students, grandparents, friends, neighbors and workers, et al - who make up the community of Site Soley and other such poor and populist districts of Haiti, Reuters reporter, Guyler Delva and his editors at Reuters, still cannot find a less derogatory manner to describe the sentient, living, breathing human beings of Site Soley, Haiti.

"Slum residents" are not "human" are they? Can be no more than criminals, bottom-feeders, animals, fair game, right? Thus, one need not read the article itself to already get the not-so-subtle Reuters message from the title of the article itself "Haiti slum residents enjoy new peace, want more"!

It seems that the more than 3,000 indefinitely-incarcerated-without-charges-or-a-hearing-prisoners-in-Haiti, who are mostly and primarily from Site Soley, Bel Air, Site De Dieu, Fort National, La Saline, Martissant and other poor neighborhoods, or, who represent the poor politically from the Lavalas party, are all lumped into the same "cell" - not seen as viable human beings, endowed with human and legal rights or even entitled to be treated with simple dignity and respect, by the authorities reporting about them, arresting them, terrorizing them and warehousing them.

The Reuters article, like much of the other mainstream articles on Haiti and Site Soley feed and add to, the one-side, racist, mainstream line that's currently selling Internationally about Haiti and its peoples. (Go to: The Western vs. the Real Narrative on Haiti and Haitian Nights, Again). It tells of "gangs" and "bandits" having been apprehended, but not that many accused of being "gangsters" are just ordinary Haitian civilians, and Haitians civilians living in Site Soley and other poor neighborhoods, who mostly resist or sympathize with those who resist the UN occupation of Haiti, the dictatorship of the foreign-supported economic elite and the remobilizing of the old Haitian military under the new mask of "police." It doesn't emphasize that most of the organized resistance to Bush regime change and occupation, since February 29, 2004, is through non-violent demonstrations by unarmed protestors. That many who have taken up arms or joined those who have arms have done so in pure self-defense because they were getting slaughtered by the coup d'etat police, paramilitaries shooting them behind powerful UN firepower cover. It doesn't emphasize that a great number of those arrested and indefinitely incarcerated have no connection with gang activities and where just arrested for being Black, poor, Haitian, male and living in Site Soley. It does not report on the political prisoners in Haiti. It does not report the misery, corruption, terror and chaos the UN and US and internationally-trained "new" Haitian police have brought to a certain segment in Haitian society - the majority poor, non-Eurocentric, Haitians of Haiti.

Generally, the coup d'etat mercenaries, assailants and death squads are granted freedom, no jail time and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) benefits by the ruling UN military proxies implementing Bush regime change in Haiti. (Two Faced in Haiti by Justin Podur and from the Ezili Danto Witness Project: Site Soley united, wants peace. Why is UN attacking Site Soley, not equally applying DDR?)

The unequal application of the law, and underreporting of it, is nowhere as vivid as when alleged poor "gangsters" get arrested, tortured and thrown in indefinite detention for years without trial. While pro-coup-d'etat folks accused of the same things - kidnapping, terrorizing the population, murder and other wrongdoings - either are summarily released from prison (like Stanley Handal, Jerry Narcius and the Gran Ravine police officers) in the rare case that they are even arrested or, simply have to resign from their post and never be punished, as is the case with Stanley Handal, Jerry Narcius and with Michael Lucius - Top Haitian police officer indicted for kidnapping .

The incontrovertible and cumulative evidence indicates, in current occupied Haiti, it is a Haitian person's collaboration with the UN occupiers and Haitian elites which determines guilt, innocence, punishment, the ability to make a livelihood and keep safe. To wit, Jodel Chamblain, the FRAPH death squad former second-in-command, was summarily released from prison, acquitted of charges for Site Soley burnings and massacres of Site Soley civilians in the first coup d'etat (1991-1994) and for Antoine Izmery's murder, in a sham overnight trial during the time of Minister Gousse under the imposed Bush Boca Raton Regime in 2004. The pro-coup d'etat death squads of Guy Philippe, Louis Jodel Chamblain, Ti Wil and Lame Timanchet still run free, unimpeded by the UN occupying forces and collaborating bloody Haitian police, to slaughter and intimidate the economic elites' opponents - that is, the majority poor in Haiti. Still, mainstream papers like Reuters see Site Soley residents and belittle their plight, belittle and dismiss their right to life, dignity, equal rights, to equal application of DDR and other programs offered to UN syncopants, write of them as "slum residents."

That pretty much says it all about why Reuters won't emphasize in the subject article that kidnappers, as well as their victims, come from all stratas of Haitian society, and are especially known to be organized by the police and the rich-foreign-supported-Haitian-merchants, or, write more about the UN and bloody Haitian police slaughters of Haitian civilians in Site Soley for political and economic purposes of the 2004 coup d'etat still being maintained under Preval's mask of legitimacy. Reuters continues to portray Haiti's insecurity problems as ONLY a problem of street crimes in the poor neighborhoods, or the problem of "those young black males in Site Soley" and hardly ever a word about the root of discontent that triggered the resistance in Site Soley and elsewhere in Haiti.

There's no or very little consistent reporting on the root cause of Haiti's insecurity issues. Why? Because "the 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti was preceded by a media coup d'etat which portrayed the foreign-supported, McCain/IRI-created-Haitian-opposition, as a legitimate and broad-based "civil society" and not just the same-old-same authotarian Duvalierist/macoute/bourgeois despotic forces (acting as agent for the neocolonialists) that the Haitian majority have been struggling to overcome since 1806." (Haitian Nights, Again). Back then Reuters wasn't writing, as its reporter states in the subject article, that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide "was pushed from power by an armed rebellion in 2004." Back then this Reuters, AP and other mainstream reporters were emboldening the coup d'etat and its supporters by falsely reporting, ad nauseam, that President Aristide was pushed from power by a "popular uprising."

This same Reuters reporter currently writing about Site Soley's "undisturbed nights" and "new peace," also once reported this about the December 22 UN Christmas massacre in Site Soley: "They came here to terrorize the population," said Rose Martel, a slum dweller, referring to the police and UN troops. "I don't think they really killed the bandits, unless they consider all of us as bandits." (regarding UN assault on Dec. 22, 2006 on Site Soley residents)- Reuters.

But Haiti reporting by these folks is far from consistent, unless it's to degrade, dehumanize and criminalize the poor for being poor.

Mainstream reporters won't unequivocally write, what most Haitians are experiencing, saying and feeling, - that is - the real objective of the UN incursion into Site Soley is not to catch kidnappers but rather to annihilate a certain category of individuals, having nothing to do with street crimes, for very concrete political reasons. There are no follow up reports on the killing of Haitian civilians, or investigative reports on the culpability of the UN, the Haitian elites and their foreign backers, although practically every mainstream article manages to directly and indirectly imply that black-on-black crime and political fratricide is Haiti's main issue; and always manages to refer to Haiti's failures, instability and the "armed rebellion" that ousted President Aristide. Of course, for almost three years these same journalist were telling one and all it was a "popular uprising" that ousted President Aristide.

One day soon, perhaps these journalist will reach the full truth and also write, in every article, that Haiti's democratically elected government was ousted by US-backed "contra-like"-and-financed-forces, not "freedom fighters." One day, when it no longer can be used to save innocent Haitian lives, perhaps mainstream press reporters, like Reuters' Guy Delva, will write something newsworthy that doesn't just mimic the official State Department/UN line and views of the morally repugnant Haitian elites. Write something beyond insisting that it's black-on-black Haitian street crime that's keeping 9,000 UN soldiers in Haiti!!!

One day, maybe Reuters will actually do some reporting and inform the public about how Bush's regime changed failed Haitians and upheld the interests of the rich and the big corporations in Haiti.

One day, maybe Reuters will explain to its readers how every time