24494; Arthur (pub) Gunning down the poor (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Editorial from the quarterly publication of the UK-based Haiti Support Group

HAITI BRIEFING Number 54 March 2005

Gunning down the poor

Many of the poorer districts of Port-au-Prince – the sprawling capital that
is home to around two million people – continue to experience violent and
murderous clashes. Over 400 people have been killed in the last five months. Police
and UN patrols have exchanged fire with gunmen amidst the maze of narrow
streets and alleyways that criss-cross the residential ‘downtown’ areas. The
police and interim government representatives blame armed pro-Aristide gangs –
known as chimères – who, they say, attack the police and UN troops when they are
on patrol. On the other hand, spokespeople for Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas party,
and some residents interviewed by the local media, say that police enter
districts, shoot at anything that moves, and then arrest people for no apparent
reason. If local people are shooting at the police and the UN, it is to defend
themselves from what are perceived as unprovoked attacks on  communities
traditionally loyal to former president Aristide.

The reality of the situation is further obscured by the allegation that some
killings are the work of former soldiers dressed in police uniforms, while
other incidents apparently involve former policemen who had been dismissed by the
authorities and have subsequently turned their weapons against the interim
government. Add to this mix, the activities of rival gangs fighting for control
of certain districts, and the suggestion that some gang leaders are being paid
by political and/or business leaders – André Apaid has admitted his
relationship with Labanyè Robinson, a gang leader in the Boston section of Cité Soleil
– and a clear picture is hard to discern.

A recent editorial in the Haitian periodical, “Workers’ Voice” offered the
following interpretation:
“While claiming to be waging war on the chimères, the police are taking it
out on the poor. The principal victims of the chimères are the inhabitants of
the poor neighbourhoods such as Bel Air, Solino, Cité Soleil, Village de
Dieu…The population is caught in the crossfire between the chimères who extort and
repress them, and the police who shoot at them or, at best, arrest them.”

The editorial went on to note that the police leadership, and some so-called
political leaders, perceive the chimères and the entire population of certain
districts as one and the same thing, with certain elements even suggesting a
final solution: “to set fire to these neighbourhoods in order to eliminate all
the people that still live there.”

Such a view of Haiti’s poor – seeing them as a troublesome sector that needs
to be ‘controlled’, rather than as the 85% of the population that remains
excluded and effectively disenfranchised – presumably accounts for the tragic
events of 28 February, when police opened fire on a peaceful pro-Aristide
demonstration in Bel Air, killing four people.

____________


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