25474: (news) Chamberlain: Lawlessness in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(St. Petersburg Times, June 23, 2005)

Danger arises from all quarters in Haiti

By DAVID ADAMS



MIAMI - A friend recently began sending me copies of her family's personal
e-mails from Haiti.

She wanted me to get an insider's glimpse of how desperate things have
gotten  down there, asking only that I not publish any
names.

The correspondence reveals a scenario more shocking than I imagined,
tantamount to a total breakdown of society and the outbreak
of urban, class war. Security has so totally collapsed that armed gangs now
operate with impunity,  carrying out brutal
carjackings, home invasions and kidnappings in broad  daylight. U.N.
peacekeepers who took over security in Haiti a year ago after
the  ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide seem powerless to stop the
violence.

In one e-mail, a middle-aged businesswoman described how families have
become  virtual prisoners in their homes in recent weeks
due to the uncertainty of when armed criminals will strike.

"Every day you go out, you wonder if they'll kidnap you, since there are
many  every day, and some (of the victims) are people you
know," she writes. "So when will it be your turn?"

Police confirm up to 10 reported kidnappings a day. In the great majority
of  cases, families do not bother to contact the police.
Haiti's tiny and  ill-disciplined force is already hopelessly overwhelmed
and lacks the proper  training to negotiate ransoms.
Many Haitians also suspect - with good reason - that corrupt officers are
involved in the crimes.

Among the latest kidnapping victims earlier this month: a husband and wife
seized as they were opening their pharmacy business; a
woman and four children  on their way to school; and the former head of
protocol at the presidential  palace.

Cases run from relatively minor carjackings to the most brazen and horrific
 assaults. One man had his pickup truck seized at
gunpoint and was told he could buy it back for $20,000. He negotiated the
price down to $10,000, only to have the pickup stolen
again two weeks later.

Some homes are no longer safe, either. In one case in the capital, armed
men  raped a woman and her 10-year-old daughter, then
kidnapped a 9-month-old  baby.

In another case, a 60-year-old woman was kidnapped, stripped and tortured.
Her captors warned that Haiti's light-skinned, mixed
race elite were all now  targets.

Much of the violence is attributed to gangs from Aristide's slum
strongholds,  who appear to be conducting an orchestrated
destabilization campaign to scuttle elections due later this year.

Aristide loyalists have broadcast hit lists of their targets - bourgeois
businessmen - on the radio.

Victims also report that some of the kidnapping rings use safe-houses in
middle class neighborhoods, possibly with ties to police
and other businessmen  involved in drug trafficking.

The sad truth today is that violence is coming from all sides, according to
a  recent report by the highly respected
Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which monitors Haiti. While
pro-Aristide groups may be sponsoring some of the violence,
it noted that "extreme urban poverty" and the failure of public
institutions were just as much to blame.

In the 17 years that I have been covering Haiti, it's hard to recall a more
 desperate situation than exists today.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

When U.S. troops were sent to Haiti last year after Aristide's fall, there
was hope the country might be put back on the
democratic path. Those hopes  proved short-lived.

The U.N. peacekeepers say they were not prepared for this kind of urban
war.  Nor were U.S. officials. Late last month the U.S.
Embassy in Port-au-Prince  announced it was downsizing. It recommended all
American citizens leave the  country, even advising on
the safest routes to get to the international airport, which is surrounded
by slums. This week Canada also warned its citizens not
to travel to Haiti.

Efforts to improve the security situation are being made. International
donors met in Montreal last Friday to speed up delivery
of $1.3-billion in  financial aid pledged to Haiti. The United Nations also
voted Wednesday to beef up its peacekeeping mission
with 1,000 troops.

But judging by the e-mail I have been reading, hope is wearing thin.

Businesses are closing. School is out, and everyone who can is escaping to
spend  time with relatives in the United States, Canada
or France.

One e-mail ends: "One almost has the impression of being suicidal if you
decide to stay."