27241: Nugent (news opinion) Edouard: Top 10 Underreported Humanitarian Crises of 2005 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Submitted by Victoria Nugent Edouard (news report/opinion)

  Top 10 Under Reported Humanitarian Stories of 2005
  from Medecins Sans Frontieres Report dated Jan. 12, 2006

  Link to full report:

http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=BE9D3CA3-A88C-5381-
2B0F0FDC6FE53946&component=toolkit.report&method=full_html#haiti

  Report excerpt on Haiti:

  Many people in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, are trapped by the widespread
violence that has hit the city in waves since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was pressured into exile in February 2004.


  People have been shot and killed, deliberately and unintentionally, by all of
the armed factions fighting in the seaside slums, or "quartiers populaires,"
and the violence - both politically motivated and criminal - is spreading
throughout the city.
  MSF treated more than 2,250 people for violence-related injuries in 2005 at a
trauma center set up in the capital, including nearly 1,500 gunshot victims.
Half of those treated are women, children or the elderly, underscoring the toll
the violence has taken on civilians. Appalled by the deteriorating security
situation, in July MSF called on all armed groups to respect the safety of
civilians and to allow the wounded to access emergency medical care. The
following day, however, the trauma center received 27 gunshot victims -
three-quarters of them women and children - who were wounded during a day-long
military operation launched by the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
in Cité Soleil, the most violent part of the capital.
  In August, MSF reopened Choscal Hospital and the Chapi Health Center in the
heart of Cité Soleil, where 250,000 people live in abject poverty and were
effectively excluded from any health care. In just three months, MSF performed
nearly 12,000 medical consultations and treated more than 800 patients needing
emergency care.
  "Civilians in many parts of Port-au-Prince are struggling just to survive,"
said Ali Besnaci, head of mission for MSF in Haiti. "Everyday, people
throughout the city tell us that they have never experienced such levels of
violence before."


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