27449: Durban (comment): Cite Soleil Project I - Overview (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com> writes:

How do we remove weapons from gang members who have set themselves up
as the law in Cité Soleil without endangering residents, the PNH, U.N.
peacekeepers, or GOH employees?   Entering this neighborhood for a
house-to-house search is simply too dangerous, but fortunately it
should also be quite unnecessary.  Political courage and leadership
skills have been the missing link so far, but one can hope that the
degree of desperation may finally spark a solution.  Here is one idea:


A major new, weapons-free public works project is announced for Cité
Soleil with all present residents invited to participate.  The first
step will be a security pledge to residents followed by the
construction of an 8? high wall of stacked cement blocks around three
sides of this 2 square mile zone.  It will be nicknamed the "Sharon
Wall", after Israel?s Ariel Sharon, in the expectation that our project
will work and thus may even teach something about walls to Jordanian
peacekeepers!  Let?s ignore for a moment that present Cité Soleil
residents may include some unsavory characters.  The new wall would
feature well-fortified U.N. guard posts every 100', also in stacked
cement blocks and sandbags.  Residents would be hired for the
block-stacking project.

Simultaneously, a new tent city for 150,000 people will be constructed
just north of the zone and outside the wall.  As the wall nears
completion, residents will be encouraged to move out the Cité Soleil
and into the tents.  U.S foreign aid is probably still feeding about
10% of the people in Haiti every day, so setting up soup kitchens for
tent residents should be possible without significant additional
resources beyond what is already available.   The incentive to leave
Cité Soleil and register for a tent with the promise of good security
and daily food rations should prove irresistible to most.  The new tent
city would be under the joint patrols of the U.N. peacekeepers and the
PNH.  Residents who agree to leave Cité Soleil and not take valuable
tent space will be given financial compensation

As the wall is completed, people and vehicles will continue to be
allowed out of Cité Soleil, but re-entry will be gradually tightened
and eventually prohibited.  Food stocks will no longer be permitted to
enter either, and a weapons buy-back will be introduced for remaining
residents.  By this time, the fourth side of Cite Soleil, the
waterfront, will also be effectively blockaded, preferably by U.S.
Naval vessels cooperating with a Haitian government request to seize
any boats going into the zone.  Odds are excellent that the few
remaining residents will gradually filter out when they get hungry.

Specially chosen, community organizers, or "social assistants" from the
state university and several private universities in Haiti will help
ensure a thriving and organized tent city, far better than the wretched
and dangerous conditions left behind.  Most importantly, we are
generating hope, among a people who presently have none.  U.N
volunteers, the U.S. Peace Corps, church groups, and foreign medical
teams will be invited to help in this totally safe and effectively
policed tent city.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, with Cité Soleil proper
completely empty, U.N. peacekeepers will be making a thorough
house-by-house weapons search.  Obviously, no money will be paid for
those stashed weapons which turn up.

Next, project dollars are used to trace new streets and mark houses to
be removed to make room for those streets.  A big white "X" on houses
to be removed will do fine.  Put the curbs in right away to mark the
streets.  Put in street lighting on the assumption that we are going to
get this electricity problem resolved also.

In 6 months, with a new president in office, we should be ready to
allow registered tent residents back into Cité Soleil proper, in a
gradual and organized fashion.  Odds are good many will not want to
leave the tent city, but they will be encouraged to return to identify
and re-claim their homes.  Haitian judges with no ties to (and
prejudices from) Cité Soleil will be assigned to rapidly adjudicate
ownership/squatter claims.  People returning to find their homes marked
for removal for the new roads will temporarily return to the tent city
with a chit for some cement blocks from the soon-to-be demolished
"Sharon Wall" as in-kind compensation for their house.  Most will
eventually sell their blocks and move on, but some will actually use
them to build a new house.

How can we bring this happy project to fruition?  It has to start with
the commitment of all the players, perhaps convoked under the auspices
of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue in perhaps his final act of
statesmanship.  (Cité Soleil Project II continues with some further
thoughts on the hows and whys).

L. Durban