Haiti: Just When You Think It Can't Get Worse 

Saturday 7 May 2011 

by: Beverly Bell, Other Worlds

http://truthout.org/haiti-just-when-you-think-it-cant-get-worse/1304829823

We may soon look back on this period in Haiti with
greater appreciation. Amidst the world-historic levels
of death and suffering from last January's earthquake,
citizens have at least been spared the scale of
government violence that has marked much of their
nation's past (notwithstanding attacks against
internally displaced persons during forced evictions,
and occasionally against street protesters.)

This may change under Michel Martelly, the incoming
president. For starters, he wants to bring back the
army that former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
dismantled in 1995. Since Haiti already has a police
force to maintain public order and the country is not
expected to go to war, Martelly can have only one aim
for reintroducing armed forces: to reclaim the tool
that past presidents have used to shore up their power
by means of violent repression of dissent and
competition.

Forces are already readying for violence, which will
likely be exerted both through the army and through
gangs. Journalist Isabeau Doucet filed this eyewitness
report last month: "For over a year, on a hillside
south of Port-au-Prince, around 100 former soldiers and
young recruits train three times a week. They claim to
have a network of camps all over the country where
Haitian men meet and exercise, learn military protocol
and martial arts and receive basic training... The
black-and-red flag of Jean-Claude Duvalier's party
hangs in their tarpaulin dressing room... Somebody is
paying for this, even though they claim that it's
all-volunteer, and the current government is turning a
blind eye, if not giving tacit support."

Just how the forces of violence may ally with various
backers - some combination of Martelly and those
surrounding the returned former dictator Jean-Claude
Duvalier - is one question. Another is how much they
may tyrannize a citizens' movement which is demanding
solutions to widespread homelessness, unemployment, and
extreme poverty. Two U.S.-based groups supporting
community organizing in Haiti are already preparing
emergency responses in case significant political
violence should erupt.

Beyond Martelly's plans for an army, his past
associations raise concerns about what policies he may
bring to office. Martelly was public in his support for
the death squad-friendly regimes that reigned after
coups d'etat against Aristide (1991 and 2004). More
recently, Martelly has made such public statements as
"I would kill Aristide to? stick a dick up his ass."

Martelly won in a run-off in which less than one in
four registered voters bothered to turn out, meaning he
was endorsed by 16.7% of all registered voters. If this
sounds abysmally low for a mandate, it is lofty
compared to the 4.6% who are believed to have supported
Martelly in the first round. No one knows the figure
for sure, because that round was so fraudulent that
even the government's Provisional Electoral Council
refused to ratify it with a majority vote. While
legally, this should have nullified the first round,
the Organization of American States and the U.S.
government intensively pressured the Haitian government
to approve the elections and send Martelly to the
run-offs. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even
traveled to Haiti to ensure these outcomes.

After Martelly was declared president, Clinton said,
"Now he has a chance to lead and we are behind him. He
is committed to results. He wants to deliver for the
Haitian people. And we are committed to helping him do
so."

Other bad news dogs Haiti. The lives of those left
displaced from the earthquake are growing more, not
less, vulnerable, contrary to what one might expect
with the passing of time and the many billions of aid
dollars circulating.

A primary risk is cholera, which is due to spike once
the imminent rainy season hits, because the near-daily
storms will leave standing water and mud in most camps.
The camps are already the perfect breeding ground for
this disease of poverty, with their densely
concentrated populations who are frequently weak and
ill, often lack water - not just drinking water but
often any water at all - and suffer from a dearth of
hygiene options and medical care. A recent study in the
medical journal The Lancet predicted 779,000 cases and
11,100 deaths from cholera by the end of November.

With all humanitarian and international agencies in
Haiti aware of the dire risk of this illness, which can
result in death only a few hours after infection, 39%
of 'transitional shelters' still do not receive water
or basic sanitation services. Michelle Karshan, an
American advocate engaged in anti-cholera efforts,
reported: "There is a deadly shortage of available
cholera prevention and treatment supplies. And the most
important prevention of cholera transmission - creation
of a water system infrastructure making treated water
widely available - is still not off the ground, while
distribution of water continues to reach only a
minuscule number of camps. The majority of the
resource-poor camps are left to fend for themselves."
[1] The U.N. Cholera Appeal for Haiti has only received
45% of the funds it needs.

The deeper worry is why, with up to 1.5 million people
still homeless after 16 months, water purification
tablets and port-o-potties are being discussed as a
solution. The only way to make people safe from this
disease is to resettle them into decent housing. Yet
still neither the international community nor the
Haitian government has any workable plans. The
government has yet to invoke its constitutional right
to declare eminent domain and claim large plots of
unused private land in order to relocate people.
International aid has yet to be significantly employed
in clearing rubble, 80% of which remains, rendering
much of Port-au-Prince uninhabitable.

Another hazard that internally displaced persons (IDPs)
face is being forced out of their camps, left in even
greater precariousness. According to the International
Organization for Migration, 820,000 of the original set
of IDPs dwellers - more than half - have left the
camps, but not because they have found a better
situation. Only 4.7% have gone to new or repaired
housing. The remainder, as reported by the
International Organization for Migration and
substantiated by many community watchdog groups in
Haiti, have fled for two reasons. One is an
anywhere-but-here response, in which families have
escaped to dangerously earthquake-damaged structures,
ravines, crowded rooms, or whatever they can find.
Others have been evicted in a growing wave of
expulsions - some violent, many illegal - by both
government institutions and private landowners.

As they have since the earthquake, coalitions of
progressive NGOs, community groups, and camp committees
are trying to mount pressure to win gains in a
broad-based agenda which includes democratic
participation and socio-economic rights. Predominant
strategies include popular education, legal support for
camp residents, policy advocacy, and grassroots
mobilization. A snapshot of some of the groups'
activities in the three-week period surrounding this
article includes: a three-day May Day mobilization for
workers' rights; a three-day symposium critiquing
disaster capitalism, "What Financing for What
Reconstruction?", and a three-day exchange to
strengthen efforts to force resettlement of IDPs,
"International Forum for the Right to Housing."

These movements currently lack funding and cohesion. At
many points in Haitian history, however, pressure from
below has proven to be the critical variable in forcing
change. Given the disappointing track record of the
international community and development industry, and
the ominous prospects of Martelly's presidency, they
may be Haiti's best hope.

[1] Email from Michelle Karshan to Beverly Bell, April
27, 2011.

We extend our gratitude to the organizations in the
Haiti Response Coalition for their careful observation
and steady stream of vital information. We send special
thanks to the Center for Economic and Policy Research
and to Just Foreign Policy for their consistently
excellent research. Once again, many thanks for Ben
Depp for the gift of his photographs.

Beverly Bell has worked with Haitian social movements
for over 30 years. She is also author of the book
Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival
and Resistance. She coordinates Other Worlds,
www.otherworldsarepossible.org, which promotes social
and economic alternatives. She is also associate fellow
of the Institute for Policy Studies.

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