- Over 10 months post-quake, Haitian suffering continues,
victimized by world indifference, contempt, and paralysis, a new Refugees
International (RI) report saying they're "Still Trapped in the Emergency
Phase."
-
- Under appalling conditions, camp inhabitants face evictions,
violence, arbitrarily appointed absentee camp managers, and lack of concern
for their needs, including by UN personnel. They're trained to know better
and act responsibly, or they should be under all emergency circumstances
they face.
-
- Committed personnel, more resources, and direct action
are needed, what hasn't been forthcoming so far. Instead, camps remain
squalid, ill-served, and overcrowded under "appalling standards of
living." Moreover, landowners threaten evictions, and they're happening.
However, with nowhere to go, those displaced end up crammed into other
camps or in new ones formed on their own.
-
- Despite egregious conditions, "the UN coordination
system (isn't) prioritizing activities" to help. The current Humanitarian
Coordinator (HC), in fact, also serves as MINUSTAH Resident Coordinator
and Deputy Special Representative, effectively compromising his other mission.
-
- MINUSTAH Blue Helmets occupy Haiti repressively. Established
by Security Council vote on April 30, 2004, two months after the US-led
coup ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, it's mission was flawed
from inception. Its mandate in principle was to bring peace and stability.
In fact, it was the first time ever to enforce a coup against a democratically
elected president instead of backing his right to return.
-
- MINUSTAH mandates are renewed annually despite public
opposition. In an October 15 press release, 12 Haitian Civil Society Organizations
and earthquake survivors announced protest activities against the latest
one, staging sit-ins at the UN's logistical base near Haiti's international
airport. They want aid, not Blue Helmet and police repression. More demonstrations
are planned, including efforts to mobilize camp survivors to become engaged
in the struggle for what only mass outrage and activism can bring.
-
- In the meantime, effective assistance and safety concerns
aren't addressed, spotty makeshift ones instead handled by lower-level
indifferent staff. As a result, coordination has been dysfunctional leaving
Haitians on their own with little help.
-
- RI expressed alarm, calling the protection cluster led
by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) inexperienced
in disaster operational protection. "As a result, protection is not
a priority across the cluster system," and OHCHR hasn't committed
enough resources for it, including for the Gender-Based Violence (GBV)
and Child Protection sub-clusters.
-
- They have no full-time staff, instead using "over-committed
personnel spread thin across a myriad of other duties." They're also
integrated into MINUSTAH to enforce repression, not deliver peace, stability
and emergency aid.
-
- In contrast, UNHCR has longstanding emergency situation
experience. However, it's also woefully understaffed with only four members
on the ground. Many more are needed and more funding.
-
- The Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster
is key for providing protection, but it's led by the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) that can't provide it. "By taking on CCCM, IOM
(now has) a protection role for which (it's) not equipped." In addition,
it has only three junior-level protection officers, out of 700 staff, and
"no links with local protection officers to gain a better understanding
of the cultural context and the threats facing displaced people."
-
- The combination of inexperienced staff, too few of them,
and inadequate funding leaves Haitians on their own, ill-served, unsafe,
and largely out of luck though billions in aid were pledged, and large
amounts delivered for the wrong purposes.
-
- Further, less than 30% of camps have managers, and they're,
in fact, absentees. Most have no communications or coordination with international
aid groups. As a result, most activities are being run ad hoc or not at
all. Handling up to 1,300 camps is an enormous task, even harder when on
the ground personnel aren't up to it or are indifferent.
-
- RI heard many criticisms of dangerous and untenable conditions,
including not resettling internally displaced persons (IDPs) "consistent
with international norms, standards and best practice." For example,
6,000 people were resettled in isolated Corrail, in a flood plain, and
another 42,000 are living around a new settlement's edges, waiting to see
if they'll get land and other aid. However, lack of communication obstructs
performance and clarity about who's in charge doing what for Haitian victims.
-
- They also fear eviction despite living under wretched
conditions, and already 15,000 have been affected and at least another
95,000 are at risk. "RI was informed of many reports of eviction threats
being made to the protection and CCCM clusters which resulted in no action
being taken to defend the IDPs' rights." It's another gross sign of
indifference and contempt. Despite numerous strategy sessions and meetings,
most Haitians believe nothing's being done to help, and they're right.
-
- Moreover, "The communication gap is huge, and one
sees very little presence of international agencies in the camps or in
the streets." As a result, many civil society leaders have given up
relying on UN aid and instead work directly with communities and camp members,
despite meager resources to help adequately.
-
- More from the Ground
-
- On September 19, New York Times writer Deborah Sontag
headlined, "Haitians Cry in Letters: 'Please - Do Something,' "
saying:
-
- "We don't want to die of hunger and also we want
to send our children to school. I give glory to God that I am still alive
- but I would like to stay that way!"
-
- For weeks, "thousands of displaced Haitians have
similarly vented their concerns, depositing impassioned pleas for help
in new suggestion boxes at a hundred camps throughout the disaster zone."
Together, they're a cri de coeur from "impotent and ignored"
people.
-
- Hundreds of letters express incredible misery, one from
a woman saying:
-
- "I feel discouraged, I don't sleep comfortably,
I gave birth six months ago, the baby died, I have six other children,
they don't have a father, I don't have work, my tarp is torn, the rain
panics me, my house was crushed, I don't have money to feed my family,
I would really love it if you would help me."
-
- Another said:
-
- "We are so powerless. It is like we are bobbing
along on the waves of the ocean, waiting to be saved," but no one's
there to help.
-
- Bill Quigley saw conditions firsthand. His most recent
October 11 article headlined, "Nine Months After the Quake - A Million
Haitians Slowly Dying" can be accessed through the the following link:
-
- http://www.countercurrents.org/quigley111010.htm
-
- Wilda, a homeless mother, spoke for many saying "If
it gets any worse, we're not going to survive." Indeed so because
conditions today are no different than weeks post-quake. Virtually nothing
has been done. Rubble remains. A scant amount of aid has been delivered,
and it's slowing. Up to 1.5 million or more remain homeless and alone.
There's no electricity, inadequate food and clean water, wretched sanitation,
spotty healthcare, poor security, tattered tarps, no school, and other
forms of deplorable deprivation.
-
- As a result, children are hungry. "People are coughing,
sniffling, and their eyes (are) watering. Quiet babies are the norm. Many
have skin rashes and vaginal infections. There are several volunteer clinics
but usually only the very sickest are seen because so many people need
help."
-
- People are living everywhere - in parks, parking lots,
school yards, and "in the middle of many streets." Lucky ones
have plastic tents. Most have makeshift ones using bed linen or whatever
they have to make due. Camps are tightly packed, dirt paths only through
them, "some only inches wide," and when it rains everything turns
to mud.
-
- Thousands have been evicted. Many more are coming. Even
"Churches are pushing people off their property, (and) Some in authority
are openly saying that people must be forced out of camps." To where
is the question as only about 13,000 temporary structures have been built,
"and they are far away from family, school, jobs (for those who have
one), and healthcare. There is no place to go," and no help afforded.
-
- In September, a joint study prepared by the Institute
for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), The Lamp for Haiti Foundation,
and the
- University of San Francisco School of Law, Center for
Law and Global Justice confirmed the worst among families surveyed, saying:
-
- -- 75% had someone in the family "go an entire day
without eating in the past week," and over half said their children
hadn't eaten for an entire day;
-
- -- "44% of families primarily drank untreated water,"
meaning they ingested toxins likely to cause illness or death;
-
- -- "27% of families defecated in a container, a
plastic bag, or on open ground in the camps," because sanitation conditions
are appalling;
-
- -- "78% of families lived without enclosed shelter;"
-
- -- among 45 families alone, 245 health problems were
identified;
-
- -- "94% of families felt they could not return home
while 48% had been threatened with forced eviction...." and
-
- -- over one-third of families had no job or source of
income.
-
- Study findings also determined that even meager "aid
has slowed and even stopped in each of the six camps surveyed," suggesting
all of them face the same problem "living (under) conditions (that)
continue to violate basic human dignity."
-
- Though many cling to hope, the reality on the ground
is that "Wilda and a million (or more) other Haitians are slowly dying
from starvation, illness, lack of security and neglect" because authorities
able to provide aid spurn them.
-
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour
on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
|
