It's a story repeated in many small countries. A wealthy minority is threatended by the poor masses, who have majority-rule democracy on their side. This well-connected minority convinces the well-connected minority of the U.S. that it's in their national interest to repress the poor masses. It's not hard to imagine their argument:
You can't have a bunch of unruley masses taking over and allowing a safe haven for terriorists, can you? Furthermore, "these people" don't understand the economic principles of the free market. They don't realize it's for their own good. They will undermine decades of investment in the institutions of trade liberalization. The very fabric of globalization is thretened here. Yes, this is a small country, but if they get a foothold here, it will spread.This is the unreported story of Haiti. Haiti is a battle ground for the real war that's being waged in the world. It translates into a war on the poor, albeit, it's more nuanced than a simple class war. However, the corporate mass media fails to tell this story.
Instead, the mass media follow a predictable, superficial narrative. One-time popular leader becomes corrupt, looses popular support, a crisis develops, the leader flees to avoid a bloodbath. No mention of US-backed destabilization program to create the crisis. No mention of provocations that help create justifications. The notion of a slow-motion coup is too complex for the mainstream media to grasp, in part because of reporter down-sizing as part of the on-going media consolidation.
Now we're being told by mainstream media that the United Nations Peace Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) are conducting operations in the slums of Citè Soliel to pacify "gangs." Surely there are gangs in the slums of Citè Soliel, some are committing violent acts. They are desperate. Have they been pushed to desperation? It's a tried-and-true tactic to provoke a response and then point at the reponse as justification for violent oppression.
But, what about the organized criminals that operate on a national level, with what appears to be the complicity of elements of the interim government? What about the death squads of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), founded by Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant, who claimed to be on the CIA payroll when he created FRAPH. What about Lame Ti Manchèt (the Little Machete Army). This civilian vigilante group is reported, by residents of Martissant in southern Port-au-Prince, to be responsible for the killing of freelance photojournalist Jean-Rémy Badio on January 19, 2006.[1]
Mainstream media reports have painted a simplistic picture of Lame Ti Manchèt being a "rival gang" in conflict with Baz Gran Ravin (Big Ravine Base), a group that has served a self-defense function in Martissant.[1] These reports generally fail to mention the relations that Lame Ti Manchèt have with elements in the Hatian National Police (NHP), who have their own human rights abuse problems.[2] Amnesty International describes a July 2006 massacre by Lame Ti Manchèt in the Grand Ravine neighborhood in which hundreds of homes were burned and women and children killed. These were followed by an August 20, 2006 attack at a soccer game by Lame Ti Manchèt and police killing 20 people, and an August 21, 2006 attack on Grand Ravine in which the home of Bruner Esterne, President of the Grand Ravine Community Council for Human Rights, was burned. On 21 September 2006, Bruner Esterne was killed by unknown individuals. [3]
United Nations: Enforcers of Mainstream Narrative:
The international community backed the slow-motion coup of Hatian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The US and France wanted it, and the rest of the world didn't car, surely having more immediate issues to deal with. Enter the in United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), at the request of the international community. It shouldn't come as a surprise that MINUSTAH has become an arm of the mainstream narrative.
So, we're hearing of MINUSTAH members attacking journalists, and being involved in chaotic attacks in poor neighborhoods.
The UN mission in Haiti seems to be unraveling. This is exemplified by reports of UN cover-ups of "massacres" and disproportionate use of force. UN Special Representative, Edmund Mulet, denied the UN fired from helicopters into Cite Soleil at a press conference in Washington, D.C. on January 31, 2007. Mulet said, "We never shot from a helicopter – never. We had one helicopter with a camera taking pictures and following the operation, but we never shoot from helicopters. We never use heavy artillery either.” [4]
This was contradicted by Medical Doctor John Carroll in an inteview with Pacifica Radio program Flashpoints.[5]
Medical Doctor Dr. John Carrol [using an internet phone connection]: I spoke with the mother, she was 48, I’ll call her Immacula, and a couple of daughters. And what happened, according to this family, is that [United Nations] MINUSTAH helicopters circled for about three hours above their home, above the neighborhood in Sole’ 17 … and they shot down for at least three hours over the area. As I looked up I could see about a twelve-inch hole in their roof on the right hand side of where I was standing, and then there were smaller holes on the left hand side.
She had, Immacula had three daughters a 19-year old, a 15-year old and a 17-year old. The 19-year old was hurt the worst. They all dove under their beds and did the best get out of the gun fire. The 19-year old was shot in the left shoulder and the left chest, was hospitalized at St. Catherine’s hospital about a mile down the road in Cite’ Soleil. The 15-year old girl was, ah took a shot to the left side of the head, I would call it shrapnel, the left side of her head was still shaved when I examined her and the shrapnel had been removed, she was OK. The 17-year old, ah what I’m calling shrapnel, in the mid right leg, which would be the tubual [?] area, and that wound was also uninfected.
I did check the 19-year old girl, the daughter that was injured the most, after she was released from a hospital. And I say “a hospital” because she was transferred from St. Catherine’s to another hospital and then I saw her in clinic. She’s psychologically very wounded, she’s very afraid. There’s a large scar on her left shoulder, her left arm was not working like it should from the neurological standpoint. There was also a bullet wound on the left side of her chest and on the dosum, which is the back of the right hand. But she’s alive, all the girls were alive. They’re very scared and the people in Sole are very scared.
Dennis Bernstein: You’re documenting and saying now that the United Nations flew over head of Cite’ Soleil and were firing on and off for some three hours. Is it your understanding, based on your own personal examinations that these people were shot from the air? [break up] Doctor Carrol?
Dr. Carrol: Dennis I lost you for a second.
Dennis Bernstein: Dr. Carrol, let me repeat my question because it’s crucial, be cause what we’re doing here is essentially we’re documenting a situation where the United Nations lied to the World. So, let me ask you again. Are you saying, based on your examinations as a medical doctor and your interviews that you confirm that the United Nations is lying and that these people were shot from the air.
Dr. Carrol: That’s correct. Your question is cut up quite a bit by the internet, but ah, the family stated, as I stated, that the helicopter from MINUSTAH, the United Nations, circled overhead and shot down. I saw the holes in the roofs and I saw the holes in the patients. Go ahead.
So again, just to confirm, based on your examination as a medial doctor, you confirm that the United Nations is lying when they say that they did not use a helicopter gun ship on this very poor community.
Dr. Carrol: That would be my assessment. That would be my impression, ah based on what I saw in their home, ah with the holes in the roof, with the holes in the children, ah and on the interview. I don’t know what more to say.
Sources:
[1] Jeb Sprague, January 27, 2007, Lame Ti Manchèt accused of role in killing of Photojournalist
[2] William G. O'Neill, Haiti Insight Volume 7, No. 3, National Coalition for Hatian Rights, The Haitian National Police: A Mixed Record
[3] Amnesty International, September 28, 2006. Activist’s killing shows need for disarmament programme
[4] Haiti Information Project (This is a fairly weak citation).
[5] Februray 7, 2007, Flashpoints Radio, Interview with Dr. John Carroll
