More misery, fightback for Haitian people

Ever since it took over the occupation of Haiti from a U.S., French and Canadian coalition in June 2004, the United Nations has spent billions of dollars on repressing the Haitian people. The U.N. has not addressed the huge, pressing needs of the Haitian people, basic needs like jobs, education and health care.

Many Haitians are charging that a recent cholera epidemic was spread by poor sanitation at a U.N. base at Mirebalais, which is located on a tributary of the Artibonite River. Shortly before the cholera outbreak was noticed on Oct. 19, a contingent of Nepalese soldiers, coming from an area of Nepal where cholera is common, rotated onto the base. (pacificfreepress.com, Oct. 28)

The U.N. has denied it had any role in the introduction of cholera into Haiti and said it was impossible to determine if the strain of cholera in Haiti is the same strain as the one in Nepal. The U.N. claims that it is in Haiti only to help the people and to preserve democracy.

However, The Associated Press sent reporters to the base in Mirebalais, where they “found open and cracked pipes behind the base, with U.N. military investigators taking samples. There was an overpowering smell of human waste, and a pipe leading toward a septic tank was leaking foul-smelling black fluid toward the river.” (Oct. 29)

Haitian protesters marched on Oct. 29 to the U.N. base in Mirebalais, waving green branches and demanding that the U.N. soldiers leave. There was also an earlier demonstration on Oct. 22 against the U.N.

‘Education is a right’

Education has been a big issue in Haiti for a long time. It is almost entirely private, with schools run either for profit or by religious organizations. The head of the main teachers’ union in Haiti, speaking to a small group at the American Federation of Teachers national convention this past July, estimated that only half of the families in Haiti’s cities, and a much smaller percentage in the countryside, could afford the school fees.

The teachers’ union, UNNOH, has undertaken a campaign for universal education, which it acknowledges would not only benefit the children of Haiti but would also provide jobs to its members. When it held a protest in front of the Ministry of Education on Oct. 8 to raise this issue, the Haitian cops attacked the demonstration and shot a math and physics teacher, Jean Filbert Louis, dead.

After his funeral on Oct. 22 at the church Dieu de Nazon, UNNOH and activists in Haiti’s social movement decided to hold a funeral march from the church to the Ministry of Education. The march, which had to confront a large contingent of French and Brazilian U.N. troops, turned into a protest against the U.N. occupation with chants of “Down with Minustah [the name of the U.N. troops]! Down with the occupation! The land of Dessalines does not belong to them! They must leave!”

Anger towards Haiti’s René Préval-led government also came out.

Finally, the U.N. troops attacked the march with tear gas and forced the marchers to abandon the casket bearing the teacher on the road.

The outcome of national elections for the Haitian president set for Nov. 28 is murky. Hardly any progress has been made on providing the 1.5 million Haitians left homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake with jobs, or even clean water and latrines. Uncounted thousands of Haitians have lost all their documents, including their voters’ cards. The most popular party in Haiti, the Fanmi Lavalas of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, has been denied a place on the ballot. The sudden outbreak of cholera has just added to the tensions.

One thing is crystal clear: The U.N. is not in Haiti to help the Haitian people.