Unnatural disaster
Behind Haiti's flood devastation
By G. Dunkel
The recent floods in southwestern Haiti have
caused great devastation--so great, in fact, that the
authorities have stopped counting the dead. Bodies are being
piled in common graves 10 feet wide, 10 feet long and 20 feet
deep. Up to 3,000 deaths are estimated in Haiti alone. There
has also been much devastation in nearby areas of the Dominican
Republic.
There will be more deaths. Three dams in Haiti were close to
bursting May 30. The flood waters are filled with dead bodies
that will become breeding grounds for dengue, cholera, typhoid,
hepatitis and insects that carry pathogens.
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in a statement released as
he left Jamaica for South Africa May 30, connected this
ecological disaster with the political disaster of the
U.S.-backed coup that struck Haiti on Feb. 29.
Aristide said: "While on one side thousands are being killed
for supporting their elected government, on the other side,
more than 2,000 people lost their lives because of the
ecological disaster that we all recently witnessed. We stand in
solidarity with the residents of Mapou, Fonds Verette, Jimani,
and with all Haitians and Dominicans directly affected."
The floods, produced by up to 5 feet of rainfall over the
past month, wiped out whole villages. Some refugees walked for
days over 8,000-foot-high mountains to reach the safety of the
coast, but not everyone had the strength.
In flooded areas on the Dominican side of the border, the
Dominican Air Force sprayed disinfectant and insecticide on
flood waters to curb the spread of disease. Haiti doesn't have
an air force but officials of the coup regime say they are
trying to arrange similar measures.
Marines sent in for photo-ops
The United States announced it would grant Haiti a mere
$50,000 to help with the costs of the floods, which as of May
29 had affected between 75,000 and 150,000 people. The
Organization of American States will chip in another $25,000.
France, which has about 1,000 soldiers occupying Haiti, and the
European Union have promised aid, but haven't delivered
yet.
Some 1,900 U.S. Marines currently occupy Haiti to back up
the U.S.-trained and -financed contras that overthrew
Aristide's elected government. Following a plan by the U.S.
ambassador, the Marines kidnapped President Aristide and
removed him from the country last Feb. 29.
Since then, the Marines have aided the contras--former
death-squad members and soldiers--in house-to-house searches
and arrests of Aristide supporters.
On May 18, Haitian Flag Day, Marines presided over a police
massacre that left several protesters dead on the streets of
Port-au-Prince.
What have the U.S. forces done to help flood-stricken
Haitian communities? Not much. Marine helicopters have
transported some supplies from the capital to the flooded
areas.
Heavy-lift helicopters like those used by the Marines are
the only practical way of supplying aid, since all roads in the
area have been washed out. The coup regime's "public works
minister," Jean-Paul Toussaint, said it would be late autumn
before the roads are repaired.
But the Marines, having facilitated the kidnapping of
Aristide, began pulling out of Haiti on June 1. They are
scheduled to be gone by June 20. They and their helicopters are
headed to Iraq.
The United Nations force replacing them will include
soldiers from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, China, Nepal,
Bangladesh and France. This force has yet to be organized--and
won't have heavy-lift helicopters.
So much for the U.S. military's humanitarianism, lauded by
President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib
prison torture scandal.
Relief organizations say they will try to replace the
helicopters with stopgap measures. Barges will carry aid from
Port-au-Prince to small ports in southwestern Haiti. The
supplies will then have to be carried inland by mule
caravans.
Poverty and deforestation
Anyone flying over the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, can easily see the border. The
Dominican side is verdant and lush. The Haitian side is parched
brown.
Haiti has almost no forests--less than 4 percent of its
land, according to a survey made in 2000. What forest it does
have is shrinking rapidly.
Without forests, the soil is unable to absorb the abundant
rains. Rainwater flows out to sea in torrents, stripping the
land. Floods are common.
Most Haitians don't have access to safe drinking water--70
percent, according to the World Health Organization. People
must drink from rivers, polluted wells or stagnant reservoirs.
A 2003 survey ranked Haiti last out of 147 countries surveyed
on access to potable water.
Haiti's deforestation began in the 18th century when the
French slave owners chopped down every mahogany tree they could
find. In the 19th century, after Haiti won a revolutionary war
for independence, it endured a 56-year boycott imposed by the
U.S. and subsequent economic strangulation. Charcoal was the
only practical way for most Haitians to cook their food. The
forests were further depleted by the need to make charcoal.
Millions of trees were planted over the past 80 years, but
most have been converted to charcoal. Peasants need the cash
they get by selling it and poor people in the cities have no
other way of cooking.
Two U.S. occupations in the past decade, costing workers
here well over a billion dollars, have only reinforced Haiti's
poverty by tightening the grip of transnational companies and
the local ruling class over the Western Hemisphere's poorest
nation.
"Many Haitians eat one meal a day," reported the June 1 New
York Times. "The main course is rice, and the price of a
110-pound sack doubled, to $45 from $22.50, between late
January and early May. That price has dropped to about $37 in
the past few weeks but is still too high, said Clermathe Baron,
29, who sells the big white sacks across the street from the
Haitian customs office near the port."
The U.S.-coup regime removed price controls enforced by
Aristide to keep this staple within the reach of Haitian
workers. While rice prices have doubled, the new regime has cut
the daily minimum wage in half.
Reprinted from the June 10, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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