New Survey Shows Residents of Haiti’s Capital Have Negative View of UN Troops and Feel They Should Compensate Victims of Cholera

For Immediate Release: February 15, 2012

Contact: Prof. Mark Schuller: mschuller@york.cuny.edu; 718-262-2611

Jamaica, NY – As a United Nations Security Council delegation visits Haiti to review the mandate of over 10,000 UN troops stationed there, a newly published survey indicates that a majority of residents of Haiti’s capital have a negative opinion of these troops, available here: http://ijdh.org/archives/25111. The survey of over 800 households throughout Port-au-Prince shows that less than a quarter of respondents considered that the presence of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (or MINUSTAH) is a “good thing” while a majority feel that the troops aren’t providing adequate security.  A large percentage (43.9%) of respondents believed that MINUSTAH agents are or have been engaged in criminal activities such as violence, theft and rape. 

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Release of MINUSTAH Peacekeepers Filmed Raping Haitian Youth is Latest Outrageous Incident of Peacekeeper Impunity

From Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Contact:

Brian Concannon, Jr., Esq., Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, brian@ijdh.org, +1-541-263-0029 (English, French, Creole)

Mario Joseph, Av., Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, (in Haiti), mario@ijdh.org, +509-3701-9878 (French, Creole, English)

Maria-Elena Kolovos, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (in Haiti), mariaelena@ijdh.org, +509-4688-9968 (English)

 

Release of MINUSTAH Peacekeepers Filmed Raping Haitian Youth is Latest Outrageous Incident of Peacekeeper Impunity

 

Monday, January 9, 2012, Boston and Port-au-Prince- Human rights lawyers representing the victims of the United Nations cholera epidemic in Haiti expressed their outrage that the UN Peacekeepers caught on tape raping a Haitian teenager last summer were freed. They called on MINUSTAH, the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, to waive the immunity that enables regular acts of rape, torture and even murder by MINUSTAH troops, and to allow an independent mechanism to evaluate claims by cholera victims and others hurt by MINUSTAH malfeasance.

 

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A Year of Cholera from the United Nations

By: Etant Dupain, Bri Kouri Nouvèl Gaye                      

Nothing can replace the lives of the 6,500 people dead from a cholera epidemic that MINUSTAH (the United Nations peacekeepers) brought to Haiti. More than 400,000 have already been infected while 600,000 people are still living in displacement camps without access to services for their basic needs, such as sanitation and potable water.

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A Tale of Eviction in Haiti

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Despite the lack of attention in the media, the situation in Haiti remains dire. Despite money donated by international organizations and regular people, real relief has not reached the people who need it the most. The blue tarps that blanketed the city, reminiscent of the early reporting by Anderson Cooper, are still there – an obvious sign that things have not returned to normal.

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Why We Shouldn't Support Plan for New Army in Haiti

Last week, a proposal from Haiti’s President Michel Martelly to create a new Haitian army was breaking news. Haitians have been talking about the possibility of the former Haitian army, known by its French acronym as the FAd’H, being reconstituted since it was disbanded in 1994. In recent years, proponents for the reconstitution of the army have used the ongoing presence of foreign soldiers in the UN peacekeeping mission (known by its acronym, MINUSTAH) as one of the reasons to bring back a national military force.

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