Let's All Stand With Cite Soleil
by Raul Zibechi
La Journada
www.zmag.org, March 14, 2007
In less than two years the troops of MINUSTAH
(Mission of the Nations United for the Stabilization of Haiti)
perpetrated three massacres in Cite Soleil, an outlying slum of
Port au Prince. According to numerous testimonies, barely mentioned
by the corporate media, the occupation forces entered the poorest
district of the impoverished island with armoured vehicles backed
by artillery wielding helicopters. On at least two occasions -
July 6, 2005 and December 22, 2006 - MINUSTAH fired on unarmed
residents causing scores of deaths. Many died in their flimsy
houses, where they had taken refuge from the "blue helmets".
According to the Nobel Laureate, Adolph Perez Esquivel, during
the first year of MINUSTAH's mission alone (which was authorized
June of 2004) 1200 people died in acts of violence.
It is striking that the Latin American
Left - which has justly denounced imperialist wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan - is not doing the same with the genocide that is
taking place in Haiti. Considering that MINUSTAH's troops are
contributed largely by countries that boast left leaning governments
(more than 40 percent of the 7 thousand soldiers and officials,
and commanded by Lula's Brazil) there should be ample solidarity
with the Haitian people. The reasons that are adduced to send
troops to the island do not stand up. The main argument is that
the troops contribute to security which is required to stabilize
Haitian democracy - that the troops are needed to disarm and disband
"bandits" and drug traffickers - as if those were problems
that have military solutions. Two and a half years after MINUSTAH
was formed it has neither improved security nor stabilized democracy.
On February 7 more than 100 000 protesters demanded that MINUSTAH
leave and that their legitimate President, Jean Bertrand Aristide,
return. In spite of the protests, the UN decided to extend MINUSTAH's
mission.
For Brazil - the Latin American country
most eager to have its troops in Haiti - the incentive is acquiring
a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Some analysts maintain
that MINUSTAH could prove the feasibility of a "Latin American
NATO" that several governments of the region promote (La
Jornada, 2/12/06). Some justify MINUSTAH from an anti-imperial
point of view by arguing that the participation of the Armed Forces
of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay places limits
on Yankee expansionism in the region.
In any case, left leaning governments
have embraced a radical policy shift without debate as if it were
a prerogative of being in power. This is what happened in Uruguay,
a country that contributes 750 soldiers making it the largest
contributor relative to population. In July, 2004 the Uruguayan
Left denounced MINUSTAH as an imperial force. A year later they
were in power and claimed MINUSTAH contributed to the democratization
of Haiti. The Uruguayan parliament voted an important increase
to its military contingent that the right wing government had
decided to send the previous year. Lamentably,only one out of
every 50 deputies dared to raise their voice against a policy
that contradicted the principles of Frente Amplio and which was
implemented without even token consultation with its popular base.
Debate in Brazil, Argentina and Chile was even more scarce. In
Bolivia, Evo Morales blocked any attempt to debate the subject
according to ex- minister Andrés Soliz Rada.
Nevertheless, what is in play is much
more that a question of principles. It is obvious that left governments
should not commit troops for the flagrant violation of human rights
that in Haiti resembles genocide against the poor. It is in the
poorest districts of the urban periphery of Port Prince, those
sites that Mike Davis argues are "the new decisive geopolitical
stage", where the blue helmets act most aggressively. Brian
Concannon, director of the Institute for the Justice and Democracy
in Haiti, maintains that "it is difficult not to notice a
relation between the huge protests in Cite Soleil and the districts
that the UN selected to conduct extensive combat operations".
This is a war against the poor led by
governments that are supposedly most sympathetic to the poor.
There is a clear parallel between the activities of our soldiers
in the poor districts of Haiti and the militarization of favelas
and the poor districts of the great South American cities. The
Brazilian deputy Marcelo Freixo maintains that "favelas are
a public space occupied by a public enemy - a space in which disorder,
and insecurity, has become the total absence of rights, a huge
military tank aimed at the community". Brazil's security
policy is one that abolishes the rights of the poor who live in
favelas. In that sense, MINUSTAH acts just like the Brazilian
army in favelas: criminalizing the poor.
A century ago, German Social Democracy
crossed the Rubicón by supporting the colonization of the
Third World and the imperialistic war of 1914. The corollary of
that foreign policy was implemented domestically in the repression
of the labor movement and, most notoriously, in the murders of
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. A Left stained with blood
of the poor stops being left. Solidarity with the oppressed of
Cite Soleil is urgent, and the best way to counter the ignominious
wars against the poor that are waged even by left and progressive
governments.
*Translated by Joe Emersberger
Haiti page
United
Nations page
Home Page