More U.N. repression in Haiti

Published Aug 23, 2009 8:41 PM

After two days of a general strike, the people of Lascahobas, Haiti, held a peaceful rally Aug. 6 and set up blockades on the road to the Dominican Republic. They were upset that, even though they had been without electricity for a few months, the Haitian electricity company, EDH, had decided to cannibalize their generator to repair the one in Mirebalais. (Haïti-Liberté, Aug. 12-18).

Lascahobas has just 7,500 people, according to the geography database Geonames. It is located on Haiti’s central plateau, about 70 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, and is the administrative center for a larger region of about 135,000 people.

Its mayor, Gérard Joseph, told the Haitian press that Minustah, the U.N.’s occupation force in Haiti, killed two protesters and injured six. He said, “I saw soldiers firing from an armored personnel carrier.” He urged human rights organizations and the Haitian authorities to investigate this situation.

While some of the figures varied slightly, all the Haitian press reported that there was a serious confrontation in Lascahobas. For example, Radio Kontak Inter reported that, in addition to Haitian police reports that two people were shot dead, seven more were injured, and two of them later died. A number of Haitian sources report that one of the dead was a 7-year-old child.

Minustah spokesperson Sophie Boutaud de Lacombe claimed that the Nepalese soldiers involved in the incident did not fire on the crowd, because it contained women and children, but she did admit that they fired in the air over protesters’ heads. (Radio Metropole)

One of the protesters, interviewed in the Zanmi Lasante hospital, stated: “After I was shot in the arm, I couldn’t keep on marching. I was leaning against a car, when some Minustah soldiers came up and shot me in the other arm. Then one of them kicked me.” (Haïti-Liberté, Aug. 12-18)

The Haitian cops claimed that they did not participate in this confrontation in any fashion, but to avoid retaliation they withdrew to Mirebalais, about an hour away by car.

Minustah is in Haiti to protect the political and economic interests of the United States, along with those of Canada and France. Instead of its proclaimed, lofty goals of “peace and security leading to economic development,” Minustah has brought Haiti terror, murder and heartache. It is just an occupying power with blue helmets.