Haiti's Deadly Class Divide: Class war takes on a new meaning in Cite Soley

by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff

Port-au-Prince, January 10/06 - Driving into Cite Soley on January 8th,
the day Haitians were supposed to go to the polls in a presidential
election, there is no mistaking the fact that we are entering an
occupied
zone. The streets are almost deserted, the atmosphere tense, and UN
armored personnel carriers patrol the streets.

Cite Soley, one of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods, is home to
around 500,000 people living in abject poverty. According to
Jean-Joseph
Joel, the Secretary General of the local branch of Fanmi Lavalas, the
area's residents are virtual prisoners, and their movements restricted
by
armed police at checkpoints. Vilified as bandits or chimeres by the
elite-run press, he says they face persecution if they do manage to
escape
the neighborhood. There is no work and signs of malnutrition are
obvious
in the children.

Since the February 2004 coup d'etat that ousted democratically elected
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Cite Soley has been one of the
battlefields where a war against Haiti's poor majority is being waged.
Muliple killings of civilians have been committed by UN forces carrying
out the will of the country's elite and of the international community.
Dieunord Edme, a Cite Soley resident, shows us the place in the market
where his wife, Annette Moleron, was gunned down by MINUSTAH (Mission
Nations Unies Stabilization en Haiti) soldiers on January 7th during an
operation that claimed the lives of four women in a marketplace. He
shows
us bullet holes in the metal roof over the market's stalls.

Victims of the deadly July 6th 2005 UN massacre, an event documented by
the Haiti Information Project, which the UN denies ever happened, show
us
their scars. One woman lifts her shirt to show us where the MINUSTAH
bullet entered her then pregnant belly, and the mark of the cesarean
section performed to remove the baby that was killed. As we drive out
of
the neighborhood we pass a horribly bloated corpse by the side of the
road. A MINUSTAH tank is parked nearby, keeping watch. Local residents
say
the man, who worked as a porter, was killed five days previously but
every
time someone went to try to remove the body, MINUSTAH started firing.
It
is apparent that they want to keep his body as a warning to others.

This ugly violence that has swept Cite Soley in the last week, and for
many months prior, does not come out of thin air. Someone above the UN
is
calling the shots, and they wield lethal power. Reginald Boulos, the
president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and
sweatshop
magnate Andy Apaid – both members of the Canadian and US-backed Group
184
– called for a one-day general business strike Monday. The stated goal
of
this strike was to put pressure on MINUSTAH to clamp down harder on
crime
and kidnappings. As an announcement heard on Radio Metropole stated in
a
threatening tone, “Don't leave your houses. Let the police and the
military do their work. Anyone who leaves their house takes their life
into their own hands.”

However, more than anything, this strike has served to highlight the
extreme class divide in Haiti, one that before the elections is
becoming
increasingly more deadly. Indeed, many of the more upscale businesses
in
the country did observe the strike. Driving through Port-au-Prince, we
observed that the doors of major businesses such as Texaco, Shell,
Scotia
Bank, and upscale grocery stores remained shut. However, for the
majority
of Haiti's population who slave away to bring home a per-capita income
of
$200 per year, the day continued as if normal. Workers who toil in the
informal economy – street vendors, runners, tap-tap (taxi) operators –
lined the streets, unable to skip a day's work just because the
island's
wealthiest said so.

Our experience in Cite Soley today showed us the other side of this
business strike, and what the MINUSTAH clamp down looked like to
Port-au-Prince's poor. Jean-Joseph Joel gives us his analysis of the
situation. Because of its large population and tendency to vote
unanimously, Cite Soley has the power to sway an election. Joel
explains
that MINUSTAH is under intense pressure from the business elite to make
it
possible for their presidential favourite, Charles Henri Baker, to have
a
winning chance in the elections. At the moment, the only candidate able
to
walk down the streets of Cite Soley is Rene Preval, the candidate
supported by the mass base of Lavalas. Preval's posters are the only
ones
to be seen anywhere in Cite Soley – territory where the elite dare not
tread.

For General Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, the Brazilian head of the
United Nations military mission in Haiti, the pressure may have been
too
much. He was found dead in his hotel room on January 7th. He
apparently
committed suicide after a tense meeting with Reginald Boulos. Joel
says
that Cite Soley residents are nervous, as the subject of that
conversation
was pressure on MINUSTAH to crack down harder on Cite Soley before the
elections. The fact that Bacellar was replaced by Gen. Eduardo
Aldunate
Herman, a Chilean Pinochet-era figure and alleged human rights abuser,
does nothing to help Cite Soley residents rest easier.

Jean-Joseph Joel's hope is that the international community will change
its position on Haiti and side with the majority of Haitians rather
than
supporting the elite and the UN mission here. However, it doesn't look
like change is in the air. Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's Minister of
Foreign
Affairs, and a man many Haitians know by name, has recently announced
that
Canadian forces will remain in Haiti, despite escalating calls for
their
removal.

Sources told us that two more people were killed in the marketplace by
MINUSTAH forces shortly after we left it on Monday. Residents
speculated
that these killings were retributions for talking to the media, as we
had
been out for the whole morning conducting interviews with locals. The
people of Cite Soley risked their lives so their story could reach the
public in countries like Canada and the US, whose governments continue
to
support MINUSTAH's actions. It remains to be seen what effect their
sacrifice will have.

[Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff are two independent journalists and
activists from Montreal. They will be in Haiti for the month of
January,
filing reports focused on the role of Canada in the country. They can
be
reached at  montrealtohaiti@resist.ca]