Haiti: US Offers Aid; Others Denounce the Hold-Ups
PORT au PRINCE.- The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) protested today about the failure of a humanitarian mission from that organization arriving in Haiti due to the strict control by the US army on the airport of Port au Prince, the main route to get to the injured.
The mission, headed by several Heads of Government of the region and the Secretary General of CARICOM, could not obtain landing permission and the participants had to return to their respective countries.
The saturation of the air terminal has generated frictions between the US military and nations like France, Brazil, and Nicaragua who presented formal complaints against the arbitrary handling by the United States of the Haitian airport, denying on repeated occasions landing permission to aid flights.
The Brazilian Minister of Defence, Nelson Jobim, who has 7,000 peace troops of the UN in Haiti, warned that the rescue effort should not be seen just as an American initiative, as the administration of Washington would like it to appear.
That is how it is. The government of Obama has sent the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, for the occasion. She declared today at a press conference that the US is a "friend and partner" of the Caribbean island, and for that reason the US administration will continue in Haiti "today, tomorrow and always."
Hillary described what is unfolding in the devastated country to aid those injured as a "the fight against the clock", because a delay in the distribution of help could sink the country into total chaos.
However, when a ship coming from Qatar with medical and rescue teams met with problems in discharging the food aid and requested support from the US military, Dr. Mootaz Aly, of the crew reports, the answer from them was: "We are busy."
French Officials'' Dissension to Aid Haiti
French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner and French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet disagreed on Monday regarding the ways of channelling aid to Haiti being the United States in the focus of the discord.
Kouchner told France Info radio station that the aiding efforts to Haiti, which was violently devastated by an earthquake of the seventh category on the Richter scale, are being coordinated in the best possible way.
It is normal that everybody want to get there first, said Kouchner regarding Joyandet's plane that was forced to postpone its landing in Puerto Principe because of regulations of US military forces.
Joyandet told European radio station that the UN is working on that. "I hope that things are specified regarding the role of the United States."
Kouchner softened the problem when he underlined that it is hard to design coordination mechanisms in the middle of a catastrophe of such magnitude.
He disclosed that first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) Catherine Ashton will meet on Monday at the UN Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos, which is the country that chairs the community bloc during this semester.
They will also meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Kouchner pointed that there is an intense work regarding the reconstruction of Haiti and commented that it is probable that a meeting takes place in Montreal, Canada, on January 25 to prepare an international donors conference. (PL)
Kouchner told France Info radio station that the aiding efforts to Haiti, which was violently devastated by an earthquake of the seventh category on the Richter scale, are being coordinated in the best possible way.
It is normal that everybody want to get there first, said Kouchner regarding Joyandet's plane that was forced to postpone its landing in Puerto Principe because of regulations of US military forces.
Joyandet told European radio station that the UN is working on that. "I hope that things are specified regarding the role of the United States."
Kouchner softened the problem when he underlined that it is hard to design coordination mechanisms in the middle of a catastrophe of such magnitude.
He disclosed that first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) Catherine Ashton will meet on Monday at the UN Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos, which is the country that chairs the community bloc during this semester.
They will also meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Kouchner pointed that there is an intense work regarding the reconstruction of Haiti and commented that it is probable that a meeting takes place in Montreal, Canada, on January 25 to prepare an international donors conference. (PL)
When Haitian Ministers Take a 50 Percent Cut of Aide Money It's Called "Corruption," When NGOs Skim 50 Percent It's Called "Overhead"
Crushing Haiti, Now as Always
By PATRICK COCKBURNThe US-run aid effort for Haiti is beginning to look chillingly similar to the criminally slow and disorganized US government support for New Orleans after it was devastated by hurricane Katrina in 2005. Four years ago President Bush was famously mute and detached when the levies broke in Louisiana. By way of contrast President Obama was promising Haitians that everything would be done for survivors within hours of the calamity.
The rhetoric from Washington has been very different during these two disasters, but the outcome may be much the same. In both cases very little aid arrived at the time it was most needed and, in the case of Port-au-Prince, when people trapped under collapsed buildings were still alive. When foreign rescue teams with heavy lifting gear does come it will be too late. No wonder enraged Haitians are building roadblocks out of rocks and dead bodies. In New Orleans and Port-au-Prince there is the same official terror of looting by local people so the first outside help to arrive is in the shape of armed troops. The US currently has 3,500 soldiers, 2,200 Marines and 300 medical personnel on their way to Haiti.
Of course there will be looting because, with shops closed or flattened by the quake, this is the only way for people can get food and water. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. I was in Port-au-Prince in 1994, the last time US troops landed there, when local people systematically tore apart police stations, taking wood, pipes and even ripping nails out of the walls. In the police station I was in there were sudden cries of alarm from those looting the top floor as they discovered that they could not get back down to the ground because the entire wooden staircase had been chopped up and stolen.
I have always liked Haitians for their courage, endurance, dignity and originality. They often manage to avoid despair in the face of the most crushing disasters or the absence of any prospect that their lives will get better. Their culture, notably their painting and music, is among the most interesting and vibrant in the world.
It is sad to hear journalists who have rushed to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake give such misleading and even racist explanations of why Haitians are so impoverished, living in shanty towns with a minimal health service, little electricity supply, insufficient clean water and roads that are like river beds.
This did not happen by accident. In the 19th century it was as if the colonial powers never forgave Haitians for staging a successful slave revolt against the French plantation owners. US Marines occupied the country from 1915 to 1934. Between 1957 and 1986 the US supported Papa Doc and Baby Doc, fearful that they might be replaced by a regime sympathetic to revolutionary Cuba next door.
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic populist priest was overthrown by a military coup in 1991, and restored with US help in 1994. But the Americans were always suspicious of any sign of radicalism from this spokesman for the poor and the outcast and kept him on a tight leash. Tolerated by President Clinton, Aristide was treated as a pariah by the Bush administration which systematically undermine him over three years leading up to a successful rebellion in 2004 led by local gangsters acting on behalf of a kleptocratic Haitian elite and supported by right wing members of the Republican Party in the US.
So much of the criticism of President Bush has focused on his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that his equally culpable actions in Haiti never attracted condemnation. But if the country is a failed state today, partly run by the UN, in so far as it is run by anybody, then American actions over the years have a lot to do with it.
Haitians are now paying the price for this feeble and corrupt government structure because there is nobody to coordinate the most rudimentary relief and rescue efforts. Its weakness is exacerbated because aid has been funneled through foreign NGOs. A justification for this is that less of the money is likely to be stolen, but this does not mean that much of it reaches the Haitian poor. A sour Haitian joke says that when a Haitian minister skims 15 per cent of aid money it is called ‘corruption’ and when an NGO or aid agency takes 50 per cent it is called ‘overhead’.
Many of the smaller government aid programs and NGOs are run by able, energetic and selfless people, but others, often the larger ones, are little more than rackets, highly remunerative for those who run them. In Kabul and Baghdad it is astonishing how little the costly endeavors of American aid agencies have accomplished. “The wastage of aid is sky-high,” said a former World Bank director in Afghanistan. “There is real looting going on, mostly by private enterprises. It is a scandal.” Foreign consultants in Kabul often receive $250,000 to $500,000 a year, in a country where 43 per cent of the population try to live on less than a dollar a day.
None of this bodes very well for Haitians hoping for relief in the short term or a better life in the long one. The only way this will really happen if the Haitians have a functioning and legitimate state capable of providing for the needs of its people. The US military, the UN bureaucracy or foreign NGOs are never going to do this in Haiti or anywhere else.
There is nothing very new in this. Americans often ask why it is that their occupation of Germany and Japan in 1945 succeeded so well but more than half a century later in Iraq and Afghanistan was so disastrous. The answer is that it was not the US but the efficient German and Japanese state machines which restored their countries. Where that machine was weak, as in Italy, the US occupation relied with disastrous results on corrupt and incompetent local elites, much as they do today in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti.
Patrick Cockburn is the Ihe author of "Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq."
Oppose US Occupation of Haiti
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 : [Disclaimer: the following is the opinion of the author and not the official position of the IWW]. When the earthquake leveled much of Haiti, including the Presidential Palace, it destroyed the capitalist state apparatus as well as buildings and lives. In a country whose history includes bloody repression and paramilitary death squads, all reports were that both the police and the military had disappeared from the streets.
For several days, the US administration dithered, uncertain of what to do. Then Obama announced the sending of troops to Haiti along with the commitment of the miserly sum of $100 million in aid (one third less than was spent on his inaugural ball). What is the purpose of those troops there? “Restoring Order”
The conservative Heritage Fund spelled it out: “We should rapidly deploy sufficient US military and civilian forces to help Haitians restore order in the capital of Port-au-Prince and in surrounding areas,” they write on their web site. They also clearly see the necessity of using the troops to prevent the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes from increasing their influence in Haiti. Nobody should be surprised if conflicts develop along these lines in Haiti.
Obama also carried out the Heritage Fund’s recommendation of appointing Bill Clinton and George Bush to head up US initiatives in Haiti. Clinton has a long history of helping foster neo liberal policies there (low wages and privatization) as well as having supported the coup against Aristide. Bush is famed for his administration’s “relief” effort in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The failure to provide timely aid in Haiti shows that the direction of efforts in New Orleans was no mere accident, nor the product of the incompetence of one particularly stupid US president; it was the result of the policy of massive privatization. The fact that these two are in their present position regarding Haiti shows that nothing has changed.
One of the US military’s first steps was to seize control of the port and the airport at Port-au-Prince. Their priority has been to land more troops and lift out endangered US citizens. In fact, as the British Guardian newspaper reports (1/17/10) this is creating serious tensions with other countries – both rivals and allies – who are seeking access to the airport.
Providing Urgent Aid
The main issue, though, is the delay in food, water and medical supplies reaching the Haitians. The US media gives the impression that the main reason involves “bottlenecks” at the airport, destroyed and blocked roads, etc. However, the US priorities are clarified by of Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Program, who told the New York Times. "Most flights (allowed by the US to land) are for the US military. Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync." This is the reason that, as al-Jazeera reports, “People could see helicopters flying overhead, US military vehicles in the city and aeroplanes arriving at the airport with supplies, so it was difficult to understand why little aid appeared to be reaching the people.”
Meanwhile, a few Haitian troops and police are back on the streets. Already some clashes with crowds are reported. When US troops go out on patrol, as they inevitably will, what will their focus be?
The US press, ever a good predictor of coming US policy, is now full of comments about “looters” and near riot situations. This is to establish the justification here at home for direct repression by the US troops, including orders to shoot to kill.
Return of State Apparatus
This shows priority of the US military which is, first to establish the presence of some sort of (capitalist) state apparatus until the Haitian ruling class can re-establish the Haitian state apparatus. Naturally, during a time of utter crisis such as now, the state apparatus will have to carry out some “humanitarian” aid. After all, capitalism cannot function and profits cannot be made if the working class is in such desperate straits. But this is purely a secondary by-product.
Neighborhood Committees
There is and was a clear alternative to reliance on US (and UN) troops there. The 1985 earthquake in Mexico City shows this. As opposed to Haiti, the Mexico City earthquake did not devastate the nation as a whole, and therefore the state apparatus was not nearly destroyed. However, in Mexico City it failed to provide the forces for rescue and similar operations. As a result, neighborhood committees developed to clear the rubble, carry out rescue operations, etc. They showed how workers’ councils could start to develop. These neighborhood committees continued and flourished and out of them developed a mass community-based political movement in Mexico.
In Haiti, there was already the infrastructure for such a development in the existence of the Lavalas Party, which has strong roots in the working class communities. Their base was demonstrated once again just last April, when Lavalas was barred from participating in the elections there. They called for a boycott and practically the entire Haitian population responded. Voter turnout was between 3-10%.
With little but their bare hands, Haitian workers were starting to organize to carry out rescue operations, including digging people out of the rubble. Within a day or two of the earthquake, Aristide stated his willingness to return to Haiti from his exile in South Africa. Given that the state apparatus – the military and police – had disappeared, he would have been able to do so without being killed. He could have then helped build an organizing center for rescue operations. Neighborhood committees, possibly based on the Lavalas Party, would have inevitably developed further and would have started to coordinate their efforts. With the return of Aristide, these committees would have started to take on a national role, including controlling both the port and the airport, in order to coordinate aid.
Naturally, these tasks would have spilled over to the tasks of the daily running of society.
Working Class Appeal
Most of the foreign troops are composed of working class people. Especially given the history of racism in the US and the racial composition of the US troops, as well as the severe economic crisis at home under which many of these US soldiers are suffering, they would be very open to fraternization by Haitian workers’ committees.
Now, several unions are mobilizing aid for Haiti. These same unions have a long history of acting as a front for the CIA and the US State Department. Their efforts to mobilize aid are positive, but it is likely that it will be used to buttress the aims of the US administration, rather than to help Haitian workers free themselves from the chains of poverty. Especially on the East Coast, many of these unions have a large Haitian membership. The IWW and other anti-capitalist forces within the labor movement can play an important role. We should involve ourselves in these efforts and through this make direct contact with our Haitian fellow workers. Through this, we should seek means of campaigning for:
Read More
The conservative Heritage Fund spelled it out: “We should rapidly deploy sufficient US military and civilian forces to help Haitians restore order in the capital of Port-au-Prince and in surrounding areas,” they write on their web site. They also clearly see the necessity of using the troops to prevent the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes from increasing their influence in Haiti. Nobody should be surprised if conflicts develop along these lines in Haiti.
Obama also carried out the Heritage Fund’s recommendation of appointing Bill Clinton and George Bush to head up US initiatives in Haiti. Clinton has a long history of helping foster neo liberal policies there (low wages and privatization) as well as having supported the coup against Aristide. Bush is famed for his administration’s “relief” effort in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The failure to provide timely aid in Haiti shows that the direction of efforts in New Orleans was no mere accident, nor the product of the incompetence of one particularly stupid US president; it was the result of the policy of massive privatization. The fact that these two are in their present position regarding Haiti shows that nothing has changed.
One of the US military’s first steps was to seize control of the port and the airport at Port-au-Prince. Their priority has been to land more troops and lift out endangered US citizens. In fact, as the British Guardian newspaper reports (1/17/10) this is creating serious tensions with other countries – both rivals and allies – who are seeking access to the airport.
Providing Urgent Aid
The main issue, though, is the delay in food, water and medical supplies reaching the Haitians. The US media gives the impression that the main reason involves “bottlenecks” at the airport, destroyed and blocked roads, etc. However, the US priorities are clarified by of Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Program, who told the New York Times. "Most flights (allowed by the US to land) are for the US military. Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync." This is the reason that, as al-Jazeera reports, “People could see helicopters flying overhead, US military vehicles in the city and aeroplanes arriving at the airport with supplies, so it was difficult to understand why little aid appeared to be reaching the people.”
Meanwhile, a few Haitian troops and police are back on the streets. Already some clashes with crowds are reported. When US troops go out on patrol, as they inevitably will, what will their focus be?
The US press, ever a good predictor of coming US policy, is now full of comments about “looters” and near riot situations. This is to establish the justification here at home for direct repression by the US troops, including orders to shoot to kill.
Return of State Apparatus
This shows priority of the US military which is, first to establish the presence of some sort of (capitalist) state apparatus until the Haitian ruling class can re-establish the Haitian state apparatus. Naturally, during a time of utter crisis such as now, the state apparatus will have to carry out some “humanitarian” aid. After all, capitalism cannot function and profits cannot be made if the working class is in such desperate straits. But this is purely a secondary by-product.
Neighborhood Committees
There is and was a clear alternative to reliance on US (and UN) troops there. The 1985 earthquake in Mexico City shows this. As opposed to Haiti, the Mexico City earthquake did not devastate the nation as a whole, and therefore the state apparatus was not nearly destroyed. However, in Mexico City it failed to provide the forces for rescue and similar operations. As a result, neighborhood committees developed to clear the rubble, carry out rescue operations, etc. They showed how workers’ councils could start to develop. These neighborhood committees continued and flourished and out of them developed a mass community-based political movement in Mexico.
In Haiti, there was already the infrastructure for such a development in the existence of the Lavalas Party, which has strong roots in the working class communities. Their base was demonstrated once again just last April, when Lavalas was barred from participating in the elections there. They called for a boycott and practically the entire Haitian population responded. Voter turnout was between 3-10%.
With little but their bare hands, Haitian workers were starting to organize to carry out rescue operations, including digging people out of the rubble. Within a day or two of the earthquake, Aristide stated his willingness to return to Haiti from his exile in South Africa. Given that the state apparatus – the military and police – had disappeared, he would have been able to do so without being killed. He could have then helped build an organizing center for rescue operations. Neighborhood committees, possibly based on the Lavalas Party, would have inevitably developed further and would have started to coordinate their efforts. With the return of Aristide, these committees would have started to take on a national role, including controlling both the port and the airport, in order to coordinate aid.
Naturally, these tasks would have spilled over to the tasks of the daily running of society.
Working Class Appeal
Most of the foreign troops are composed of working class people. Especially given the history of racism in the US and the racial composition of the US troops, as well as the severe economic crisis at home under which many of these US soldiers are suffering, they would be very open to fraternization by Haitian workers’ committees.
Now, several unions are mobilizing aid for Haiti. These same unions have a long history of acting as a front for the CIA and the US State Department. Their efforts to mobilize aid are positive, but it is likely that it will be used to buttress the aims of the US administration, rather than to help Haitian workers free themselves from the chains of poverty. Especially on the East Coast, many of these unions have a large Haitian membership. The IWW and other anti-capitalist forces within the labor movement can play an important role. We should involve ourselves in these efforts and through this make direct contact with our Haitian fellow workers. Through this, we should seek means of campaigning for:
- A real, worker-based aid program.
- All foreign troops – including US and UN – out of Haiti.
- Direct links between the Haitian workers movement – community groups and unions – and that of the rank-and-file workers here in the US.
- Fraternization between Haitian workers, international aid workers (including from Cuba and Venezuela) and US and other troops.
Read More
Monday, January 18, 2010 : Amid the humanitarian tragedy following the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, Washington has concentrated on establishing indefinite military control of the country. Fearing mass protests and riots by desperate Haitians against inadequate rescue efforts, US logistical efforts are focused on massing tens of thousands of troops for use against the population.Speaking yesterday on ABC television’s “This Week” program, US General Ken Keen, who commands the military task force in Haiti, said US troops would “be here as long as needed.” He confirmed there were roughly 4,200 US troops in Haiti, largely in cutters patrolling offshore, and that by today there would be 12,000 US troops in the country.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Port-au-Prince at the invitation of Haitian President René Préval. She argued for the imposition of an emergency decree in Haiti, allowing for the imposition of curfews and martial-law conditions by US forces. Clinton explained: “The decree would give the government an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us.”
The US government is also working with a force of roughly 7,000 Brazilian-led UN peacekeepers. Clinton commented, “We’re being very thoughtful about how we support them.” Brazilian officials publicly commented on the risk that mass rioting could overpower international security forces in Haiti.
On Friday, Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobin had warned that the peacekeepers “could struggle” if there was large-scale protests: “We are concerned about security.” The Times of London commented, “Haiti’s capital could quickly descend into rioting if three million hungry, thirsty, and traumatised earthquake survivors don’t receive emergency aid soon.”
Read More
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Port-au-Prince at the invitation of Haitian President René Préval. She argued for the imposition of an emergency decree in Haiti, allowing for the imposition of curfews and martial-law conditions by US forces. Clinton explained: “The decree would give the government an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us.”
The US government is also working with a force of roughly 7,000 Brazilian-led UN peacekeepers. Clinton commented, “We’re being very thoughtful about how we support them.” Brazilian officials publicly commented on the risk that mass rioting could overpower international security forces in Haiti.
On Friday, Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobin had warned that the peacekeepers “could struggle” if there was large-scale protests: “We are concerned about security.” The Times of London commented, “Haiti’s capital could quickly descend into rioting if three million hungry, thirsty, and traumatised earthquake survivors don’t receive emergency aid soon.”
Read More
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