On July 21, President Martelly declared “my government is
against forced evictions,” but as of yet has done little to
stop this systematic violation of rights. The UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA ) reports that over
125,000 people face the imminent threat of eviction every day.
On Aug. 1, the residents of Camp Django
in Delmas protested for their right to adequate shelter and for
Martelly to live up to his promises after having faced the
constant threat of eviction for months. In June, Bill Quigley
and Jocelyn Brooks of the Center for Constitutional Rights,
reported:
“Last Saturday, a group of five men,
some armed with guns, stormed into the camp and threatened the
residents. Four of the men were wearing green t-shirts that read
“Mairie de Delmas” (The Office of the Mayor of Delmas).
“The Mayor’s men told the people
that they would soon destroy their tents. They bragged they
would mistreat people in a manner worse than “what happened at
Carrefour Aero port,” referring to the violent unlawful eviction
of a displacement camp at that location by the same mayor and
police less than a month ago.
“The Mayor’s men pushed their way
through the camp, collecting the names and identification
numbers of heads of household and marking tents with red spray
painted numbers.
“When the men pounded on the
wooden door of the tarp covered shelter where 25-year-old
pregnant Marie lived with her husband, she tried to stop them
from entering. Marie tried to explain that her husband was not
home. But the leader of the group, JL, violently slammed open
the wooden door of her tent into her stomach, causing her to
fall hard against the floor on her back.
“Three days later, Marie remained in
severe pain and bed ridden, worried sick about her baby…
Jeena Shah, a BAI [Office of
International Lawyers] attorney, arrived at Camp Django while
government agents were still there. Jeena asked JL [the leader
of the group] who had sent his group to Camp Django and why they
had marked the tents with numbers. JL was evasive, repeating
over and over that “the government” had sent him. Finally he
stated that “the National Palace,” a reference to current
President Michel Martelly, had sent him.”
On Jun. 28, Jeena
Shah gave an update on Camp Django:
“At around 9 am this morning, two
truckloads of police officers along with one of the mayor’s
agents returned to the camp. By this time, Camp Django
residents had begun protesting just outside of their camp. The
police officers proceeded to beat camp residents with their
batons and boots and arrest them. Several victims required
medical attention. One family’s tent – that of the camp
leadership’s spokesperson, who had spoken out against the
Mayor’s past threats against the camp – was ransacked by police
officers as they searched for her to arrest her. The mayor’s
agent and police officers were unaccompanied by a judicial
officer, and neither did they present any judicial order to
evict the residents, as required under Haitian law.”
What happened to Camp Django was not
an isolated incident. In mid-July some 500 families were
forcibly evicted, illegally, from the area around Sylvio Cator
Stadium in Port-au-Prince. The UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights characterized the eviction as not
respecting the right to adequate housing and added that “the
former camp residents will be much more vulnerable than they
were in the camp.” Amnesty International added that:
“Port-au-Prince's Mayor must stop
these illegal forced evictions of earthquake victims until
adequate alternative housing can be found for all the displaced
families,” said Javier Zuñiga, Special Advisor at Amnesty
International. By pushing families out in the street for a third
time since last year’s earthquake, Haitian authorities have
failed to protect their rights to an adequate standard of living
and basic shelter.”
Amnesty noted that “City
authorities had designated a small plot of marshland two
kilometres away to relocate the displaced people. However, there
has only been space to accommodate approximately 100 families
there and the site has no facilities whatsoever. It is not known
where the other families have gone.” Previous studies have
shown that many leave the IDP camps for damaged homes. As Dr.
Miyamoto explained to anthropologist Timothy Schwartz in a USAID-sponsored
report:
“Occupied yellow and red houses are
extremely dangerous since many are a collapse hazard. People
occupy these houses despite communications and warnings from
MTPTC engineers since they have nowhere to go but the camps.
People do not want to stay in these tents. Security is poor and
they are exposed to diseases. I see little children sleeping
next to the heavily cracked walls every day.”
As both Amnesty and OCHA pointed out,
the stadium was on a list of priority sites for relocation that
the Martelly government distributed after his taking office. Yet
OCHA noted that “the municipal authorities took the decision
to relocate the families without consulting the humanitarian
community, while the site where some of the families have been
relocated was not planned.”
Oxfam has called on the authorities
to “implement a relocation strategy” that “must ensure
that these people have access to basic services such as drinking
water, sanitation services, health care, education and
employment opportunities so that they can finally start to
rebuild their lives.” In response, Patrick Rouzier, an
advisor to the president, told AP:
"I understand Oxfam's position but
we have a comprehensive plan that we are finalizing... This has
been in the works for the past three months... We are on it 100
percent."
But in the face of such flagrant
abuse of Haitian citizens, patience is dwindling. In a public
statement released on Jul. 29, Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) “strongly
condemned” what has become a regular pattern.
“Words cannot fully describe how
disappointing it is to hear of such vicious attacks towards the
people of Haiti,” he wrote. “Members of Congress have
previously condemned Mayor Jeudy’s forceful evictions and we
will continue to do so until such actions come to a halt… The
United States government did not invest dollars, resources, and
manpower to have the people of Haiti mistreated by their own
government.”
Payne
notes that “women, children, men and the elderly continue to
be abused and displaced, in violation of Haitian and
international law.” In this hostile environment, human
rights advocates, NGOs, the international community, and – most
importantly – the hundreds of thousands of displaced continue to
wait for a comprehensive relocation plan. |