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by Yves
Pierre-Louis
 In Saint-Marc, Dieudaline Jérôme, a
13-year-old schoolgirl, was killed on Fri., Jan. 25, 2013 by a
vehicle driven by soldiers of the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti
(MINUSTAH), as the foreign forces occupying Haiti are called. At
around 8 a.m., a Nissan Patrol SUV with UN license plate 24499
struck the motorcycle carrying Dieudaline to school. The
motorcycle driver was seriously injured, while Dieudaline, who
was sitting on the back, was mortally wounded. Although she was
urgently transported to the hospital, she could not be saved.
The tragic death of this young girl has once again
stirred the anger of Haitians against the presence of UN forces
on Haitian territory. The population of Saint-Marc took to the
streets to demand the departure of “peacekeepers,” throwing
stones at their base and vehicles and paralyzing all activities
in the town.
"MINUSTAH has come and sown
grief in Haitian families,” said one demonstrator. “It brought
cholera to Haiti, which continues to kill Haitians. Today, it is
their vehicle that kills us. The Haitian people must rise up to
demand the unconditional departure of UN soldiers.”
The MINUSTAH deployed in Haiti
almost nine years ago, following the Feb. 29, 2004 coup d’état
against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It has
committed various massacres around Haiti, killing hundreds of
people. Furthermore, it is implicated in the hanging death of
Gérald Jean Gilles, a 16-year-old boy, in the MINUSTAH base in
Cap-Haïtien in 2008, and the gang rape of 18-year old Johnny
Jean in Port-Salut in 2011.
Meanwhile, some 8,000 Haitians
have died from the on-going cholera epidemic which the MINUSTAH
imported into Haiti in October 2010. In November 2011, a legal
complaint was duly filed with the United Nations in Haiti and
New York to demand that the UN take responsibility for the
epidemic and compensate victims. Until now, the UN has given no
response.
"For complaints about cholera,
they must be filed in New York, at the Office of Legal Affairs,”
said MINUSTAH’s Chilean chief Mariano Fernandez. “That is where
to make a claim.”
Therein lies the absurdity meant to discourage
victims. When a crime is committed on Haitian soil, Haitians are
told to file complaints in New York. Is that now what the family
of Dieudaline Jérôme must do to find justice and redress?
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