U.S. okays illegal U.S. takeover of Haiti

The 20 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships, 63 helicopters, 204 joint operations vehicles and approximately 13,000 military personnel — 10,000 afloat and 3,000 ashore — occupying Haiti, were sanctioned by the U.N. as of Jan. 22. No request from Haiti was needed — the U.S. wanted to send troops and it did. The occupation and the U.N. approval have no legal basis.

These U.S. Marines, Airborne troops and sailors have little to no training in humanitarian missions. Their basic job is to kill or disable the Pentagon’s enemies on the battlefield.

Haitian President René Préval  criticized a lack of coordination among countries bringing aid to the Caribbean nation. The Haitian government, a creation of a U.S.-sponsored kidnapping in 2004 that ousted the elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is itself unable to coordinate the aid effort.

The U.S. claims that it has committed to spending $317 million on aid to Haiti, but of each U.S. taxpayer dollar being used for “aid,” 40 cents is going to the U.S. military. Another 36 cents funds the U.S. Agency for International Development’s disaster assistance — which includes items ranging from $5,000 generators to $35 hygiene kits with soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste for a family of five, according to a Jan. 27 AP report. Only 1 cent on a dollar goes to the Haitian government.

The insensitive and cruel conduct of the U.S. government can be seen in how it decided to stop emergency medical evacuations from Haiti to Florida. A New York Times article reported that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist complained about the cost to the state. Crist denied that charge, but says he would like Florida to get some aid from the federal government or from other states.

Only after five days of criticism and pressure did the White House order medical evacuations to restart. During that period the whole world could see that U.S. policies were causing the needless deaths of Haitians.

Reports are sketchy, but it appears that most of the million or so homeless in the Port-au-Prince area are getting some water. Food is another story. Distribution has been spotty. There are media reports that people have said they are not eating. Food is available in the markets, and the banks have been opened to allow people to access their accounts and money their relatives abroad have sent.

Some of the towns outside of Port-au-Prince say they haven’t gotten food, water or help with shelter in the two weeks since the earthquake. Others have finally started to get food and water. (Associated Press, Jan. 28)

The U.S. commander running the show, Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, claims that food is “flooding” into the city. (AP, Jan. 27) However, the U.S. is sending it any which way — it won’t guarantee that any location gets regular rations.

The big aid organizations have divided Port-au-Prince into 16 areas and each has taken the responsibility for one area.

The U.N. World Food Program says it has reached 450,000 people and urgently appealed to governments for more cash. This figure means that there are likely tens of thousands of people that the WFP hasn’t reached.

The number of people living in Port-au-Prince now, three weeks after the earthquake struck, is hard to estimate. There are no accurate reports on how many people have still received no aid, since between 100,000 and 200,000 people died in the earthquake. Tens of thousands of people who had family or friendship ties elsewhere have used government-subsidized buses and boats to leave the capital. Some analysts believe that a deliberate plan to depopulate Port-au-Prince is afoot.

It is not surprising that Port-au-Prince is having so much trouble recovering. According to Alex Dupuy, a sociologist and author of several books on social, political and economic developments in Haiti: “With a population of more than two million in a city whose infrastructure could at best sustain a population of 100,000, the local and national public administrations simply abandoned the city to itself. Neither provided meaningful services of any kind — schools, health care, electricity, potable water, sanitation, zoning and construction regulations.” (www.tanbou.com). Anything that the administration did served the interests of the few rich Haitians and foreigners in the city, most of whom survived the quake relatively unscathed.