BRIEFING Number 68 l November 2011 www.haitisupportgroup.org

“We are people not animals!” Women living in IDP camps protest outside the Ministry of Social Affairs, on World Habitat Day, 3. “We call on the NGOs to stop building transitional shelters and invest that money in a government-run social housing programme,” says Reyneld Sanon, co-ordinator of FRAKKA, the leading Haitian housing rights coalition. Photo Credit: Alexis Ekert, Otherworlds, www.otherworldsarepossible.org “We’re fed up of living in tents!” Nou Bouke Viv Anba Tant

he sit-in that blocked the NGOs or donors, the crowd Committed Funding: That parlia- vate donors and NGOs must con- road in front of the Ministry blocked entry through the Min- ment pass legislation assigning ded- form. Tof Social Affairs on World istry’s metal gate until a letter out- icated funds on an annual basis for These key demands strike at the Habitat Day was peaceful but noisy. lining their demands had been de- a substantive social housing pro- core of what has gone wrong to “We are people not animals!” “Get livered. “What’s happening now is gramme date. One, a lack of prioritization us out of these pigeon cages!” totally unacceptable,” said econo- Housing Office: The revitalization of popular, social housing post- “Public housing authority now!” mist Camille Chalmers. “We need of the public housing authority, (the earthquake; two, a lack of consul- chanted the mostly female crowd. a national social housing plan un- Entreprise Publique de Promotion tation and inclusion of the home- All members of the Housing Rights der the Ministry of Social Affairs,” des Logements Sociaux or EPPLS), less themselves in any planning; Coalition, drawn from more than 30 insisted another leader, Antonal the agency charged with planning, three, lack of government control IDP camps that are still home for the Mortimé. building and administering social of housing funds and plans; four, the estimated 595,000 people still liv- The demands in the letter reiter- housing absence of a national housing plan ing in the mud of another Haitian ated those raised in a meeting with Parliamentary Investigation: A as the basis for reconstruction; rainy season, they insisted on being the Haitian Senate’s Sub-Commit- detailed accounting of how the five, the effective privatization of heard. “We’re fed up of living in tee for Social Affairs on September huge reconstruction sums already what house building there is by for- tents!” proclaimed their banner. 6. They include: assigned to housing are being spent eign NGOs. All that has added up Complaining that the continued A Senate Housing Committee: The National Housing Plan: That the to one thing: a lack of results. construction of temporary housing creation of a Senate committee on Haitian State take effective control The facts are stark. To date the was a waste of time, that a national housing with camp residents pro- of reconstruction and housing by only real housing program has plan for permanent housing should viding regular evidence and ex- consulting on and agreeing a Na- be developed by government not pertise tional Housing Plan to which all pri- continued on page 2 ‰ Crimes, conflict, and cholera MINUSTAH – stabilising the status quo

n July 28, 2011, an eighteen year-old Haitian youth was gang- that, were heavily-armed troops in full battle-gear and armoured As the disease spread, reaching the capital and crossing the border raped in the small southern of Port-Salut by Uruguayan personnel carriers not patrolling the streets, would degenerate into the Dominican Republic, so did the anger at the UN’s refusal to Osoldiers belonging to the Stabilization Mission into a bloodbath – that criminal gangs would rule the streets. mount a serious investigation into the source of the outbreak. At one in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The assault was filmed on a cell phone. The Yet it soon became clear that MINUSTAH’s overriding mission was protest in Cap-Haïtien in November 2010, MINUSTAH troops fired on president of Uruguay, José Mujica apologized, calling it an “isolated not peace but politics, that it’s broad brush definition of “bandits” and protestors, killing three and wounding scores. A year on, two scientific incident.” Not quite. On August 18, 2010, a sixteen-year old boy was armed groups known as “chimères,” included anyone suspected of studies have provided incontrovertible evidence that the Nepalese found hanged in a MINUSTAH compound in the northern of Cap- being sympathetic to Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas party. That meant soldiers were the source of the outbreak. The UN, however, still refuses Haïtien. Despite eye-witness accounts and medical evidence suggesting predominantly the poor, and, in particular, the poorest of the poor to accept responsibility, let alone liability. he was murdered, MINUSTAH officials insisted he had committed living in neighbourhoods like Bel Air, Martissant and Cité Soleil. In Be that as it may, the renewal of the MINUSTAH mandate was a suicide. essence, MINUSTAH was not in Haiti to protect Haitians but to protect foregone conclusion. With all those “reconstruction” contracts to Far from being aberrations, the suborning, sexual exploitation and the socio-economic status quo, a status quo already reinforced by the protect, and new assembly plants in the Free Trade Zones to police, rape of Haitians by MINUSTAH forces have actually become the norm. ouster of the elected government. Washington and its allies will need MINUSTAH for a good while yet. n In one instance, in November 2007, 11 Sri Lankan soldiers were sent In a cable dated October 1, 2008 published by Wikileaks, then US home for involvement in the systematic sexual abuse of young women Ambassador, Janet Sanderson, made all this very clear. MINUSTAH’s and minors. To many Haitians, increasing numbers of whom have prime function was to suppress “populist and anti-market economy taken to the streets to protest, a UN force deployed in one of the world’s political forces” she asserted. Some international human rights poorest states at an annual cost of more than $850m, is increasingly organizations have estimated that three to four thousand “bandits” – behaving like a victorious army in conquered territory, viewing the including hundreds of women and children – were “neutralised” by the Haitians they are mandated to protect as spoils of war. de facto regime that succeeded President Aristide in partnership with All allegations against UN troops are, effectively, “case closed.” Not MINUSTAH. that there was ever, in any such “incident,” an actual case to answer. On more than one occasion, but most notoriously in the July 2005 Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) governing their assault on Cité Soleil, MINUSTAH deployed armour and helicopter deployment, MINUSTAH personnel are totally immune to prosecution gunships in punitive raids against the occupants of flimsy shacks – the in Haiti, even for crimes committed outside their official capacity. The ultimate, quite literally, in overkill. Such operations are not cheap, but seven-year presence of MINUSTAH is in fact punctuated with such Ambassador Sanderson regarded it as a snip: “a financial and regional egregious human rights abuses, making it clear that, far from keeping security bargain for the USG [United States Government]” the peace in Haiti, MINUSTAH is simply one of its principal violators. MINUSTAH was first deployed on June 1, 2004, three months after Lame Okipasyon: Opposition Grows the ouster of the democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Little wonder, then, that popular opposition to what Haitians term lame Aristide. From the outset, the status of the UN force has been of very okipasyon (the occupying army) is becoming increasingly vocal. In dubious constitutionality: its presence was “consented to” by a US- October 2010, the outbreak of cholera provided massive impetus to Civil society organizations protesting the presence of the United Nations Lame Okipasyon, Occupying Army. If it looks like one, acts like one, claims immunity imposed de facto regime. But if its legitimacy is, at the very least, shaky, that opposition. Local people immediately suspected that the source of troops on the 96th anniversary of the 1915 US occupation of Haiti. Protestors like one, then it is one. MINUSTAH troops, using armoured personnel carriers and its purpose could not be clearer. The ostensible justification for the outbreak was a Nepalese MINUSTAH compound on the banks of demand their withdrawal and compensation for the victims of the cholera helicopter gunships against civilians in flimsy shacks. Photo credit: Bill Boyce MINUSTAH is to protect Haitians from themselves – the line being the Artibonite river. epidemic. Photo credit: brikourinouvelgaye.com

‰ from page 1 looking depressingly like the past in (see Haiti Briefing No. 67) are the This, in turn, is a result of the fail- Unlike so many aid experts, It was, and is, pie in the sky. and “community participation.” that two had been completely or been the construction of T-shelters, Haiti. most vulnerable: the poorest, the ure of the government to expro- he’s obviously been talking to What has now emerged – hard- The IHRC liked it so much– or was partially closed.2 The residents of of which 94,879 had been built to sickest, the most un- or underem- priate land for housing – declaring Haitians. “They say we have lead- ly a National Housing Plan or so relieved to see any housing one, Stade Silvio Cator, closed by end-August, with another 113,399 T-Shelter; No Shelter ployed. There’s a reason for that. eminent domain for national need, ers? We don’t…they’ve abandoned something that might become one – plan, having failed to produce one the mayor of Port-au-Prince on July planned. The ‘T’ stands for transi- There is no agreed specification for The vast majority of those getting paying, if necessary, fair market val- us like stray dogs,” Louise Delva is what is known colloquially as themselves for over a year– that in 18, had been relocated to another tional, begging the obvious ques- a T-shelter – one reason it took so T-shelters own cleared land on ue – as it is entitled to do under the of the Regal camp in Petit Goave 6/16. The idea is to focus on clear- late July they backed it with $78 camp where, by every measure tion: transitional to what? long to start building them. At the which a T-shelter can be built. By constitution. Many experts don’t told Ayiti Kale Je. “Martelly stood ing the six named camps while re- million, even though they do not, conditions were worse. Some 64% Not permanent housing for sure. top-end are those that have concrete definition, those that do not own even think it needs to do that. By right there and said: ‘I have 30,000 pairing and restoring the 16 neigh- as yet, have the money designated of those evicted asked said they A mere 4,596 permanent homes bases, wood frames and galva- land, who were renters or squatters some estimates, the state owns as houses but your President won’t borhoods from which the vast ma- for this. Key donors and the Haiti were given $250; less than 40% of have been built to date with just nized zinc roofs, with walls of before the earthquake, will remain much as 10% of the surface area of give me the land to build them.’ jority of the IDPs in them are Reconstruction Fund (HRF) do, the minimum under the plan. The 12,281 more planned. “It’s almost varying materials usually, 9/16th homeless indefinitely if current Haiti – a legacy of endless acquisi- Well now he is President. So where drawn. The emphasis is on cash and are backing this “neighbor- remaining 36% got nothing. two years now. We call on the plyboard. At the other extreme are policy continues. tion by dictators and autocrats. are the houses? We’re still waiting,” payment incentives, $150 each hood returns approach.” In the second camp, Place St. NGOs to stop building transition- wood-frame structures with crushed A ground breaking investiga- Some of this has been leased out but Guerda Anier told the Miami Her- plus $500 for renters and up to The problem now is the usual– Pierre in Petionville, cash pay-offs al shelters and invest that money in rubble floors and tightly-stretched tion by Ayiti Kale Je, a grassroots could be reclaimed, some is simply ald from her IDP camp on the $3,500 to property owners who implementation. The plan depends had also gone ahead. About 600 a government-run social housing tarpaulins for walls, providing lit- media outlet, bears this out.1 They vacant. Much of this land is in the Champ de Mars, opposite the Na- agree to repair their homes and of- on co-ordinated, synchronized and families have received $500 each, programme,” says Reyneld Sanon, tle more security than the tents. conclude that nearly two-thirds of Port-au-Prince area, some of it tional Palace. fer free rent to IDP families for two integrated action to include cen- again well below the minimum with of FRAKKA, the housing rights co- Although some of these T-shelters those remaining in official camps even downtown. to five years. New houses will suses, surveys, consultations, land no offer of a T-shelter, repaired ordination group. “What’s going on can and will be improved and re- are landless – and demonstrate The problem has been a lack of A Man with a Plan But… only be offered to those families dispute resolution, rebuilding, in- house or the rental optional envis- now is a total waste of time and inforced by their occupants, and why. Resident after resident says political will– the political will to Well Martelly does now have a whose homes cannot be rebuilt in frastructure restoration, disburse- aged in 6/16. In short, local may- money.” will, as such, become permanent that surveys and censuses by NGOs make even token moves, not just plan. Indeed, since he took office situ. ments by everyone ranging from the ors were short-circuiting Martelly’s It’s also a metaphor for so much housing stock, many T-shelters al- and the International Organization for the sake of justice or equity, on May 14, he has demonstrated The plan is three-phased, with UN, IOM, assorted NGOs, various plans and getting rid of IDPs on of what counts for development in ready look like what they are- the for Migration (IOM) have facili- but for political stability and even some real leadership on the hous- four camps first, two camps to fol- Haitian ministries, HRF, to local their own terms, even though most Haiti. If transitional, it is by defi- slums of tomorrow. “Four rainy tated the extraction of residents economic growth. “Even when the ing issue. It is all relative of course, low and the “complete recon- mayors and most crucially, Haitian of the cash for the pay-offs seems nition unsustainable: If NGO-led, seasons at best, and as for standing with land, leaving those without Haitian rich don’t have to pay for firstly to the almost complete struction” of the 16 quartiers to fol- tenants and home-owners them- to have come from national funds. it is by definition unaccountable to up to earthquakes or hurricanes, stranded. “We don’t exist for it, even when international donors paralysis of the previous admin- low in phase three. The plan makes selves. But on paper, at least, this is continued on back page ‰ Haitians: If private, it will not ad- well just forget it,” says one shel- them,” says Margareth Paul in the offer, the state, so long an adjunct istration of René Préval and sec- all the right noises about consul- progress. 2. Haiti’s Housing Crisis: Results of a dress the necessities of those most ter expert. camp in Gerard Christophe Park in and agency of the elite, can’t ondly to Martelly’s own ambitious tation, with committees from each The practice is proving a little Household Survey on the Progress of in need. If it by-passes the Haitian Then there is the issue of who is Léogane. bring itself to move in a direction campaign pledge to close six key quartier designed to foster dia- more problematic. In August, with President Martelly’s 100-Day Plan to Close six state and its agencies, it inevitably getting the T-shelters. Everyone that is manifestly in its own in- IDP camps in his first 100 days in logue and discuss options, and re- the 100-day mark of Martelly’s IDP Camps, Institute for Justice & Democracy in 1. Abandonné comme un chien errant – Haiti, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, cultivates dependency. As such, all now accepts that those remaining Abandoned like a Stray Dog at terest,” complains one Shelter office, and all remaining camps in peated references to “sustainable so- presidency approaching, a survey University of San Francisco School of Law, at told, the present and future are in the fetid, often unserviced camps http://www.ayitikaleje.org expert after 15 months in Haiti. a further 83 days (mid-November). lutions,” “sustainable livelihoods” of the six named camps found www.HaitiJustice.org Published ‰ from page 3 by the Haiti Support Group, So what about the consultation and 49 Stanger Road, SE25 5LD community involvement so prominent in Phone: Martelly’s blueprint? For many in Stade 0208 676 1347 Silvio Cator this amounted to nothing Email: info@ more than violence and threats. Some haitisupportgroup. 35% of the former residents surveyed re- org ported being physically harmed or threat- Website: ened during what was simply a forced www.haitisupport group.org eviction by local authorities. Some 30% Design: Smith+Bell of residents reported destruction of their (www.smithplusbell shelter or belongings in the process. .com) Editors: The Alternative: Public, People, Both Anne McConnell, Andy Leak, Obviously all this does not bode well– Phillip Wearne and not just for those in the six camps and Christian named, who are actually the chosen few. Wisskirchen They number a fraction of the estimat- ed 595,000 still living in the more than T-shelters under construtction. Transiting to what, where, for whom? The slums of 900 IDP camps. Housing them or any- tomorrow? Photo credit: Phillip Wearne, HSG one else has, of course, never been a pri- ority. Even though the value of housing Its two officials died in their office and However, convincing if anecdotal re- lost in the earthquake was put at more its minuscule budget has been effective- search shows that Haitians are individ- than 50% of total losses, the Haitian gov- ly eliminated, a victim of the lack of budg- ually building homes to the same spec- ernment’s request for funding for hous- et support to the Haitian government in ifications as the T-shelters at less than ing was only ever 8% of its total recon- the first year after the earthquake. 20% of the NGO’s costs. Most of the dif- struction budget proposal to donors. The fact that the government did not ference is not going into the Haitian econ- Even Martelly’s plan, ostensibly cen- even have a ministry for housing and ur- omy. Could the aid dollar, pound or Euro tral-government controlled, does not ban development before the earthquake go five times as far in Haitian hands? If do the logical thing – channel plans, proj- accounts for the state of Port-au-Prince so, as seems logical, it would mean more ects, and procedures through the gov- when the ground started shaking. The homes, more jobs, more cash in the lo- ernment’s public housing authority, the fact that Haitians are still without such cal economy. The flip side is equally ob- EPPLS, the preferred option of the Hous- a ministerial authority today– five agen- vious: fewer IDPs, less gender-based vi- ing Rights Coalition. It could build per- cies that share some responsibilities re- olence, less cholera in fewer IDP camps. manent social housing as it has done in lated to housing now meet in an inter- Win-win. the past, would be accountable to ministerial committee, according to the Perhaps everyone, government, Haitians, could collect rents, and, as such, Housing Rights Coalition – accounts for NGOs, IHRC, should go back to could leverage the hundreds of millions the lack of coordinated effort to take con- where they should have started: con- of donor dollars now being disbursed to trol from the donors and the NGOs. sulting the homeless, trusting the peo- develop a sizeable and sustainable social One alternative leads back to where ple, mobilizing the energy and enter- housing stock. it should all have started: the people. Al- prise of ordinary Haitians who are end- But while the IHRC has approved though cash handouts after disasters are lessly active whichever way you look in $270m for housing projects, the EPPLS not a panacea, the absence of anything Port-au-Prince. All it requires is the al- has, like so much else in the Haitian gov- else for so many may make them the ob- location of micro lots of land to kick- ernment, been completely bypassed, de- vious best option in Haiti. NGOs put the start the process. Set aside land, wher- spite the oft-repeated donor mantra that price of a T-shelter at anything between ever, and they will come, as the one the reconstruction must be Haitian gov- $1500 and $5000 per unit. Those to- camp on government expropriated ernment led and build public capacity in wards the top end of that range are ef- land at Corail Cesselesse proves (see the process. The EPPLS has actually fectively permanent or convertibly-per- Haiti Briefing 66). Is that so much to been effectively killed by the earthquake. manent homes. ask? n

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