Haiti cholera protest turns violent

[mosfeld]

Haiti cholera protest turns violent
Protesters clash with UN peacekeepers in second-largest city of Cap Haitien over epidemic that has killed more than 900.

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At least two people have been killed during clashes between protesters and UN troops in Haiti, where a cholera epidemic has claimed over 900 lives in about three weeks.

Protesters, who hold Nepalese UN peacekeepers responsible for the cholera outbreak, threw stones and threatened to set fire to a base in the country's second-largest city of Cap Haitien on Monday, Haitian radio and eyewitnesses reported.

There are also unconfirmed reports that one UN peacekeeper has been shot dead. The UN has denied that the Nepalese mission is responsible for the outbreak.

Troubled relationship

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner, en route to Cap Haitien, said that the situation "has been brewing for a while" with "very tense relations" between the UN peacekeepers stationed there and the local community.

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"Back in August, a 16-year-old boy was found dead - he was hanging from a tree. And the Haitians believed that he was killed by the troops up there," she said. But the troops claimed the boy had committed suicide, and there was never a formal investigation into the boy's death, she added.

"As you can see, this is really the next phase of this deadly cholera outbreak - this real frustration against the troops - and these people in this community also believe that the UN troops, particularly the Nepalese, are responsible for bringing cholera into this country."

There are Nepalese as well as Chilean troops in Cap Haitien.

This isn't the first protest in Haiti, where crowds have taken to the streets, expressing anger at the Haitian government and the UN for failing to contain the outbreak.

Spreading epidemic

There are now cholera cases in every part of Haiti and UN agencies expect a "significant increase" in the number of people affected, a top UN official said on Monday.

"We have cases in every department," Nigel Fisher, a UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Haiti, said.

The UN and Haiti government had started a review of the epidemic and Fisher said that officials "foresee a significant increase" in the number of cases. He also said it was not unusual for hundreds of thousands of people to be hit by cholera in such an epidemic but added that many would be mild cases.

Dr Jim Wilson, from the Haiti Epidemic Advisory System, told Al Jazeera that the protests would make controlling the epidemic even more difficult. "What it means, ultimately, is more lives will be lost to the disease if we cannot get in there to provide medical support," he said.

The Haitian health ministry's latest figures put the number of dead at 917 with more than 14,600 people treated in hospitals.

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[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

There is clearly something awful going on in Haiti.

It amazes me that the UN asks for something like £100m or so to relieve the health consequences of this cholera outbreak, yet hundreds of people are still dying from this. Why can't our bankers give some of their £billions in bonuses to save innocent, dying people?

It is exactly this reason for which i'm a Socialist and against the shitty, corrupt, greedy, self-serving economic mode of production that dominates our world, quite literally.

God this shit makes me angry.

[mosfeld]

UN blamed for Haiti shootings
Peacekeepers deny shooting at least five people hospitalised in Cap-Haitien in third day of angry protests over cholera.

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Haitians have blamed UN peacekeepers for a number of shootings in the country's second city of Cap-Haitien on the third consecutive day of violent demonstrations over an outbreak of cholera that has killed more than 1,000 people.

Doctors said on Wednesday that at least five people had been admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds.

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner, reporting from Cap-Haitien, said that protests had started at a cemetery where cholera victims were being placed in mass graves.

"Clashes had then begun and according to doctors in the city's main hospital, the patients brought in were shot by live fire. They confirmed to us that they were shot by real, not rubber bullets," she said.

"According to some residents, there has also been a body laid out in front of the UN office in Cap-Haitien, said to be of someone who was shot dead by UN peacekeepers."

UN denial

However, a spokesman for Minustah, the UN mission in Haiti, told Al Jazeera there was no exchange of gun fire between UN troops and local residents.

The spokesman added that local gang rivalry could be to blame for the gunshot wounds.

The reported shootings come after the deaths of at least two people during clashes between residents and UN troops on Tuesday.

Crowds have taken to the streets expressing anger at the Haitian government and the UN for failing to contain the outbreak of cholera.

Some Haitians blame Nepalese peacekeepers for the disease, which is rapidly claiming more lives, and according to medical experts, could kill 10,000 people and cause 200,000 infections in the coming year.

"Our projections show that we could have around 200,000 cases of infection in Haiti over the next six to twelve months," Ciro Ugarte, a regional adviser for the Pan-American Helath Organisation (PAHO), told the AFP news agency.

"If the fatality rate [of four to five per cent] is maintained ... we may have 10,000 dead.

Ugarte also said that the cholera epidemic could spread "beyond Haiti", followng reports of the first reported case in neighbouring Dominican republic, as well as in the US state of Florida.

More than 1,100 Haitians have died since cholera was first detected in the nation in mid-October and the number of people treated in hospitals and clinics has soared to 18,382.

The PAHO, a regional office of the UN's World Health Organisation, has warned that cholera has taken hold and the troubled Caribbean nation should now expect hundreds of thousands of cases over the next few years.

Health officials fear the cholera epidemic could spread rapidly if it infiltrates Haiti's squalid refugee camps around the capital Port-au-Prince, where hundreds of thousands of earthquake refugees live in
cramped and unsanitary conditions.

The cholera outbreak - the first in more than half a century in the impoverished Caribbean nation - is bringing new chaos to Haiti after it was ravaged in a January earthquake that killed 250,000 people.

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[mosfeld]

Cholera unrest hits Haiti capital
Police fire tear gas into a camp for displaced people as protests accusing UN troops of bringing cholera turn violent.

Police in Haiti have fired tear gas into a camp for internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince, the capital, following violent riots.

The unrest followed protests against the presence of United Nations peacekeepers in the country, as locals become increasingly angry over a cholera outbreak that many people blame on Nepalese troops.

The disease has killed more than 1,100 people in about three weeks.

Demonstrators set up burning barricades as vehicles were pelted with stones on Thursday. Several hundred rock-throwing youths attacked an open-top lorry carrying members of Minustah, the 12,000-strong UN mission in Haiti.

The young demonstrators, many of them in their teens, shouted slogans such as "Cholera: It's Minustah who gave it to us!" and "Minustah, go home" as the protests spread.

It was the fourth day the country had seen such demonstrations. The UN denies that it is responsible for the cholera outbreak. Earlier this week, at least two people were killed in riots against the UN in the north of Haiti.

'Escalating violence'

Al Jazeera's Cath Turner in Port-au-Prince, said that rioting has escalated in the capital.

"The military wing of the national police have fired tear gas directly into the homeless camp across the road from the national parliament - Champ de Mars.

"Sources are telling us that there are scenes of parents and kids running around there trying to escape the tear gas.

"There are also UN troops monitoring this, and there are reports that they earlier fired tear gas at protesters. So really things are coming to a head now."

Hundreds of people have been living in tents in the Champ de Mars camp since January when a huge earthquake struck the country, particularly affecting the capital. More than 250,000 people died in the quake.

Some Haitians blamed Nepalese peacekeepers for the cholera outbreak, claiming that emanates from a base in central Haiti, where septic tanks have leaked into the Artibonite River, which locals use for drinking, washing clothes and bathing.

The UN insists that the Nepalese mission is not responsible for the outbreak, and linked the protests to the upcoming presidential election on November 28.

"The way the events unfolded leads to the belief that these incidents were politically motivated, aimed at creating a climate of insecurity ahead of the elections," the UN mission said earlier this week.

Anti-UN feeling

The significant anti-UN feeling appears to be growing in the country, with Haitians also blaming peacekeepers for a number of shootings in the country's second city of Cap-Haitien on Wednesday.

However, a spokesman for Minustah, the UN mission in Haiti, told Al Jazeera there was no exchange of gun fire between UN troops and local residents.

Professor Peter Hallward, an expert in Haitian politics at Kingston University in the United Kingdom, told Al Jazeera that the UN mission was seen by many Haitians as an "occupying force".

"The UN has been there since 2004, to police the consequences of a coup, a coup that overthrew Jean Betrande Aristide, who was elected with a huge mandate several years before that." he said.

"It is seen as the force that came in to pacify the people and persuade them to accept this coup that was a violation of their sovereignty."

Hallward said he believed that Haiti would be able to function without the UN force.

"It didn't need the UN before, it didn't need the coup ... The fundamental problem here is that the coup overturned the political system, the continuity of a government that was trying to improve the situation of the people," he said.

Cholera challenge

Aid workers, including UN humanitarian agencies, said the unrest was hampering efforts to treat the tens of thousands of people stricken with cholera.

The Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation said its Haiti country office had received reports of cholera victims dying in the streets because they were unable to reach health facilities in time.

"Cholera treatment is simple, but access is key," Dr Lea Guido, the PAHO representative in Port-au-Prince, said.

More than 18,000 people have been treated in hospitals and clinics since the mid-October outbreak, not including those who have died. According to medical experts, cholera could kill 10,000 people and cause 200,000 infections in Haiti in the coming year.

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2010/11/20101118173955660861.html