Two Faces of Oppression in Haiti
The stretch of land was gray
and pock-marked like a des-
olate moonscape. A swath of
1,000 shanties in Cite Soleil, Port-
au-Prince’s largest slum, had been
burnt down on December 27th in retaliation for the death of Issa
Paul, a militant of the right-wing
FRAPH, the day before. The Janu-
ary afternoon that I visited the site
with NACLA’ s fact-finding dele- gation, two weeks after the fire,
some people were camped Out on
the plots under the blazing tropical sun, afraid the government would use the opportunity to take away
their land.
According to residents, a gang of
attachesparamilitary troops in civilian clotheshad descended
upon the area in the afternoon and
set houses alight with gasoline. As
the fire took its deadly course, the
men fired shots into the air to pre- vent people from fleeing the fire and neighbors from dousing the flames. In one particularly grue-
some incident, a six-year-old girl
trying to escape a burning shanty was allegedly shot in the arm and
pushed back into the inferno. Wit-
nesses testified that police stood idly by, and that the fire depart-
ment was kept away. According to the Catholic human rights group
Justice and Peace, some 70 people
died in the fire, of which, the Hait-
ian Press Agency reports, at least
30 were killed by gunshot. Some
5,000 people lost their homes. U.S.AID-funded Centers for
Development and Health (CDS),
having just received a $100,000 special grant for “disaster relief” from the U.S. Embassy, was
promptly on the scene after the fire
to distribute aid. Each family was
supposed to be allotted some food and 15 Haitian dollars (about US$6). Attesting to the intricate
web of repression, people claimed
many of those handing out food aid
were also among those who started
the fire. Virulent arguments broke
out among the residents on the day
of our visit about how some fami-
lies were denied assistance, while other people got more than their
fair share. Others claimed that they
were too intimidated to even try to
register for aid. CDS says plans are in the works to rebuild the area.
But Cite Soleil residents are wor-
ried, unsure what the future holds
and distrustful of CDS’ intentions.
C
DSrun by wealthy Leba- nese businessman Reginald
Boulos as his personal fief-
domis a key prong in the effort to stifle dissent. Like the good
cop/bad cop routine, CDS’ social work has come to complement
FRAPH’s iron hand. Founded 20 years ago with funds from 100 privileged Haitian families, the center has grown over the years.
U.S.AID came on board in 1980;
today it is the principal backer of
CDS’ $2-million-a-year operation. The center operates three clinics in
Cite Soleil, and sends volunteers
into the neighborhoods to do a cen-
sus and register the children in the
preventative health care program. At the “Brooklyn” clinic, moth-
ers with their infant children hold
cards issued to them by CDS, and
make their way among the stations
set up for immunizations, weigh- ing, and vitamins. Another room is
full of bassinets for 100 malnour-
ished children who are brought to
the clinic each day for feeding. In an interior courtyard, children
dressed in neat red-aproned dresses and matching bows frolic. These
are the “post-malnourished” chil- dren in the center’s kindergarten
program.
No one disputes the fact that
CDS is providing a useful service.
It’s only in the broader context that
its potentially pernicious effects become apparent. Because the clin- ics cannot possibly provide full health services for everyone, a selection process is inevitable.
“The poor who are compliant and docile get health services,”
explains Gerard Blot, a progressive doctor who is familiar with CDS.
“Those who are more militant have
trouble getting services.” A select
100 malnourished babies are show- ered with attention and care, but what of the thousands of other
impoverished children in the slum? Moreover, the user fees that
patients must pay preclude the very
poorest from receiving treatment. Because CDS tracks the move-
ment of families into and out of the
neighborhood, the organization’s records would be a useful way for
the army to control and monitor the
population. Members of one grass- roots organization in Cite Soleil
complained that Boulos’ operation is full of “recycled Macoutes,” and there is fear that the extensive
dossiers that CDS keeps on each
family might fall into the wrong hands. As Haiti languishes in its third
year of military dictatorship, the protracted, often brutal work of
consolidating the military regime is underway. Cite Soleil, along with other Aristide strongholds, has been targeted by the army in an
effort to obliterate all opposition
whether by the overt repression of
FRAPH or the more subtle meth-
ods of CDS. By funding organiza- tions such as CDS that may actual-
ly be aiding the de facto regime, the U.S. government ends up send-
ing mixed signals about its resolve
to kick out the putschists.
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