US military tightens grip on Haiti

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US military tightens grip on Haiti
By Alex Lantier
18 January 2010

Amid the humanitarian tragedy following the January 12 earthquake in
Haiti, Washington has concentrated on establishing indefinite military
control of the country. Fearing mass protests and riots by desperate
Haitians against inadequate rescue efforts, US logistical efforts are
focused on massing tens of thousands of troops for use against the
population.

Speaking yesterday on ABC television’s “This Week” program, US General
Ken Keen, who commands the military task force in Haiti, said US
troops would “be here as long as needed.” He confirmed there were
roughly 4,200 US troops in Haiti, largely in cutters patrolling
offshore, and that by today there would be 12,000 US troops in the
country.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited
Port-au-Prince at the invitation of Haitian President René Préval. She
argued for the imposition of an emergency decree in Haiti, allowing
for the imposition of curfews and martial-law conditions by US forces.
Clinton explained: “The decree would give the government an enormous
amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us.”

The US government is also working with a force of roughly 7,000
Brazilian-led UN peacekeepers. Clinton commented, “We’re being very
thoughtful about how we support them.”

Brazilian officials publicly commented on the risk that mass rioting
could overpower international security forces in Haiti. On Friday,
Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobin had warned that the
peacekeepers “could struggle” if there was large-scale protests: “We
are concerned about security.” The Times of London commented, “Haiti’s
capital could quickly descend into rioting if three million hungry,
thirsty, and traumatised earthquake survivors don’t receive emergency
aid soon.”

US officials are citing contradictory reports of looting in Haiti to
justify further US troop deployments. Keen told ABC, “having a safe
and secure environment is going to be very important. ... We have had
incidents of violence that impede our ability to support the
government of Haiti and answer the challenges that this country faces
as they’re suffering a tragedy of epic proportions.”

However, one official with the World Food Program (WFP) told the New
York Times: “For the moment, the population is rather quiet. But we
are seeing the first signs of violence and looting.” The first signs
included scuffles between Haitians as food aid is distributed to the
population, and one incident in Pétionville, where police threw an
alleged looter to an angry mob, who beat him and then burned him to death.

The US military has taken control of Port-au-Prince airport as a key
hub of its military buildup, blocking access by humanitarian flights.
Humanitarian flights from France, Brazil, and Italy were refused
permission to land, and the Red Cross reported one of its planes was
diverted to Santo Domingo, the capital of the neighboring Dominican
Republic.

France’s ambassador to Haiti, Didier le Bret, said France’s foreign
minister Bernard Kouchner had lodged a protest with the US State
Department after the US blocked a French flight carrying an emergency
field hospital. He added that Port-au-Prince airport was “not an
airport for the international community. It’s an annex of Washington.
... We were told it was an extreme emergency, there was need for a
field hospital. We might be able to make a difference and save lives.”

French officials later backed down from these statments. Presidential
counselor Claude Guéant said, “The US, who have a very sizeable
Haitian community, have decided to make a considerable effort ... Now
is really not the time to express rivalries between countries.”

However, WFP officials confirmed that US control of Port-au-Prince
airport was creating serious logistical problems for aid and rescue
efforts. The WFP’s Jarry Emmanuel told the New York Times: “There are
200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount
for a country like Haiti. But most of those flights are for the United
States military. ... Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours
are to feed [people]. We have got to get those priorities in sync.”

At Port-au-Prince’s Municipal Nursing Home, barely one mile from the
US-controlled airport, 85 elderly Haitians are starving and being
attacked by rats. One man, Joseph Julien, has already died. Officials
have cited fights over food at a nearby soccer stadium to justify not
sending them supplies, despite their proximity to the airport. Nursing
home administrator Jean Emmanuel told the Associated Press: “I’m
pleading for everyone to understand that there’s a truce right now,
the streets are free, so you can come through to help us.”

As of yesterday, US search-and-rescue teams had only dug out 15 people
from the rubble.

The US military intervention in Haiti is criminal in both form and
content. Disguised as a humanitarian rescue operation, its main aim is
to build up the necessary firepower to terrorize the masses into
accepting a shocking lack of treatment without protest. Even taken on
its own terms, the US occupation of Haiti has not taken the
opportunities available to it to treat wounded Haitians.

This operation recalls the March 1993 US intervention in Somalia, when
US forces invaded that strategically-located country, supposedly to
help relieve famine. US forces were soon deeply entangled in civil war
and hated by the population, leading up to a shoot-out between US
forces and civilians in Mogadishu. Current US operations in Haiti are
preparing similar confrontations with the population.

The rescue efforts in Haiti are held hostage by a US national security
establishment that is completely impervious to popular sympathy for
the victims of the earthquake, and unanswerable to the masses—of Haiti
or any other country, including the US itself. Instead, as the death
toll mounts, there is an unspoken but unanimous agreement in the
international media that it is legitimate for the US military to
dictate how operations will proceed.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive confirmed yesterday that the
death toll was at least 70,000. However, this counted only confirmed
dead in Port-au-Prince and the nearby city of Leogane, which was over
80 percent destroyed in the quake. Bellerive added that the figure of
100,000 dead throughout Haiti “would seem to be the minimum.”
Interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” USAID administrator Rajiv Shah
said he had “no reason to contradict” estimates of 100,000 to 200,000
dead.

Time is also running out for many of the even larger number of
Haitians wounded in the earthquake. Hospitals have been destroyed and
medical staffs are overwhelmed by large numbers of patients with
crushed limbs and rapidly spreading infections. Deprived of
antibiotics and basic medical supplies, doctors are resorting to
amputations and are refusing treatment to badly injured patients, whom
they do not think they can save.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times at Port-au-Prince’s General
Hospital, Dr. Georges Lamarre said most of his patients the first
night had bled to death, and that he still had no antibiotics or blood
supplies: “Up to this moment, there are patients out there we haven’t
even touched.”

At the General Hospital, Yolanda Gehry and her baby, Ashleigh, waited
four days before doctors could tape up Ashleigh’s head. However, they
have not yet treated Ashleigh’s shattered left hand. Gehry commented:
“The Haitian doctors didn’t have anything to help us, so we had to
wait for the foreigners.”

US officials have made clear that treating Haitian victims of the
earthquake is not a US priority. Medical facilities on the US aircraft
carrier USS Carl Vinson, steaming off Haiti’s shores, will not treat
Haitians. The senior medical officer on board, Commander Alfred
Shwayhat, told the Wall Street Journal he had plans to “treat 1,000
Haitians if necessary,” but said that he had received no orders to do
so. He continued, “If the captain authorizes it, I will take anyone
... [the Vinson’s facility] exceeds anything in the civilian sector,
bar none.”

Lieutenant Commander Jim Krohne, a spokesman for the Vinson’s captain,
explained that the carrier’s mission was “sea-based.” The Vinson later
sent two doctors onshore to help treat Haitian patients.

US officials are also warning Haitians that, if they try to flee from
Haiti to the US, they will be deported back to Haiti. Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said: “There may be an impulse to
leave the island to come here. You will not qualify for TPS [Temporary
Protected] status.” This would allow the US to deport them upon arrival.

Officials in Miami, a city with a large Haitian immigrant population,
are watching for signs of a mass flght from Haiti to the US.
Democratic Representative Kendrick B. Meek noted, “The entire
community is emotionally attached to Haiti, and it’s been rough,”
adding that Haitian-Americans form the bulk of the workforce for many
major employers in the region. However, officials are preparing
prisons for potential Haitian refugees.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would move
400 detainees from the Krome detention facility to an undisclosed
location, to free up space in case any Haitians manage to reach US shores.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j18.shtml

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