Alors qu’il s’apprêtait à prendre l’avion pour l’Espagne où  il passera plusieurs jours en quête, a-t-il  dit, de débouchées pour le pays, le président Michel Martelly s’est adresse a la nation pour l’informer de son choix.

Il a présenteé Me Gousse comme  un homme capable de l’aider à mettre de l’ordre dans le pays. Il a dit espérer qu’à son retour, les travaux des parlementaires en vue de la ratification de ce dernier seront à une phase assez avancée.

Le chef de l’état qui n’est pas parvenu à convaincre les parlementaires a voter pour l’ancien ministre du régime de facto (2004/2006) a fait savoir que des négociations ont bien eu lieu mais, a-t-il dit, « négociation ne signifie ni marchandage ni compromission ».

Le président de l’assemblée nationale, Rodolphe Joazile a confirmé  avoir reçu la lettre de l’exécutif datant du 29 juin 2011 annonçant la désignation officielle du premier ministre . Le sénateur a assuré que le bureau ne tarderait pas à écrire au président pour lui demander que le premier ministre désigné fasse le dépôt de ses pièces pour analyse.

Mais, le choix est d’emblée rejetée par le bloc majoritaire qui s’est  positionné contre l’ancien garde des sceaux de la république. Le président du Groupe Parlementaire Majoritaire (GPR) à  la chambre basse, Jean Tolbert Alexis estime que la décision du chef de l’état frise la démagogie. Il  soutient que les parlementaires, après le rejet de Daniel Gérard Rouzier, avaient été insulté cqui fait dejà l’objet d’accusations de violation de droits de l’homme .

Le deuxième sénateur du Sud-Est, Wencesclas Lambert  se veut aussi direct que son collègue Alexis de la chambre basse. Il prévient que son bloc ne votera pas en faveur du choix du président et selon lui. ce dernier en est au courant. Il évoque des violations des droits de l’homme dont certains politiciens auraient été victimes pour justifier sa désapprobation.

Pour sa part le deuxième sénateur du centre, Dera Simon Dieuseul estime que le président Martelly n’a pas la volonté de faire ratifier son premier ministre. Il affirme qu’aucune négociation n’est possible sur ce choix au sein de son groupe formé majoritairement de lavalassiens qui ne se retrouvent pas dans ce personnage.

Plusieurs autres secteurs estiment que le president Martelly  souhaitent que Bernard Gousse conaisse le même sort que M. Rouzier pour tenter de doscréditer les parlementaires devant la population et du coup arriver avec son verritable choix qui pourrait être le professeur Daniel Supplice

Au cours de la cérémonie d’ouverture, le president  Joseph Michel Martelly s’est engagé devant la communauté internationale à deployer des efforts en vue de la reconstruction d’Haiti, devastée par un  tremblement de terre le 12 janvier  2010.

La veille, M Martelly s’etait réuni,hier, avecCheryll Mills, la representante de la secretaire d’etat americaine avec qui il a abordé des sujets tels la relocalisation des deplacés du tremblement du seisme,  l’avenir de la commission intérimaire de reconstruction d’Haiti et la situation securitaire du pays.

De son côté, le premier ministre de la Barbade, Freundel Stuart a réclamé de la Caricom qu’elle se concentre sur Haiti et développe des mécanismes d’aide à ce pays.

Au cours du sommet, les etats membres du bloc regional etudieront également les mecanismes d’application d’une politique de developpement social, humain et de coopération dans le domaine de la securité, a indiqué un communiqué.

Autres thèmes qui seront a l’ordre du jour de ce sommet:la sécurite dans la région, le developpement d’un organisme regional de santé, l’agence de santé publique de la Caraibe qui est sur le point d’etre approuvée par les états membres de la Caricom.

La plupart des points qui seront debattus a ce sommet ont deja été analysés par les leaders de la Caricom, lors d’une réunion en Guyane, le 22 Mai dernier .

Les participants avaient alors proposé la modification du secrétariat de la caricom et discuté de l’aide conjointe aux pays membres et de stratégies d’aide en politiques communes.

A propos de l’application d’une économie unique dans la region, ils ont reconnu que le processus de négociation prendra plus de temps que prevu mais aboutira a de nouvelles décisions comme la création d’une monnaie régionale.

La Caricom qui a vu le jour en juillet 1973, a pour objectif : l’intégration commerciale, la coordination conjointe de politiques extérieures et la promotion de la cooperation dans les domaines de l’education, de la culture et de l’industrie.

Me Harrycidas qui a confirmé vendredi cette décision prise à son encontre à l’AHP, a fait savoir qu’il été mis a pied parce qu’il est accusé d’avoir eté témoins de tortures infligées au prévenu Serge Demosthènes lors de son interrogatoire.

Il redit qu’il n’a ni ordonné l’arrestation de M. Démosthène ni été présent au moment où ce dernier se faisait bastonner à mort au commissariat de Pétion-ville contrairement a ce que veulent faire croire ceux qui, dit-il, veulent salir son image qu’il affirme avoir mis du temps à construire.

Pour ce qui est du rapport d’enquête du Réseau National de Défense de Droits Humains (RNDDH) autour de la mort de Serge Démosthènes, Me Auguste a fait remarquer qu’il ne mentionne nulle part qu’il avait assisté à la bastonnade du prévenu.

Pourtant, la porte-parole de cette organisation, Marie Yolène Gilles, avait soutenu a travers ses multiples déclarations dans la presse, que le prévenu Démosthènes a été battu en présence du commissaire du gouvernement.

Me Auguste a également fait savoir que ses démarches avaient poussé l’inspection générale de la Police nationale d’Haïti à enquêter sur les circonstances du décès de Serge Démosthène plaçant momentanément en isolement les policiers qui avaient participé a son arrestation et a son passage a tabac dont le commissaire principal Varnel Lacroix.

Pour ceux qui estiment qu’il doit lui aussi faire l’objet de poursuite pour son implication présumée dans la mort de Serge Démosthène, Me Auguste a fait savoir qu’en tant que magistrat en fonction, il ne peut faire l’objet de poursuites en dehors d’une enquête judiciaire que doit conduire au préalable le conseil supérieur de la Magistrature.

Il affirme cependant avoir rendu compte du dossier à ses supérieurs hiérarchiques.

Peu avant sa mise a pied, Me Harrycidas Auguste avait indiqué que le dossier relatif a l’enquête sur l’assassinat du président du conseil d’administration de la Banque Nationale de Crédit (BNC) avait été transféré au cabinet d’instruction.

Madame Kang doit également s’entretenir avec des membres du corps diplomatique, de la Mission des nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haïti (Minustah), de la Commission Intérimaire pour la Reconstruction d’Haïti (CICR) et de la société civile notamment les organisations de droits humains.

La Haute-commissaire adjointe visitera des camps de déplacés et des centres carcéraux du pays. Elle pourra ainsi s’enquérir de la situation dans le pays et soulever certaines préoccupations au sujet des droits humains dans le processus de la reconstruction d’Haïti.

Madame Kang a aussi prévu de s’attaquer a l’impunité et a la reforme du système judiciaire.

Ces organisations soutiennent que les plus de 850 millions de dollars alloués chaque année à la mission onusienne dans le pays devraient servir à dédommager les victime et à lancer une intense mobilisation contre l’épidémie afin de l’éradiquer.

Les responsables de ces organisations ont critiqué l’attitude de la MINUSTAH qui, estiment-ils, refusent d’admettre et d’assumer ses responsabilités dans l’introduction de la maladie en Haïti.

Ils ont aussi condamné la gestion faite par l’Etat haïtien de l’épidémie, soulignant que les autorités locales priorisent la capitale au détriment des zones reculées du pays où la maladie est en nette recrudescence.

Cette prise de position est intervenue à la veille de la publication d’une nouvelle étude confirmant l’hypothèse selon laquelle les casques bleus de l’ONU ont effectivement importé la souche de la maladie en Haïti.

Cette nouvelle étude conduite par le scientifique français Renaud Piarroux, suggère fortement qu’un contingent de casques bleus originaires du Népal a bien contaminé une rivière haïtienne à cause des mesures sanitaires inappropriées sur leur base.

Cette étude doit être publiée dans le numéro de juillet de la revue scientifique Emerging Infectious Diseases qui est une publication des centres américains de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (CDC)

Renaud Piarroux avait déjà mis en cause les casques bleus dans l’introduction de la maladie en Haïti dans le cadre d’une précédente étude conduite dans le pays avec l’appui de scientifiques haïtiens.

Mais, cette dernière étude est plus complète et sa méthodologie a été vérifiée par d’autres scientifiques..

Bien que les différents secteurs de la société haïtienne soient persuadés de la responsabltés même involontaire des casques bleus népalais , la Minustah a nié une nouvelle fois ce jeudi être responsable de l’importation du choléra dans le pays. Sa porte-parole Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg a fait savoir que l’étude qui sera publiée dans la revue scientifique Emerging Infectious Diseases est la même qui a été produite peu après l’éclatement de l‘épidémie en Haïti.

Selon elle, il s’agit d’une nouvelle publication de la même étude.

Madame Wildenberg déclare s’en tenir au rapport du panel “d’experts indépendants” nommés par le secretaire géneral de l’ONU.

Ce rapport, présenté le 3 mai dernier au secrétaire général de l’ONU Ban Ki-moon et à son représentant d’alors en Haïti Edmond Mulet, soulignait que le choléra est causé par la confluence de plusieurs circonstances et n’était pas la faute, ou n’était due à l’action délibérée d’un groupe ou d’un individu.

Madame Wildenberg redit qu’aucune étude ne peut établir le lien scientifique entre la base des casques bleus et l’épidémie de choléra dans le pays.

Entretemps, l’épidémie continue d’avancer et de faire des victimes. Au 20 juin, les autorités haïtiennes ont fait état de 5506 décès sur l’ensemble du territoire.

L’Artibonite avec ses 1017 décès est la région la plus affectée. Suivent l’Ouest (989 morts), la Grande-Anse 831, le Nord 660 et le Centre 469. Plus de 363 117 personnes ont présenté des signes suspects et 191 508 ont été hospitalisées.

La porte-parole de du bureau de coordination des affaires humanitaires en Haïti (OCHA), Emmanuelle Schneider a fait savoir jeudi que la région de Port-au-Prince est celle où le taux de mortalité par rapport aux personnes infectées est le plus bas soit 0.7%.

L’OCHA a déjà reçu 92 millions de dollars US soit 53% des 175 millions demandés pour faire face à l’épidémie.

Elle réitère la volonté des acteurs sanitaires de combattre la maladie en prodiguant des soins de santé aux personnes infectées en en poursuivant les campagnes de sensibilisation entre autres.

En novembre dernier, des manifestations anti-casques bleusorganisées dans plusieurs régions du pays dont le Nord, le Centre et l’Ouest avaient fait plusieurs morts.

Les protestataires exigeaient le départ des soldats onusiens qu’ils avaient accusés d’avoir transmis la maladie dans le pays.

Alors que l’ONU et la MINUSTAH refusent d’admettre ce que l’on considère ciome une evidence, à l’étranger, les ressortissants haïtiens ont été victimes de stigmatisation. En République Dominicaine, des milliers d’haïtiens ont été persécutés et chassés par des civils des quartiers où ils habitaient sous prétexte qu’ils pouvaient contaminer les dominicains.

L’ex-candidat a la président Jean-Henry Céant, le premier ministre sortant Joseph Jean Max Bellerive et l’ancien ministre de la justice sous le gouvernement de transition Bernard Gousse, sont les noms les plus cités.

Certains parlementaires n’ont pas attendu une éventuelle désignation de Me Gousse pour marquer leur désapprobation, estimant que son passage au Ministère de la Justice a été marqué par de graves excès.

C’est le cas du député de Miragoane/Fond-des-Nègres, Faustin Poly.

” Le temps passé par Me Gousse au ministère de la justice laisse des plaies encore très vives dans la société”, a-t-il dit, faisant savoir qu’il a favorisé de graves violations de droits humains, dont des arrestations arbitraires et des persecutions politiques, pendant qu’il réhabilitait des individus qui avaient été condamnés pour crimes contre l’humanité.

Je ne voterai pas pour Me Gousse et si le bloc auquel j‘appartiens en décidait autrement j’en serais le premier dissident, a-t-il dit.

L’un des sénateurs du Centre Simon Dieuseul Dera a fait savoir que Me Gousse a laissé des cicatrices indelébiles dans le corps et le coeur de Beaucoup d’haïtiens, “voilà pourquoi, il ne doit même pas envisager compter sur mon appui”, a dit le senateur.

Le parlementaire du Centre estime que les négociations ont trop trainé. Il appelle le président à prendre des dispositions pour qu’au plus tard la semaine prochaine le processus de ratification du premier ministre désigné soit lancé.

Le député Guy Gérard Georges s’est refusé à se positioner pour l’instant se positionner pour l’instant, attendant que l’heure soit venue.

Il a fait savoir qu’au cours des discussions entre le bloc GPR (Groupe de Parlementaires pour le Renouveau) dont il est membre et le chef de l’Etat, aucun nom n’a été cité.

Son collègue des Thomazeau/Croix-des-Bouquets, Jean Tholbert Alexis a indiqué que la liste des dix prétendants a été réduite à 2 personnalités dont l’une pourrait bénéficier de l’aval des parlementaires.

Il appelle le chef de l’Etat à fixer son choix pour permettre l’avancement des discussions, estimant que M. Martelly a tiré leçon du rejet de son premier choix porté sur la personne de Daniel Gérard Rouzier.

le premier ministre sortant Jean-Max bellerive dispose d’importants appuis au parlement, cependant, certains dossiers jugés obscurs du gouvernement Préval et son allégeance apparemment sans faille à ce dernier, ne sont pas pour lui des points positifs, d’autant que le candidat Michel Martelly avait fait campagne en faveur du changement et contre la continuité que representait selon lui, le candidat du pouvoir Jude Célestin.

Et l’on se met à considérer de façon très serieuse une possible désignation du notaire bien connu et et ancien candidat à la présidence Jean Henri Céant qui jouit d’une bonne notoriété dans tous les milieux et qui avait de très importantes chances de gagner les dernière présidentielle.

Mais la question de se poser : Jean Henri Céant veut-il de ce poste dans les circonstancs actuelles?

De son côté, le président Martelly a insisté qu’avec qui’avec ou sans premier ministre il ne restera pas les bras croiser mais va honorer ses promesses de campagne

Son bureau de communication informe qu’il doit délivrer le message d’ouverture du sommet et en profitera pour s’entretenir avec d’autres leaders en vue de renforcer la coopération bilatérale entre le pays et d’autres nations de la Caraïbes.

M. Martelly laissera par la suite le pays le 7 juillet à destination de l’Europe pour entre autres rencontrer à Madrid, le président du gouvernement espagnol, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ainsi que le Roi Juan Carlos.

Les discussions porteront sur l’aide du peuple espagnol à Haïti et le renforcement de la coopération entre les deux pays. Michel Martelly doit également s’entretenir avec des hommes d’affaires européens qui sont intéressés à investir en Haïti, afin de les encourager et leur garantir un environnement propice aux affaires.

Le chef de l’Etat s’était entretenu mercredi au palais présidentiel avec le nouveau représentant spécial de Ban Ki-moon en Haïti et chef civil de la mission onusienne dans le pays Mariano Fernandez Amunategui.

La porte-parole de la Minustah, Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg a fait savoir que les deux hommes ont discuté entre autres de la mission onusienne en Haïti et de la situation générale du pays un mois après l’installation du nouveau président. Ce dernier a dit attendre la formation de son gouvernement pour démarrer les grands chantiers de la reconstruction.

M. Fernández en a profité pour réitérer le soutien de la Minustah aux efforts du président Martelly, du gouvernement et du Parlement en vue d’améliorer les conditions de vie des citoyens haïtiens.

Soulignant que c’est un honneur pour lui de représenter l’ONU en Haïti, M. Fernandez a aussi indiqué au chef de l’Etat qu’il était porteur d’un message du secrétaire général de l’organisation onusienne, Ban Ki-moon qui, dit-il, avait réitéré la détermination des nations Unies de continuer à soutenir Haïti.

Le Président a exhorté M. Fernandez à se mettre au travail dans le cadre de la Mission et à faire preuve d’une présence plus remarquée aux cotés de la PNH en vue de faire face de manière beaucoup plus efficace au banditisme.

Le chef de l’Etat a aussi demandé que des rencontres fréquentes soient tenues entre la mission onusienne et la PNH afin de s’attaquer à l’insécurité et de démanteler les réseaux de malfaiteurs. Il lui a aussi souligné sa volonte de voir les ressources et les moyens de la Minustah s’orienter davantage vers le développement et la reconstruction d’Haïti.

Washington’s decision to send thousands of troops in response to the 7.0 earthquake that rocked the Haitian capital and surrounding areas drew sharp criticism from aid workers and government officials around the world. They criticized the militarized response to Haiti’s humanitarian crisis as inappropriate and counterproductive, claiming Haiti needed “gauze not guns.” French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet famously said that international aid efforts should be “about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also decried “Marines armed as if they were going to war,” in his weekly television address. “There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that is what the United States should send. They are occupying Haiti in an undercover manner.”

The earthquake-related cables show that Washington was very sensitive to international criticism of its response, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mobilized her diplomatic corps to ferret out “irresponsible journalism” worldwide and “take action” to “get the narrative right.”

Meanwhile, the UN in Haiti claimed its 9,000 occupation troops and policemen were sufficient to ensure security. On Jan. 19, with Resolution 1908, the UN Security Council unanimously approved sending more than 3,500 reinforcements to Haiti “to support the immediate recovery, reconstruction and stability efforts,” increasing MINUSTAH (UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti, as the occupation force is called) to 12,651.

But Obama administration officials said the additional U.S. troops were necessary.

“Until we can get ample supplies of food and water to people, there is a worry that in their desperation some will turn to violence,” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told reporters six days after the quake. “And we will work with the UN in trying to ensure that the security situation remains good.”

Seeking to avoid the appearance of a unilateral U.S. military action, the U.S. asked Préval to issue a joint communique with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Jan. 17.

Haiti “requests the United States to assist as needed in augmenting security,” said the communiqué, providing the rationale for what would be the third U.S. military intervention of Haiti in the last 20 years.

The revelations that US officials in Port-au-Prince did not believe there was, in fact, a security threat to justify a military intervention come in a trove of 1,918 cables made available to Haiti Liberté by WikiLeaks.

Deployment First, Authorization Later

After the quake, Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince resembled a warzone. Bodies lay strewn, collapsed buildings spilled into dust-filled streets, while Haitians frantically rushed to dig out survivors crying out from under hills of rubble. Several flattened neighborhoods looked as if they had been destroyed by bombing raids.

But the one element missing from this apocalyptic scene was an actual war or widespread violence. Instead, families sat down in the street, huddled around flickering candles with their belongings. Some wept, some sat in shell-shocked silence, while others sang prayers, wailing for Jesus Christ in Kreyol, “Jezi!”

In the quake’s chaotic aftermath, Haitian President René Préval and his prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, were out of touch with U.S. government officials for about 24 hours. When they did connect, the Haitian leaders held a 3 p.m. meeting on Jan. 14 with U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten, the Jamaican Prime Minister, the Brazilian and EU ambassadors, and UN officials.

President Préval laid out priorities: “Re-establish telephone communications; Clear the streets of debris and bodies; Provide food and water to the population; Bury cadavers; Treat the injured; Coordination” among groups amidst the catastrophic destruction, a Jan. 16, 2009 cable explains. Préval did not mention insecurity as a major concern. He did not ask for military troops.

But the same cable reports that “lead elements of the 82nd Airborne Division arrived today, with approximately 150 troops on the ground. More aircraft are expected to arrive tonight with troops and equipment.”

The U.S. government had already initiated the deployment of considerable military assets to Haiti, according to the secret State Department cables. At its peak, the U.S. military response included 22,000 soldiers — 7,000 based on land and the remainder operating aboard 58 aircraft and 15 nearby vessels, according to the Pentagon. The U.S. Coast Guard was also flying spotter aircraft along Haiti’s coast to intercept any refugees from the disaster.

A Jan. 14 cable from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to U.S. embassies and Pentagon commands worldwide said that the U.S. Embassy in Haiti “anticipates significant food shortages and looting in the affected areas.” But subsequent dispatches from Ambassador Merten in Haiti repeatedly describe only “sporadic” incidents of violence and looting.

In those early post-quake hours, it appears that Préval was reluctant to call in U.S. troops . A Jan. 19 cable reported that a “radio talk show host blasted President Préval on Signal FM on January 18 for hesitating to authorize the U.S. military to deploy.”

But Washington wasn’t waiting for authorization apparently. In a Jan. 15 cable, Clinton told diplomatic posts and military commands that “approximately 4,000 U.S. military personnel will be in Haiti by January 16 and 10,000 personnel by January 18.” However, not until two days later, on Jan. 17, did Clinton and Préval issue the “joint communique” in which Haiti requested the U.S. “to assist as needed in augmenting security.”

Aware that there would be international dismay about U.S. troops playing a security role, Clinton outlined a series of “talking points” for diplomats and military officers in her Jan. 22 cable. She said they should emphasize that “MINUSTAH, has the primary international responsibility for security,” but that “in keeping with President Préval’s request to the United States for assistance to augment security, the U.S. is providing every possible support… and is in no way supplanting the UN’s role.”

UN Says It Should Provide Security

In the Jan. 18 meeting between Préval and international officials in Santo Domingo, former Guatemalan diplomat Edmund Mulet, MINUSTAH’s new chief, said that his troops “were capable of providing security” in the country. (Mulet had flown into Haiti on a Pentagon plane to take over from MINUSTAH chief Hédi Annabi, who was killed with 101 other UN personnel when the Hotel Christopher, which acted as UN headquarters, collapsed in the quake.) Mulet “insisted that MINUSTAH be in charge of all security in Haiti, with other foreign military forces limited to humanitarian relief operations.”

In fact, many Haitians looked on in disbelief as heavily armed UN soldiers, after rushing to rescue their own personnel, resumed driving through the devastated capital and its suburbs in armored troop carriers, bristling with the guns. Many Haitians have long resented and denounced the MINUSTAH as a flagrant violation of Haiti’s 1987 Constitution and an affront to Haitian sovereignty. The UN troops brandishing guns in front of devastated earthquake victims added insult to injury.

Even before the earthquake, President Préval had called on the UN to change its mission from costly, mostly pointless, and sometimes repressive military patrols to building desperately needed infrastructure. “Turn your tanks into bulldozers” Préval pleaded in his 2006 inaugural speech. UN and U.S. officials repeatedly and dismissively rebuffed the request.

After the quake, Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim and Organization of American States (OAS) Representative to Haiti Ricardo Seitenfus echoed Préval’s call. Even Mexico “sought an unproductive debate on reviewing MINUSTAH’s mandate” at the UN Security Council, a proposal which was thankfully “avoided,” a Feb. 24, 2010 cable from the U.S. Mexican Embassy reported.

Even though the UN boosted its force, US troops in and around Haiti eventually outnumbered it by almost 2-to-1, and they remained for six months. Those troops poured into Haiti as U.S. officials fretted about the Haitian police force’s ability to reorganize itself and maintain order, the cables show. (At the same time, the cables reported no marked increase in violence.)

But following her boss’ “talking points,” Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s Chief of Staff, “assured Préval… that the [U.S.] military was here for humanitarian relief and not as a security force,” explains a Jan. 19 cable.

But that’s not what journalists on the ground saw.

On Jan. 19, 2010, Democracy Now’s crew along with Haiti Liberté’s Kim Ives arrived at the General Hospital around 1 p.m., shortly after troops from the 82nd Airborne Division. There, they found the soldiers, guns in hand, standing behind the hospital’s closed main gate. The troops had orders to provide “security” by denying entrance to a crowd of hundreds, including injured earthquake victims and family members of patients bringing them food or medicine. “Watching the scene in front of the General Hospital yesterday said it all,” said Ives in a Democracy Now! interview the next day. “Here were people who were going in and out of the hospital bringing food to their loved ones in there or needing to go to the hospital, and there were a bunch of… U.S. 82nd Airborne soldiers in front yelling in English at this crowd. They didn’t know what they were doing. They were creating more chaos rather than diminishing it. It was a comedy, if it weren’t so tragic… They had no business being there.”

The journalists finally managed to get into the hospital and alerted the hospital’s interim director, Dr. Evan Lyon, about the problem. He immediately sent word down that the soldiers should stand down and open the gate. They did, but then assumed positions in the hospital’s driveway, continuing to act, among the injured hobbling into the hospital, as a completely unnecessary and unrequested “security force,” contrary to what Mills had promised Préval.

The entry point for much of the military personnel and equipment was the capital’s Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport. Timothy Schwartz, an anthropologist who has consulted for USAID, rushed into Port-au-Prince the day after the quake to help. “Ben and I are at the airport, on the tarmac, helping soldiers of the 82nd Airborne load thick, heavy metal plates into the back of my pickup truck,” he writes in a forthcoming book. “Then it occurs to me, ‘what the hell are these things?’”

“‘Body armor,’ Ben says.”

Schwartz reflected: “Fear must be the reason why all this military hardware and these soldiers around us are setting up base camp behind a ten foot fence. Fear must be why they are walking around in the near sweltering heat with 80 pounds of gear strapped to their bodies and machine guns swung over their shoulders.”

One doctor from Colorado who flew in with colleagues (at their own expense) on Jan. 17 to help the injured was shocked by the military deployment he saw at the airport. “We need gauze, not guns,” he told the Democracy Now crew.

The enormous influx of U.S. military personnel, weapons and equipment into the airport prompted a chorus of protest from mid-level French, Italian, and Brazilian officials, as well as the aid group Doctors Without Borders. They were outraged that planes carrying vital humanitarian supplies were prevented from landing, or delayed, sometimes for days.

“We had a whole freaking plane full of the friggin’ medicine!” Douglas Copp, an American rescue worker, exclaimed outside a UN base not long after the quake. The U.S. military, which had taken over the Port-au-Prince airport, would not give clearance for the Peruvian military plane to land. It had to divert to the Dominican capital, 150 miles away. “In Santo Domingo, we got a bus, and we came into Haiti with just the things we could fit in the bus,” he said.

Getting the Narrative “Right”

Secretary Clinton brooked no criticism, which was growing worldwide, of the U.S. military’s role in the relief effort.“I am deeply concerned by instances of inaccurate and unfavorable international media coverage of America’s role and intentions in Haiti,” she wrote in a stern Jan. 20 message to embassies across the globe. “It is imperative to get the narrative right over the long term.”

She asked that Embassies report back to her, “citing specific examples of irresponsible journalism in your host countries, and what action you have taken in response.”

In countries all over the world, from Luxembourg to Chile, diplomatic officials scrutinized the media and hit back against criticism of the U.S. military’s build-up in Haiti, sending back dozens of detailed reports.

For example, a Jan. 20 cable from Doha describes an Al Jazeera English report on the relief effort’s militarization which compared the US-run airport to a “mini-Green zone.” This report resulted in a phone call “during the early morning hours of January 18″ from the U.S. Embassy in Doha to Tony Burman, managing director of Al Jazeera English.

But the airport story was accurate. “They had taken over the place,” said Jeremy Dupin, 26, about the U.S. “joint coordination” of the airport. After his home had collapsed, Dupin, a Haitian journalist, had wandered the streets for a day until linking up with an Al Jazeera English crew to work as a producer.

“There were 20,000 soldiers so this was a big move,” Dupin said. “We pointed out there were serious problems, and that’s why the U.S. didn’t like the news, but we told the truth. And if we had to say it again, we would say it again… This wasn’t something we just said, it’s something we showed with images and footage. I mean, this was the truth.”

Many cables reported generally positive coverage in their countries. But any instance of negativity towards the United States, no matter how small, was flagged and dealt with. In Colombia, for example, “the only negative coverage” was from a newspaper cartoonist who drew “a colonial soldier planting a U.S. flag on the island of Haiti,” the Bogota Embassy reported on Jan. 26. “Post will meet with the cartoonist this week to discuss this cartoon with him and provide information refuting its inference, as well as engage with El Espectador’s editor to express our strong concerns.”

The Buenos Aires Embassy reported on Jan. 26 that the “pro-government, left-of-center Pagina 12 protests the excessive U.S. troop deployment, noting that ALBA (Bolivarian Partnership for the Americas) voiced its ‘concern over the excessive presence of foreign troops without any reason, purpose, venues or time of permanence,’ in veiled reference to the U.S. troops.”

Factory Owners Demand “Security at All Levels”

Back in Haiti, Embassy officials worried that only 30-40% of the police were showing up for duty, while some 4,000 prisoners had escaped from the National Penitentiary. There were “numerous gang member/leaders” among the escapees, a Feb. 16 cable noted, but “many were not hardened criminals and were being held in lengthy pre-trial detention, never having been sentenced.”

“The security situation is worsening,” said a Jan. 18 cable issued just after midnight. “[E]scaped inmates have formed gangs to kidnap and perpetuate [sic] other crimes.”

Only nine hours later, however, another dispatch: “Embassy Port-au-Prince reports security is ‘pretty good,’ with ‘sporadic outbreaks’ of violence, despite news stories of a growing number of looters roaming the streets of Port-au-Prince and of gunfire and police using tear gas to disperse crowds.”

A Jan. 23 cable shows the situation unchanged: “Embassy Port-au-Prince reports the security situation on the ground remains relatively calm.”

Many news stories dishonestly described a sensational and imaginary eruption of violence in Haiti. “Gangs Rule Streets of Haiti,” CBS reported the day after the quake. On Jan. 19, CNN.com’s lead headline was “Security fears grow in Haiti’s tent cities,” and the caption below, “with 4,000 convicted criminals on the loose, nothing and no one is safe.”

But the U.S. Embassy was reporting the opposite. One Jan. 19 cable said that the “security situation in Haiti remains calm overall with no indications of mass migration towards North America.” Another Jan. 19 cable said: “Despite hardships in devastated neighborhoods, residents appear to be calm and civil, though isolated reports of roving armed gangs continue.” It continued: “Residents were residing in made-shift [sic] camps in available open areas, and they had not yet received any humanitarian supplies from relief organization. Nonetheless, the residents were civil, calm, polite, solemn and seemed to be well-organized while they were searching for belongings in the ruins of their homes. However, isolated reports continue of roving armed gangs engaged in looting and robbery.”

The U.S. moved aggressively to beef up the Haitian police (PNH), giving police chief Mario Andrésol “command and control advice and mentoring” from Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and FBI agents while trying to ensure that Haitian police officers were paid and well-equipped. The DEA advisor was Darrel Paskett, whose first post-quake priority was directing his “well-armed” bulletproof-vested DEA agents to guard the U.S. Embassy from “huge crowds” of desperate Haitians that might overrun it, FOX News reported. The crowds never materialized. [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/05/law-enforcement-plays-critical-role-haiti-relief-efforts-1485071597/]

Before the end of the month, three separate State Department cables relayed that “Canadian Embassy contacts in Port-au-Prince report verbal orders were allegedly given by police leadership to shoot escaped prisoners on sight. UN Civilian Police officers close to prison authorities also heard unconfirmed reports of extra-judicial killings by police.”

The cables do not identify what action, if any, the PNH’s U.S. advisors took to investigate or stop the unlawful killings. Nor is there any mention of the numerous so-called “looters” in downtown Port-au-Prince’s rubble-filled commercial district who were shot on sight by the Haitian police, like 15-year-old Fabienne Cherisma, who grabbed some paintings from a collapsed structure. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/20/haiti-earthquake-teenager-shot-police].

Not surprisingly, Haitian business owners were the most worried about security, especially for their factories. Five days after the quake, Ambassador Merten met with representatives of Haiti’s business sector, who said “their major concern is security at all levels, to include security of goods, at marketplaces, and for ports of entry.” Later, they asked the UN occupation troops “to provide security for reopened factories, and pledged to re-open in weeks.” Embassy officers met again with Haitian business leaders one week later.

In a Jan. 26 cable, Merten commented that “apparel manufacturers in Haiti operate on a high volume, thin margin, low capitalization basis where cash flow is extremely important for the business to survive.” He relayed a factory owner’s suggestion for a $20 million loan to the sector. Days later, he applauded the introduction of legislation in the U.S. Senate “intended to provide short-term relief to Haiti’s apparel sector” by extending trade preferences.

Militarization of Humanitarian Aid

There is no doubt that the U.S. soldiers deployed to Haiti helped many earthquake victims. The 82nd Airborne Division helped set up one of the capital’s largest and best equipped IDP camps of over 35,000 with actor Sean Penn at the Pétionville Country Club, which was their operational base.

The Pentagon’s earthquake response also included one of the largest medical outreach efforts in history. Service men and women treated and evaluated thousands of Haitian patients, including more than 8,600 on the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort. Surgeons aboard the ship completed nearly 1,000 surgeries.

However, even more impressive results were obtained by Cuba’s 800 doctors in Haiti and the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade, a 1,500 member contingent of doctors from Cuba and many other nations who graduated from Cuba’s medical school. In the six months after the quake, according the Cuban Embassy in Haiti, the Brigade treated over 70,300 patients, performing over 2,500 operations, all without deploying soldiers or bringing in weapons. (Cuba’s medical missions are still in Haiti and remain a bulwark against cholera’s spread.)

In fact, there is a growing movement among aid groups worldwide, and even in the UN, against the militarization of humanitarian aid. The report entitled “Quick Impact, Quick Collapse: The Dangers of Militarized Aid in Afghanistan” by Actionaid, Oxfam International, and other NGOs could have been as easily written about Haiti, where the Pentagon’s “government in a box” strategy was being applied in late January 2010, when the study was released.

“As political pressures to ‘show results’ in troop contributing countries intensify, more and more assistance is being channeled through military actors to ‘win hearts and minds’ while efforts to address the underlying causes of poverty… are being sidelined,” the report’s introduction reads. “Development projects implemented with military money or through military-dominated structures aim to achieve fast results but are often poorly executed, inappropriate and do not have sufficient community involvement to make them sustainable. There is little evidence this approach is generating stability…”

Then US Ambassador to Haiti James Foley warned in the cable “against private delivery of arms to the HNP” (Haitian National Police) after learning from a prominent Haitian businessman that “some business owners have already begun to purchase weapons and ammunition from the street and distribute them to local police officials in exchange for regular patrols.”

Fritz Mevs, a member of “one of Haiti’s richest families and a well-connected member of the private sector elite” with major business interests in Port-au-Prince’s downtown and port, was the principal source for Foley’s May 27, 2005 report.

Haiti’s “private sector elite” has been a key U.S. ally in promoting Washington’s agenda in the country, from free-trade and privatization of state enterprises to twice ousting Jean-Bertrand Aristide followed by U.S. and UN military occupations.

Mevs told the Embassy that the president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, Reginald Boulos, had “distributed arms to the police and had called on others to do so in order to provide cover to his own actions.” Boulos currently sits on the board of Bill Clinton’s Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) which controls the spending of $10 billion being donated to rebuild Haiti after the Jan. 12, 2010 quake.

The cable describes the period after the Feb. 29, 2004 coup d’état that ousted Aristide, repressed his Lavalas Family party, set up a US-backed de facto government, and ushered in a 9,000-strong UN military occupation known as MINUSTAH (UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti).

De facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue’s interim government of Haiti (IGOH) and his paramilitary allies had difficulty stabilizing their unpopular regime, despite killing, jailing, and purging from government jobs thousands of Lavalas militants and sympathizers.

The Latortue regime had particular trouble suppressing pro-Aristide strongholds like the slums of Bel Air and Cité Soleil, which mounted a fierce armed resistance to the coup and occupation. The coup government, US Embassy and Haitian elite called the resistance fighters “bandits” or “gangs,” the terminology used in the cable.

Entitled “Haitian Private Sector Panicked by Increasing Violence,” the cable relays Mevs report to the Embassy’s Political Officer that Haitian “business leaders are exasperated by the lack of security in the vital port and industrial zone areas of Port-au-Prince and are allegedly arming local police with long-guns and ammunition in an effort to ensure security for their businesses and employees.”

Foley wrote that “Mevs says that of the roughly 150 business owners in the area, probably 30 have already provided some kind of direct assistance (including arms, ammunition, or other materiel) to the police, and the rest are looking to do so soon.”

Mevs “defended the idea of the private sector arming the police in general, but he lamented the haphazard manner in which many of his colleagues seemed to be handing out weapons with little control,” the cable says. Mevs also worried “that funneling the arms secretly would only serve to reinforce rumors that the elite were creating private armies,” which was in fact happening.

Mevs was asking the Embassy if “the U.S. would oversee [a] program” under which the elite could legally buy the HNP’s guns because “he did not trust either MINUSTAH or the HNP to properly control the issuance of weapons.”

The private army “rumor” was corroborated by “[c]ontacts of the Econ Counselor [who] report from time to time of discussions among private sector leaders to fund and arm their own private sector armies.”

Foley added that the “[American Chamber of Commerce] Board of Directors at one point discussed informally giving non-lethal assistance to police stations, such as furniture and microwave ovens for police stations, but decided against doing so for fear that anything given to the police would quickly be stolen.”

Security around the capital’s industrial, warehouse and port districts degenerated after the Mar. 30, 2005 death of Thomas Robenson, alias Labaniere, a one-time Lavalas leader in Cité Soleil’s Boston neighborhood, who defected to defense of the 2004 coup and providing armed protection to the bourgeoisie’s nearby commercial zones. Labaniere was killed by one of his bodyguards, Evens Jeune, “allegedly in a plot directed by rival pro-Lavalas gang leader Dread Wilme,” Foley wrote.

After that, the UN force had tried to secure the commercial areas but “was proving to be a poor substitute for Labaniere,” a political advisor to Cité Soleil’s mayor told the Embassy, largely because “MINUSTAH troops (who, he said, rarely set foot outside of their vehicles) were unable to identify the bandits from amongst the general populace as Labaniere had done.”

The residents of Cité Soleil did not view Emmanuel Wilmer (aka Dred or Dread Wilme) as a “bandit.” They saw him as a hero defending them from pro-coup paramilitaries (who in 1994 burned many houses in the rebellious shantytown) and UN occupation troops. Today, one of the main boulevards through Cité Soleil is named after him, and murals of his face adorn many walls.

Wilme told the Lakou New York program on Brooklyn’s Radio Pa Nou station in April 2005 that “MINUSTAH has been shooting tear gas on the people. There are children who have died from the gas and some people inside churches have been shot… The Red Cross is the only one helping us. The MINUSTAH soldiers remain hidden in their tanks and just aim their guns and shoot the people. They shoot people selling in the streets. They shoot people just walking in the streets. They shoot people sitting and selling in the marketplace.”

But for Foley and the Haitian elite, the UN military was not doing enough repression. “According to Mevs, although MINUSTAH has on occasion parked armored vehicles near the Terminal with some success, he said criminals regularly force the tanks to move (by burning tires or fecal matter nearby), and as soon as the vehicles depart, the rampage continues.”

Foley asked the “Core Group” of international donors and the UN military for a “swift, aggressive” response to the business sector’s call for action against the “criminal elements” from slums like Cité Soleil.

“Ambassador Foley warned the Core Group that MINUSTAH’s stand-down in Cite Soleil put the elections at risk, and that the insecurity around the industrial zone risked undermining what is left of the Haitian economy,” said the cable.

In response, the UN mission chief Juan Gabriel Valdes “promised a more robust response from MINUSTAH,” which sat down with police leaders to develop a plan in “coordination with the private sector,” the cable explains.

“In response to embassy and private sector prodding, MINUSTAH is now formulating a plan to protect the area,” concluded the cable.

Weeks later, on July 6, 2005, at 3 a.m. in the morning, 1,440 Brazilian and Jordanian soldiers sealed off Cite Soleil with 41 Armored Personnel Carriers and attacked. Helicopters dropped grenades and UN troops fired more than 22,000 bullets, leaving untold dozens of civilian casualties, including women and children. (Cité Soleil residents told an Oct. 2005 fact-finding delegation for the International Tribunal on Haiti that UN tanks whisked away many bodies, which were never returned.) Human rights groups called the carnage a “massacre.”

“It remains unclear how aggressive MINUSTAH was, though 22,000 rounds is a large amount of ammunition to have killed only six people” (the UN’s official death toll), wrote Foley in a Jul. 26, 2005 Embassy cable obtained by Professor Keith Yearman through a FOIA request. The UN claimed it only killed “gang leader Dred Wilme and five of his associates,” the cable says, while noting that “at St. Joseph’s hospital near Cite Soleil, Doctors Without Borders reported receiving 26 gunshot victims from Cite Soleil on July 6, of whom 20 were women and at least one was a child.”

Meanwhile journalist Jean Baptiste Jean Ristil, a Cité Soleil resident, interviewed “a weeping Fredi Romélus [who] recounted how UN troops had lobbed a red smoke grenade into his house and then opened fire, killing his wife and two children,” reported the Haiti Information Project. Jean Ristil also filmed inside the house where the body of Fredi’s 22-year-old wife, Sonia Romélus, lay, “killed by the same bullet that passed through the body of her one-year-old infant son, Nelson,” the HIP reported. “She was apparently holding the child as the UN opened fire. Next to them was her four-year-old son, Stanley, who was killed by a single shot to the head.”

A U.S. Labor and Human Rights Delegation which was in Haiti at the time and visited Cité Soleil the next day reported that “this full-blown military attack on a densely-populated neighborhood… multiple sources confirm killed at least 23 people” and possibly as many as 50.

As the evidence of a massacre grew, the UN and U.S. began to admit that more Cité Soleil residents may have died. “Given the flimsy construction of homes in Cite Soleil and the large quantity of ammunition expended, it is likely that rounds penetrated many buildings, striking unintended targets,” Foley’s FOIA-released cable reported.

By Aug. 1, Foley was praising the Brazilians in another cable (obtained by Yearman’s FOIA requests) entitled “Brazil Shows Backbone in Bel-Air.” According to Foley, “the security situation in the capital has clearly improved thanks to aggressive incursions in Bel Air and the July 6 raid against Dread Wilme in Cite Soleil… Post has congratulated MINUSTAH and the Brazilian Battalion for the remarkable success achieved in recent weeks.”

The WikiLeaked May 2005 cable also offers a glimpse of Haiti’s inter-ruling class rivalries. Mevs felt that “private sector protests against the IGOH for the lack of security were misguided,” Foley reports, because “Haiti’s real enemy and the true source of insecurity [was] a small nexus of drug-dealers and political insiders that control a network of dirty cops and gangs that not only were responsible for committing the kidnappings and murders, but were also frustrating the efforts of well-meaning government officials and the international community to confront them.” At the center of this “cabal,” according to Mevs, was prominent attorney Gary Lissade, who has a long history as a right-wing operative. In 1993, he was the lead counsel for the military government of coup leader Gen. Raoul Cédras during negotiations at New York’s Governors Island with Aristide’s exiled constitutional government. In 2001, Aristide, in a futile attempt to mollify the Bush administration and putschist bourgeoisie, made Lissade Justice Minister until popular outcry forced his removal along with Prime Minister Jean-Marie Chérestal’s whole government. Today, Lissade sits, alongside Reginald Boulos, on the board of the Clinton co-chaired IHRC.

Others whom Mevs cites in this group allied to “Colombian drug-traffickers” include powerful senator Youri Latortue, a close ally of new Haitian president Michel Martelly, Dany Toussaint, a former Lavalas Family senator who changed camps and supported the 2004 coup against Aristide, and Michel Brunache, who was de facto President Boniface Alexandre’s chief of staff.

The Embassy took Mevs warnings about Lissade’s “cabal” with a grain of salt. Foley wrote that Mevs “is no doubt biased against those individuals he names” because “Mevs himself is a core member of what might easily be described as a rival network of influence competing for control of Haiti against the cast of characters he has described.” Presciently, Foley says that his Embassy “cannot confirm whether the alleged cabal of political insiders allied with South American narco-traffickers is controlling the gangs, we have seen indications of alliances between drug dealers, criminal gangs and political forces that could threaten to make just such a scenario possible via the election of narco-funded politicians,” which some political observers fear may be the situation in Haiti today.

Meanwhile, Dread Wilme’s legend lives on. “His funeral was a hero’s farewell,” wrote Haitian blogger Erzili Danto. “His remains decked in a Vodun boat were pushed out onto the open seas next to Site Soley’s water shores, and set to flames for his spirit to soar towards the countless African Ancestors who, like Dread Wilme, had made the ultimate sacrifice for our people’s freedom and dignity.”

Et Port-au-Prince devient de plus en plus un vaste bidonville où pratiquement tous les quartiers sont gagnés par la pestilence des montagnes de fatras et de detritus de toutes sortes.

La capitale dejà démolie par le tremblement de terre du 12 janvier 2010, et qui gemit aujourd’hui encore sous le poids des déblais, a également l’air, avec presque toutes ses rues délavées et defoncées, d’une vaste ravine sèche où chacun n’a plus aucune gêne à déverser ses déchets.

Face à cette situation et surtout après le rejet la semaine dernière de son premier ministre designé, Daniel Gerard Rouzier, le president Joseph Michel Martelly semble vouloir aujourd’hui utiliser une strategie qui ne donne pas l’impression qu’il veut affronter le parlement ou le bloc majoritaire.

C’est ce que lui recommandent d’aileurs la plupart des secteurs au parlement ou dans la classe politique, s’il ne veut pas voir tous ses choix rejetés.

Dejà, il a rencontré les présidents des deux chambres pour l’aider à faire un choix susceptible de faire l’unanimité et a formé une commission de liaison avec le parlement en vue du choix du premier ministre.

Entre temps, des noms circulent, dont ceux du professeur Daniel Supplice pourtant pressenti pour être ministre des Affaires étrangères, et du premier ministre sortant Jean-Max Bellerive auquel le président vient de confier la tache de donner un nouvel élan aux ministères pour qu’ils soient en mesure de mettre en marche son programme politique, comprenant le retard qu’implique le rejet de M. Rouzier comme premier ministre.

Même si M. Bellerive se refuse jusqu’ici à tout commentaire sur la question, sa remise en selle par le président Martelly avec qui il a des liens de parenté, fait croire qu’il est en meilleure position que ses rivaux, surtout qu’il benéficie du support de l’ancien president Bill Clintonj qui co-préside avec lui la Commission Intérimaire pour la Reconstruction d’Haïti (CIRH).

Pendant ce temps au parlement, il se dit aussi qu’il est le choix du groupe majoritaire GPR composé en majorité de parlementaires de la plateforme Inite (Unité)

Mais, la possible reconduction du premier ministre de l’ancien president Préval ne fait pas l’unanimité.

Un des sénateurs des Nippes, Jean William Jeanty, a estimé que la reconduction de M. Bellerive serait une prime à l’échec et à la mauvaise gestion, soulignant que pendant les 5 ans que M. Bellerive a été chef de gouvernement , la situation du pays ne s’est pas améliorée.

Il a cité en exemple la crise post-électorale et l’incapacité de la Commission Intérimaire pour la Reconstruction d’Haïti (CIRH) dont M. Bellerive est co-président, à décoller.

Le 1er sénateur de l’Ouest, Steven Benoit, a fait savoir pour sa part que le chef de l’État peut toujours désigner Jean Max Bellerive, s’il le souhaite .
Cependant, ajoute-t-il aussitôt, le chef du gouvernement sortant doit d’abord rendre compte de l’utilisation de centaines de millions de dollars dépensés sous son administration, sans qu’on ne voit à quoi ils ont servi.

Steven Benoit soutient par ailleurs que le chef de l’État doit faire en sorte que son prochain premier ministre désigné ne subisse pas le même sort. que Daniel Rouzier, en constituant une majorité fonctionnelle au parlement

Il a aussi réitéré sa volonté de ne pas voter en faveur d’un premier ministre qui n’accepte pas d’acheminer la liste de son cabinet ministériel au Sénat au moins 48 heures avant la déclaration de sa politique générale.