Haitians lash out against UN "occupying force" (News Feature)

By Silvia Ayuso Nov 24, 2010, 6:35 GMT

Port-au-Prince - Haiti's cities are awash with grafitti in Creole blaming the United Nations mission in the country for a cholera epidemic that has taken more than 1,300 lives so far.

Five people died in street protests against the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), installed in 2004 by international intervention after a coup ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide.

'Ever since MINUSTAH arrived in Haiti, it has been an occupying force,' said lawyer Mario Joseph. 'It is not here to protect democracy, it is not here to protect human rights; it is here to protect an imperialist coup d'etat fomented by Canada, the United States and France.'

Joseph, who has taken on cases accusing UN officials of sexual abuse and forced displacement of refugees after the January 12 earthquake, is an avowed supporter of the exiled Aristide.

Some observers have accused Aristide's political movement, Famni Lavalas, of instigating the street riots as retribution for having been excluded from the ballot for Sunday's general election.

MINISUTAH chief Edmont Mulet claimed the protests were 'at least in part' intended to disrupt the electoral process.

'Some sectors don't want the elections to be held, they want to postpone them or stop them from ever happening,' he said.

But apart from political interests, the mistrust and loathing of the UN mission spreads much further than the pro-Aristide forces.

'MINUSTAH killed a youth in Cap-Hatien and now it has brought cholera here,' said Casmir Delmas, a leader of the university student group Youth Resistance that has been active in the street unrest.

'Without a doubt, there is nowhere that the UN has done anything to bring peace or economic progress,' he said. 'It is clear that since its intervention in Haiti, kidnapping, misery and immorality have increased. They must leave this country.'

Frustration over the lack of progress since the earthquake is being directed not only at the government but also the international community personified by the UN officials, and Haitians are blaming Nepalese soldiers for having carried cholera to the island.

'MINUSTAH is an evil force. It has to go, leave Haiti, this is the moment for them to leave, because they brought the disease,' said David Oxygene, an unemployed electrician.

Mulet says those who make such accusations are 'manipulators,' but it is difficult to find anyone in Haiti who doesn't believe it.

The fear of violence has reached a point where some companies have bought advertising space in the national press to deny having any business relationship with MINUSTAH.

'The JEDCO company affirms that it has no contractual ties with MINUSTAH,' read one half-page ad, in the Le Nouvelliste newspaper, by a waste-removal firm. 'We share the pain of all the families affected by the loss of loved ones to the cholera epidemic.'

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