There is a Haitian proverb, se bouch ki manje tout manje, men se pa bouch ki pale tout pawòl, the mouth eats all the food, but not all talk comes from your mouth. In the U.S. we would say, actions speak louder than words.
The events this week in Haiti’s internally displaced people IDP camps — dramatized by Hurricane Emily — highlight the importance of this lesson.
Following the eviction of 514 families from the Sylvio Cator stadium mid-July, high-ranking U.N. officials issued its strongest language yet condemning forced evictions in Haiti as violations of IDPs’ human rights.
The IDPs needed not only words but concrete action.
On Wednesday, August 3, the last of the 296 families were evicted from Camp Django in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas, the site of a rash of forced evictions. Camp Django was situated a mere yards away from Carrefour Aéroport, the Airport Corner which was violently shut down at the end of May.
The U.N. Police stood their watch at the camps entrance. The purported landowner and municipal government used many of the same tactics that over 40,000 evicted IDPs and 125,000 more facing eviction have experienced since they sought refuge on private and public property since the January 2010 earthquake. The residents of Django were offered 125USD to leave their tarp shelters. Though about 100 families accepted the funding, many protested the offer said to be far too little to enable better living conditions elsewhere. Camp residents were then beaten by police and agents of the landowner. The IDPs were threatened with guns and machetes. Their shelters and the camp’s latrines were destroyed. Men wearing shirts of the Mayor of Delmas’ agents made verbal threats, saying the will suffer worse than illegal evictions at other camps.
With violence and further threats looming, the IDPs organized with an Anti-Eviction movement composed of Haitian civil society, other IDP camps, and international partners to resist the eviction. They held a press conference to tell their story and on Monday, August 1, the date set for their eviction, they held a peaceful protest to call attention to the violation of their rights.
That afternoon, the Haitian National Police (PNH) entered the camp along with the attackers from the prior incidents. They again told all the IDPs they had to leave on their own or they would be removed. At 9pm, after all the human rights investigators left, PNH and the same aggressors returned. They again had firearms, threw rocks, and threatened further violence; pressuring the IDPs to leave the property. All the while UNPOL was on their post at the camp entrance.
Tough talk from high-ranking U.N. officials for more assertive resistance against forced evictions failed to protect the residents of the camp. After the violence occurred, the Stabilization Mission of Haiti (MINUSTAH) had positioned manned U.N. Police (UNPOL) SUVs outside the camp. Two to three vehicles remained in shifts at the entrance of the camp day and night. But their mission caused confusion within the camp, many IDPs stating that they believed they were there to assist PNH and the purported landowner with the eviction.
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