KOFAVIV on Democ­racy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: Lost in all this cov­er­age of the Haiti earth­quake is how peo­ple on the ground are orga­niz­ing in the face of adver­sity. Rape and vio­lence against women and girls has become increas­ingly wide­spread in these tent camps of thou­sands and tens of thou­sands of peo­ple. While Hait­ian police and UN forces have done lit­tle, women on the ground are orga­niz­ing to pro­tect them­selves. We spoke with Malia Vil­lard Appolon, the coor­di­na­tor of KOFAVIV, the com­mis­sion of women vic­tims for victims.

AMY GOODMAN: What is it like in the Champ de Mars camp, in the refugee camp?

MALIA VILLARD APPOLON: [trans­lated] That’s a camp which has a lot of dif­fi­cul­ties in it. The gov­ern­ment doesn’t take any mea­sures to pro­vide secu­rity there. That’s why we saw a lot of prob­lems of secu­rity there, because there’s no police pres­ence. It’s us, as civil­ians in the camp, who took the ini­tia­tive to put in place a com­mit­tee of pro­tec­tion to pro­tect the women against the sex­ual vio­lence they were under, experiencing.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the num­ber of rapes in the camp?

MALIA VILLARD APPOLON: [trans­lated] In the case of Champ de Mars only, there were twenty-two cases of rape.

AMY GOODMAN: When? From when to when?

MALIA VILLARD APPOLON: [trans­lated] From the 12th of Jan­u­ary until today. So, we left Champ de Mars since the begin­ning of July. There was peo­ple, escaped con­victs, who were giv­ing us trou­ble after I came back from a con­fer­ence in Geneva, who pulled guns on us to make us give them money, and they also car­ried out many cases of rape. We had to leave that camp. And now we are here in the office of the inter­na­tional lawyers that we live, until we can move to find a house for us to live in.

AMY GOODMAN: So you’re liv­ing in the offices of your lawyers?

MALIA VILLARD APPOLON: [trans­lated] Yes, I live in the office of my lawyer, while I wait.

AMY GOODMAN: So, tell us how women can pro­tect themselves.

MALIA VILLARD APPOLON: [trans­lated] There really is no pro­tec­tion today. What we do only, we can say, so many women we saw being vic­tims, there was only the bureau of inter­na­tional lawyers who took the ini­tia­tive to put in place a sys­tem of whis­tles, which they gave to KOFAVIV. And the KOFAVIV gave these whis­tles to the women in the camp in Champ de Mars, and not only in the Champ de Mars, but all the other camps where our com­mu­nity agents are. And there was a lit­tle infor­ma­tion that had been given even before these lit­tle whis­tles were given. The action call is for when you hear a whis­tle, every­body knows the sound, and after—and you hear the whis­tle, every­body comes to their aid, to where it’s whis­tled. This is even if some­body is armed, they’ll run away. And with the com­mit­tees we formed with some of the men who were con­scious of this prob­lem, they offered to not sleep at night so that they could pro­vide civil­ian pro­tec­tion for women at night. And we don’t do that just in the Champ de Mars camp, but in other camps, as well. And Sainte Anne’s is one exam­ple. They also have a com­mit­tee formed for that. We have to do that, because we have no gov­ern­ment, basi­cally. It doesn’t have any respon­si­bil­ity to any­body. Maybe for the peo­ple who voted to put it in power and also the police. Even here in the office of inter­na­tional lawyers, we brought a lot of cases, but until now, they haven’t appre­hended any of these peo­ple who are in fact escaped con­victs. The police are sup­posed to be there to serve and pro­tect. And when I brought them for a war­rant, they said I had to accom­pany them, for me to go look for this escaped con­vict who pulled a gun on me in the camp. That means the gov­ern­ment has no respon­si­bil­ity. So it means the peo­ple have to give them­selves secu­rity. And this is after a lot of vio­lence. Because if I had par­ti­sans who would come there, they would have killed them, too. And this coun­try, this is where human rights are not respected, and that’s why the sit­u­a­tion is like that. The crim­i­nals know that what­ever they do, there’s no jus­tice sys­tem which will judge them and pur­sue them.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you blow the whis­tle for me, show us how it works?

MALIA VILLARD APPOLON: [whis­tles] C’est comme ça.[trans­lated] And that means you can blow this whis­tle, and every­body knows it. This is our call to action.

AMY GOODMAN: Malia Vil­lard Appolon, the coor­di­na­tor of KOFAVIV, the com­mit­tee of women for sur­vival, speak­ing to us in Port-au-Prince.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/14/rape_in_the_camps_lacking_security