For Imme­di­ate Release: August 26, 2010
Con­tacts: Attor­ney Mario Joseph 3701–9879

Inter­nally Dis­placed Haitians Faced with Forced Expul­sions and Loom­ing Hurricanes

will Beat Pots and Pans to Protest Hor­rific Con­di­tions in Camps

At 12:00 noon (1pm EST), Fri­day 27 August 2010, fif­teen camps threat­ened with forced expul­sion all over Port-au-Prince will simul­ta­ne­ous beat pots and pans, or “bat teneb,” to demand a mora­to­rium on expul­sions and an imme­di­ate solu­tion to inad­e­quate shel­ter while hur­ri­canes loom. Promi­nent human rights attor­ney, Mario Joseph, invites the national and inter­na­tional press to meet at the Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux at 11:00am (12pm EST) to visit Camp Bar­ban­court II where res­i­dents are under imma­nent threat of expul­sion in vio­la­tion of Hait­ian and inter­na­tional law. The gov­ern­ment must imme­di­ately pro­vide humane alter­na­tives to the muddy, dan­ger­ous, unsan­i­tary and bru­tal liv­ing con­di­tions by ver­i­fy­ing own­er­ship titles, and nation­al­iz­ing by decree all empty and idle lands in the hands of large landowners.

The fif­teen camps are call­ing for inter­na­tional sol­i­dar­ity accord­ing to their press release: “Tomor­row we will raise our hands in the air and call out loudly, sound the trum­pet to wake up the author­i­ties, unblock the cot­ton deaf­en­ing their ears. We will make a con­cert of noise in the camps, strike and beat and sound the trum­pet loudly to ask the Preval / Bel­lerive gov­ern­ment to respect our con­sti­tu­tional right to hous­ing, food, health, school, work, water, electricity.”

“We refuse to par­tic­i­pate in your elec­tion while under tarps, while being evicted from tents, with­out respect for our basic rights. We’re ask­ing for houses, towhich we have a right. This is no gift, it is our right under arti­cle 22 of the March 29, 1987 Con­sti­tu­tion, which guar­an­tees the Hait­ian state pro­vide decent lodg­ings to all its citizens.”

“The law is per­fectly clear,” accord­ing to human rights attor­ney Mario Joseph. “There is a prob­lem of polit­i­cal will and a prob­lem of exclu­sion. The poor have been excluded from their land for years, and are now excluded from the process deter­min­ing their rights to lodgings.”

Orga­nized by: Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux (BAI) Camp Bar­ban­court II on route de l’aéroport, Camp Immac­ulé in Cité Soleil, Camp Tou­s­saint Lou­ver­ture in Carreduex, Camp Dival 33 in Croix des Bou­quets, Camp Movi in Del­mas 60, Camp Alexis Emmanuel on the rout to the Air­port, Camp Mesiane in the Vil­lage Sol­i­dar­ité, Camp Litan Bre­ton in Fonta­mara 27, Saint Priere Eddy Fran­cois in Car­refour, Camp Can­nan on the rout to Cité Mil­i­taire, Camp Vil­lage Lagras in Car­refour, Camps Romelus Julio Don Bosco in To, Camp Notredame Mont Carmel in rue frère Simon, OVS in Car­refour and Sol­i­dar­ity with all other camps faced with forced expulsion.

Meet Fri­day 27 August 2010, 11am at the BAI 3, 2nd Impasse Lavaud, B. P. 19048