For Imme­di­ate Release: Sep­tem­ber 2, 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 3 Sep­tem­ber 2010, fif­teen camps threat­ened with forced expul­sion all over Port-au-Prince will again simul­ta­ne­ously beat pots and pans, or “bat teneb,” to demand a mora­to­rium on expul­sions and an imme­di­ate solu­tion to their inad­e­quate shel­ter while hur­ri­canes loom.

After a suc­cess­ful visit to Camp Barb­n­court II last Fri­day, 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 the dis­placed res­i­dents of Camp Immac­ulée, now in Michico, Cité Soleil.

“Forced expul­sions of the inter­nally dis­placed vio­late Hait­ian and inter­na­tional law,” says Mario Joseph, “This is just the begin­ning of a prob­lem we’ll be fac­ing for years to come, unless the gov­ern­ment and inter­na­tional com­mu­nity imme­di­ately put a mora­to­rium on forced expul­sions, ver­ify land own­er­ship titles, and nation­al­ize by decree all empty and idle lands in the hands of pur­ported landowners.”

“Two weeks ago, half way through the hur­ri­cane sea­son, the IHRC promised to build 400 000 to 500 000 cyclone-proof shel­ters in the next three months. None of these have been built yet and the hur­ri­canes are now upon us. As I said to the inter-American human rights com­mis­sion on the 23 of March, it is late, even very late to start build­ing hur­ri­cane shel­ters, now I say it’s too late to pre­vent another human­i­tar­ian catastrophe.”

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 Pré­val / 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. 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.”

Ear­lier this sum­mer, the inter­nally dis­placed resid­ing in the pub­lic park Place Immac­ulée were sub­ject to weeks of nightly attacks and harass­ment by pri­vate groups coerc­ing them to leave. After exhaust­ing every offi­cial means of gain­ing pro­tec­tion (PNH, MINUSTAH, IOM), res­i­dents were forced out only to con­tinue being threat­ened in their new site in Michico.

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 Duval 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 Canaan 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 3 Sep­tem­ber 2010, 11am at the BAI 3, 2nd Impasse Lavaud, B. P. 19048. Or go to directly to Immac­ulée déplacé now in camp Michico, Cité Soleil.