2.      How did the cholera epidemic spread through Haiti?
On October 21, 2010 cholera exploded in the Artibonite region along Haiti’s largest river system, and then quickly spread to other areas. While cholera is endemic in some developing countries, Haiti had never before had a cholera epidemic in recorded history. As of April 2012, the Haitian government reports that 7,050 people have died and over 531,000 have been infected with the disease. Geneticists and epidemiologists have verified that the bacteria originated from a riverside UN peacekeeping base

          3.      Did the UN really bring cholera to Haiti?
Numerous DNA tests and epidemiological studies, including those of the UN itself, have documented that MINUSTAH personnel deployed from Nepal brought the vibrio cholerae bacteria to Haiti. Although Nepal has endemic cholera, the UN did not test or treat the Nepalese peacekeepers for cholera prior to their deployment. The peacekeepers’ base had a “haphazard” and “inadequate” sewage system that leaked some wastes directly into the river, and dumped remaining waste into an unfenced pit. It was easily foreseeable that the failure to test combined with poor waste disposal could have led to a cholera outbreak. In fact, the record speed of the outbreak caused epidemiologists to hypothesize that a full cubic meter of infected feces was dumped into the Artibonite and traveled downstream like a plume, infecting the Haitian families that drink, bathe, play and wash in the river. In March 2012, UN Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton acknowledged that MINSTAH was the “proximate cause” of the outbreak.

          4.      What are victims of cholera asking from the UN?
On November 3, 2011, over 5,000 victims of cholera filed claims with the UN and MINUSTAH, seeking a) the clean water and sanitation infrastructure necessary to control the epidemic; b) compensation for victims who have lost family members or were ill from cholera; and c) a public apology from the UN. The petitioners include people like Nadine, whose father suddenly fell ill from cholera and died at a nearby treatment center. Nadine took out loans to retrieve her father’s body from a mass grave and to provide a proper burial. She is still struggling to repay the debt.

          5.      What makes the UN legally responsible?
The UN is legally responsible because its recklessness directly caused foreseeable harm to victims. The UN denies responsibility, claiming that a “confluence of factors,” including Haiti’s weak sanitation and health infrastructure, allowed the cholera it introduced to spread throughout Haiti. This is a legally invalid defense, akin to starting a fire in a dry field and blaming the wind when the fire spreads. Before the outbreak, the weakness of Haiti’s health, water and sanitation systems were well known. After the devastating earthquake of January 2010, UN agencies warned that outbreaks of water-borne diseases, especially cholera, would have disastrous effects. These factors, therefore, were a reason for the UN to be more careful about introducing dangerous infectious diseases, not an excuse for failing to exercise care. Yet the UN failed to take simple measures that would have prevented the outbreak, including properly handling its wastes and testing or treating personnel deployed from known cholera areas. 

          6.      Is the UN being held responsible in a court of law?
BAI and IJDH filed the complaints directly with the UN’s internal claims mechanism. MINUSTAH’s operations in Haiti are governed by a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which affords MINUSTAH broad protections from actions in Haitian courts. To balance this immunity, the SOFA requires the establishment of an independent Standing Claims Commission to hear claims and compensate victims who have been injured by UN activities. Despite this requirement, no commission has been established during MINUSTAH’s eight years in Haiti.  In fact, no Standing Claims Commission has been established in over 60 years of UN peacekeeping, even though most SOFAs require one.

          7.      Has the UN responded to the claims?
The UN has confirmed receipt of the victims’ claims, and official spokespersons have said the organization is “studying” the claims.  Some voices have emerged within the organization to call for accountability. In a March 8, 2012 Security Council meeting, France acknowledged the damage cholera has done to Haitians and the UN’s reputation there, declaring, “We can regret this, but we cannot ignore it.”  Pakistan further voiced that cholera has severely tested Haiti, and called for a UN apology, adding that the UN must do “whatever is necessary to make this situation right.”

Unofficially, several UN agencies—the World Health Organization, Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), and UNICEF—responded by announcing a “One Team Against Cholera” initiative to eradicate cholera through investments in comprehensive water and sanitation. The announcement did not specifically mention the victims’ legal claim, but it was made two months after we filed our claims.

          8.      How many lives can the cholera lawsuit save?
Our best estimate is that providing the clean water and sanitation infrastructure that our lawsuit demands would save between 50,000 – 70,000 lives in the first ten years. This includes likely cholera deaths, but also the thousands of deaths from non-cholera water-borne diseases that afflict Haitians, mostly children, every year.

          9.      How much will the lawsuit cost?
IJDH and BAI are asking supporters to help raise $200,000 to keep us fighting for this year. This money would help pay for our staff time, travel time for our lawyers to visit clients in rural Haiti and cover the administrative costs of handling well over 5,000 claims.  The total cost of the lawsuit will depend on how quickly the UN takes responsibility for the cholera. We will fight as long as we have to. IJDH and BAI staff will receive no remuneration from this case other than normal salaries.

These donations are an investment in a much larger return.  Our clients’ lawsuit aims to compel the UN to spend $750 million – 1.1 billion on comprehensive water and sanitation that would improve Haiti for decades.  By comparison, MINUSTAH’s operating budget in Haiti for one year is around $800 million.

          10.   What can I do?
v  Learn more:

• Visit IJDH’s Cholera Accountability page www.ijdh.org/cholera-litigation;
• Visit our page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/FightTheOutbreak;

v  Speak out:

• Tell the UN to act by sending tweets to @UN #cholera #FightTheOutbreak;

v  Support the case:

• Donate to support our efforts for accountability and investments in clean water and sanitation systems in Haiti: donate online at www.ijdh.org/donate or mail your tax-deductible gift to: IJDH, 666 Dorchester Avenue, Boston, MA 02127.

Click HERE to Download the PDF Version 
Click HERE  To See more Infor­ma­tion about IJDH’s Cholera Account­abil­ity Project   

A Cholera Treatment Center in Carrefours run by MSF. For the most serious cases, seen here, patients’ lives are saved using IV hydration. Credit:Jude Stanley Roy/IPS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 18, 2012 (IPS) — As predicted, the beginning of the rainy season in Haiti brought exponential increases in the numbers of people sickened and killed by cholera.

While the number of new cases in December was about 300 per day nationwide, this week one centre in the capital alone reported receiving 95 cases per day. And the numbers are expected to increase.

As of late April, at least 7,112 people had died and over 536,943 been made ill by the deadly water-borne disease first introduced to Haiti by Nepalese peacekeepers 17 months ago. More than one in 20 Haitians has been infected so far.

“Between the first week of April and the last week of April, the number of new patients increased by three-fold” in the capital, Gaëtan Drossart, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders or Medecins san frontières (MSF), told IPS on May 16. “In April alone, we saw over 1,600 patients at the four cholera centres MSF supports in Port-au– Prince.”

One of MSF’s Cholera Treatment Centres or CTCs is located in a residential neighbourhood in the Carrefour section of the metropolitan area. The “centre” is actually 250 cots in a half-dozen sweltering tents. Most of the cots were occupied this week.

Dwindling resources

A decrease in funding for the fight against cholera, lack of funding for the ministry of health, challenges with coordination and the failure to adequately address the underlying causes of the disease’s spread have meant that Haiti is now enduring one of the world’s worst epidemics in decades.

On May 1, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the national fatality rate at above three percent, the highest since the beginning of the outbreak. And the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) announced that between 200,000 and 250,000 more people will likely contract the disease during the course of 2012.

Cholera has also spread to the neighbouring Dominican Republic. As of May 4, 23,347 had been infected and 399 had died.

Despite the fact that all actors knew this year’s rainy season would bring increased cases, the number of CTCs has dropped precipitously since the outbreak. In January 2011, there were 101 centres nationwide. Today there are only 30.

The number of actors has also dropped.

MSF is one of the handful of large non-governmental organisations (NGOs) still involved in the fight against cholera. The French organisation has fielded about one-third of all cases since the outbreak began, according to their figures.

Many of the NGOs who first heeded the call when the disease struck are today long gone. According to a recent study by the Washington-based Centre for Economic and Policy Research, the number of NGOs working on cholera dropped from 128 in January 2011 to just 48 only six months later.

“Citing lack of funds for cholera activities, they have downsized, disappeared, or retreated, handing off their activities ‘to the government,’” explained Dr. Louise Ivers of the U.S.-based NGO Partners in Health (PIH) last July.

Noting that the ministry of health budget is “miniscule”, Ivers said that in reality, that “hand-off” has meant that the NGOs still working – PIH, MSF and several others – have had to fill in the gaps as best they could.

Interviewed in February about the “hand-off,” the ministry’s Dr. Claude Surena admitted the government “doesn’t have the means to handle the CTCs”.

“Everyone knows that even before the cholera outbreak, the ministry of health had a lot of challenges: not enough personnel, they were poorly apportioned across the country and salaries are not paid regularly,” MSF’s Drossart said this week.

Indeed, at many of the CTCs run by the government, staff and community outreach workers have not been paid in months. For example, at the only CTC for Gonaives, one of Haiti’s largest cities, 12 of 15 employees haven’t been paid in for the past four months.

The budget for Haiti’s ministry of health is very small compared with its neighbours. In 2009, the World Health Organization determined that total spending on health in Haiti per capita was 71 dollars. For the Dominican Republic, the figure was 495 dollars. For Jamaica it is 383, and for Guatemala, 337 dollars.

Haitian government excluded by donors

More significantly, almost all of the humanitarian money slated for the cholera fight has been given to non-government actors.

A recent survey by Partners in Health showed that of the estimated 140 million dollars donated and spent in 2010 and 2011 on setting up and staffing CTCs, and on prevention through initiatives like outreach and the distribution of soap, and chlorine tablets, only about five million went to the government. The U.S. government, which disbursed about 50 million, gave zero dollars to the Haitian government.

“Only one third of Haiti’s health services are being delivered in the public sector,” the survey’s authors noted. “Rather than creating private, parallel service delivery systems that drain resources from the public sector, donors and NGOs should work closely with the Government of Haiti…

“(The) funding needs are vast and include resources for hiring, training and retaining staff; providing essential supplies, medicine, and equipment; removing financial barriers for the poor; and renovating and operating dilapidated clinics and hospitals.”

But so far, the money has been slow in coming.

Speaking earlier in 2012, Dr. Claude Surena deplored the Michel Martelly government’s lack of commitment to health.

“I think everyone is aware of when the new government established its priorities, it talked about the four Es (economy, education, employment, environment) but no H (for health),” the doctor said.

Commitment appears to be lacking at the international level also. OCHA asked international donors for 231 million dollars for humanitarian work in 2012, with about 70 million dollars slated for health, water and sanitation projects. As of May 1, only 15 percent had been committed.

Moving away from a band-aid approach

At the same time, all actors recognise that humanitarian emergency funding and emergency work have their limits.

“We are still dealing with this on an emergency basis, meaning, the money comes when there’s an emergency, and then when the worst is past, the money stops,” MSF’s Drossart explained. “Prevention is important, water, sanitation, hygiene, these are all important things that require continual funds and continual attention.”

The U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti, Nigel Fisher, agrees.

In a May 3 interview with the UN News Centre, Fisher recognized that ” (a)s humanitarian actors facing cholera what we are doing is sort of patchwork, band-aid work.”

Fisher added that the humanitarian work is in the end “short-term” and that the long-term solution lay in “investment in improved drinking water sources and in waste management”.

Noting that only about one-third of Haitians have access to safe drinking water, and only 17 percent have access to latrines and other safe waste management, he said, “People go to the toilet wherever – waste matter is mixed often with drinking water sources.”

According to PAHO, cost estimates for building adequate water and sanitation systems for “have ranged from 746 million to 1.1 billion dollars.” Last January, PAHO joined with the U.S. Centres for Disease Control, UNICEF and the World Health Organization to call for a “cholera-free Hispaniola”.

One crucial step, the groups said, was “a detailed plan and timeline for water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure”.

*Betty Désir and Haiti Grassroots Watch contributed to this report.

Click HERE To See The Original Article
Click HERE  To See more Infor­ma­tion about IJDH’s Cholera Account­abil­ity Project   

FAMILIES AT RISK OF FORCED EVICTION IN HAITI
Hundreds of families living in a camp for internally displaced people in Carrefour, in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, are being harassed and intimidated and are at imminent risk of forced eviction.

Residents at Grace Village camp, in the Carrefour area of Metropolitan Port-au-Prince are at imminent risk of forced eviction. At least 30 families have already been forcibly evicted, after their shelters and belongings were destroyed during the night of 28 April. They were forced to leave their properties without any due process and without being offered any alternative accommodation.

On 14 May, when Amnesty International delegates visited the camp, at least 40 more shelters had been marked for demolition. There is no court order to legalise the imminent eviction and the affected families have not been consulted or offered alternative housing.

Since the camp was established after the 2010 earthquake, a man claiming to be the landowner has opposed the distribution of humanitarian assistance to inhabitants. In the camp there is a total lack of drinking water, sanitation services and waste disposal. As a result, two children are currently undergoing treatment for cholera in hospital.

The landowner strictly restricts the freedom of movement of the camp inhabitants by imposing a night-time curfew and forcing all adult residents to carry an entry permit issued by him. Camp residents told Amnesty International that security guards regularly threaten and beat residents, and sexually harass women and that police officers from Carrefour district support the landowner in terrorising Grace Village residents. The judicial authorities have been informed about the acts of violence but until now they have failed to ensure the protection of the camp inhabitants.

Please write imme­di­ately in French or your own lan­guage:
n Call for  none of the residents at Grace Village camp to be evicted without due process, adequate notice, consultation and that all those affected have access to adequate alternative accommodation;

n Urge them to ensure the protection of the camp residents and launch an investigation into the threats, harassment and alleged acts of violence perpetrated by the security guards employed by the landowner and police officers from Carrefour district;

n Ask that all restrictions to the residents’ access are lifted immediately and their freedom of movement is respected and that camp inhabitants have access to durable solutions according to their needs and wishes, including adequate housing and access to services.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 26 JUNE 2012 TO:
Office of the Prime Minister
Laurent Lamothe, Primature d’Haïti
33, Boulevard Harry Truman
Port-au-Prince, Haïti — HT-6110
Email:  ecrire@laurentlamothe.com
Twitter: @LaurentLamothe “Calling on Haitian PM @LaurentLamothe to stop illegal forced evictions in Grace Village camp #Haiti Please RT“
Salutation: Monsieur le Premier Ministre/Dear Prime Minister

General Director of the Haitian Police
Mario Andrésol
Directeur Général de la PNH
Police Nationale d’Haïti
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Email:  marioandresol@yahoo.fr
Salutation: Monsieur le directeur / Dear Director

Carrefour Mayor
Yvon Jerome
Mairie de Carrefour
Carrefour, Haïti
Email: mairiedecarrefour@hotmail.com
Salutation: Monsieur le maire / Dear MayorAlso send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

URGENT ACTION

FAMILIES AT RISK OF FORCED EVICTION IN HAITI

Additional Information

Over the past few months the tension has been rising in the camp and the authorities have so far failed to protect the hundreds of families that built makeshift shelters at Grace Village after the January 2010 earthquake.

The landowner has prohibited humanitarian organizations from providing assistance to the inhabitants at Grace Village camp. Basic services are also being denied and the landowner has not allowed the camp residents to clean the latrines and dispose the trash outside the camp and it has to be burnt on site. Residents believe this is a strategy to push them to the limit and force them to leave the camp.

Twenty-eight months after the devastating earthquake, nearly half a million people are still living in makeshift camps where their rights to adequate housing and access to basic services are denied. Internally displaced persons in at least 60 per cent of the camps are under threat of forced evictions. Thousands of families have already been forcibly evicted since the earthquake without any due process and were made homeless once more. Durable solutions to provide adequate housing to those affected are slow to be implemented.

UA: 135/12 Index: AMR 36/003/2012 Issue Date: 15 May 2012

                                                                                                 ###

Click HERE to Download the PDF Version
Click HERE to See more Information about IJDH’s Housing Rights Advocacy Project (HRAP) 

Dear Representative,

We, the undersigned organizations working for a sustainable and just recovery in Haiti, urge you to sign and support a letter sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI ) asking U.S. Ambassador to the United Nation Susan Rice to encourage the UN to take a leadership role in addressing the cholera epidemic in Haiti.  A “Dear Colleague” inviting members of Congress to sign on to this letter is included below.

The outbreak began in October 2010, ten months after Haiti’s tragic earthquake, and “has become one of the largest cholera epidemics in modern history”, according to the Pan American Health Organization. To date, at least 7,200 Haitians have died from the disease and more than 530,000 people have been infected. As Haiti’s population is less than ten million, more than 1 in 20 Haitians have already been infected.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that cholera will likely persist in Haiti absent the development of water and sanitation systems, the cost of which has been estimated at $800 million to $1.1 billion. On January 12, the presidents of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, joined by UN agencies the Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization and UNICEF, and the CDC, appealed to donor countries to honor pledges and provide funds for water and sanitation infrastructure. However, there has been little response to this appeal from the international community.

We welcome recent Congressional efforts to address this issue.   A Congressional briefing on April 18 — “Cholera and the Human Right to Health in Post-Earthquake Haiti” – provided detailed information about the impact of cholera and the remedies needed to improve the situation such as increased treatment efforts and long-term infrastructure.

The letter calls upon the Ambassador to:

• Urge UN authorities to play a central role in addressing the cholera crisis by:
  • Helping ensure that resources are in place to provide adequate treatment and prevention of the disease in the short term; and
  • Taking the lead in helping Haiti and the rest of the island of Hispaniola acquire the necessary funding to develop the water and sanitation infrastructure needed to effectively control the cholera epidemic.
• Encourage UN authorities and all donor governments involved in the effort to fight cholera to intensify their cooperation with the Haitian state and people through capacity-building and the active inclusion of government representatives in decision-making and through the regular consultation of civil society actors.

Officials who are concerned about the cholera crisis in Haiti can send a powerful signal and make a difference by acting now.  If you wish to sign on you can do so by contacting Michael Darner in the office of Rep. John Conyers at Michael.Darner@mail.house.gov or extension 5126.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

ActionAid USA

American Jewish World Service

Bri Kouri Nouvèl Gaye

Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, UC Hastings College of the Law

Church World Service

Environmental Justice Initiative For Haiti

Gender Action

Global Justice Clinic

Government Accountability Project

Grassroots International

Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation

Haiti Support Group

Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti

Just Foreign Policy

Let Haiti Live

Li, Li, Li! Read

Lutheran World Relief

Mennonite Central Committee US Washington Office

New Media Advocacy Project

Other Worlds

TransAfrica

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

Help Alleviate the Haitian Cholera Crisis

From: The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Sent By: michael.darner@mail.house.gov
Date: 5/7/2012

Dear Colleague:

Please join me in supporting efforts to address the cholera epidemic in Haiti by signing a letter to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice urging UN authorities to play a central role in addressing the crisis.

The cholera outbreak began in October 2010, ten months after Haiti’s tragic earthquake, and “has become one of the largest cholera epidemics in modern history” according to the Pan-American Health Organization.  To date, at least 7,200 Haitians have died from the disease and more than 530,000 people have been infected.

As cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the UN, it is imperative for the UN to now act decisively to control the cholera epidemic. UN authorities should work with Haiti’s government and the international community to confront and, ultimately, eliminate this deadly disease from Haiti and the rest of the island of Hispaniola.  A failure to act will not only lead to countless more deaths: it will undermine the crucial effort to reconstruct Haiti and will pose a permanent public health threat to the populations of neighboring nations.

If you have any questions or would like to sign the letter, please contact Michael Darner in my office at michael.darner@mail.house.govor 3–3834.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.

Member of Congress

May XX, 2012

Dear Ambassador Rice,

We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the ongoing cholera epidemic in Haiti and to ask you to strongly encourage the United Nations to take a leadership role in addressing this catastrophic public health crisis.  The outbreak began in October 2010, ten months after Haiti’s tragic earthquake, and “has become one of the largest cholera epidemics in modern history” according to the Pan-American Health Organization.  To date, at least 7,200 Haitians have died fromthe disease and more than 530,000 people have been infected.  So as to ensure that this devastating disease is brought under control, we call on you to urge UN authorities to support efficient treatment and prevention of the epidemic and to help Haiti acquire adequate water and sanitation infrastructure.

As acknowledged by the UN’s Special Envoy to Haiti, former President Bill Clinton, UN troops introduced the cholera bacterium “into the waterways of Haiti, into the bodies of Haitians” and, as such, were the “proximate cause” of the epidemic.   We welcome your statement in March to the Secu­rity Coun­cil calling on the United Nationsto “redou­ble its efforts to pre­vent any fur­ther inci­dents of this kind and to ensure that those respon­si­ble are held accountable.”

As cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the UN, we believe that it is imperative for the UN to now act decisively to control the cholera epidemic. UN authorities should work with Haiti’s government and the international community to confront and, ultimately, eliminate this deadly disease from Haiti and the rest of the island of Hispaniola.  A failure to act will not only lead to countless more deaths: it will undermine the crucial effort to reconstruct Haiti and will pose a permanent public health threat to the populations of neighboring nations.

According to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), Haiti is one of the most underserved countries in the world in terms of water and sanitation infrastructure. These infrastructural weaknesses have made Haiti particularly susceptible to water-borne disease. Cholera had not been present in Haiti for over a century prior to October 2010, making Haitians ‘immunologically naïve’ and even more vulnerable to the disease.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has done a remarkable job in partnership with the Haitian government in distributing treatment supplies, providing treatment training, and establishing a national cholera surveillance system. The CDC estimates that cholera will likely persist in Haiti absent the development of water and sanitation systems, the cost of which has been estimated at $800 million to $1.1 billion.

On January 12^thof this year, the presidents of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, joined by UN agencies PAHO, World Health Organization and UNICEF and the U.S. CDC, appealed to donor countries to honor pledges and provide funds for water and sanitation infrastructure.  However, there has been little response to this appeal from the international community.  Moreover, with the onset of the rainy season, the number of deaths from cholera is rising once again.

Accordingly, we call upon you to urge UN authorities to play a central role in addressing the cholera crisis.  First, by helping ensure that resources are in place to provide adequate treatment and prevention of the disease in the short term. Secondly, by taking the lead in helping Haiti and the rest of the island of Hispaniola acquire the necessary funding to develop the water and sanitation infrastructure needed to effectively control the cholera epidemic.

Finally, we ask that you encourage UN authorities and all donor governments involved in the effort to fight cholera to intensify their cooperation with the Haitian state and people through capacity-building and the active inclusion of government representatives in decision-making and through the regular consultation of civil society actors.

Sincerely,

Click HERE to Download the Letter in PDF Version
Click HERE  To See more Infor­ma­tion about IJDH’s Cholera Account­abil­ity Project   

Recruits in Haiti’s self-declared army, which is seeking to manipulate the situation whereby the UN stabilisation mission in the country is viewed by many as an occupying force installed to entrench the 2004 coup against Aristide.

Armed group is waging a brazen campaign aimed at stoking public anger at the continued presence of the 10,000-strong UN mission in Haiti and inviting violent conflict with authorities, write MICHAEL NORBY and BRIAN FITZPATRICK in Port-au-Prince

In the overgrown parade grounds of a long-abandoned military base outside Port-au-Prince, the most recent player in the surreal battle for the hearts and minds of the Haitian people delivers a chilling message.

Flanked by 150 uniformed men, Larose Aubin seems ready to plunge the battered nation into utter chaos.

Aubin, an animated former army sergeant, speaks for a group of one-time soldiers and younger recruits calling for the immediate return of the Haitian Armed Forces (FAd’H), 17 years after the notoriously brutal military was scrapped.

The rogue movement began in earnest after the May 2011 inauguration of president Michel Martelly, who had made the army’s return a pillar of his election campaign.

When it became clear, however, that remobilisation would take several years and that the majority would not be included, the disgruntled group seized old army installations across the country and issued demands. Mocking government attempts to pay them off, they say the time for talk is over.

“We’re not joking around,” says Aubin. “We’re going to come with force and with the population, and we’ll get what we’re looking for. Even if we lose our lives, we will fight. They can’t kill us all.”

Well-armed and highly visible as they patrol the nation’s cities in military fatigues, the 3,000– strong group claims to be ready to bring peace and security to Haiti; a new army that should not be feared. However, the rhetoric of another former sergeant, Yves Jeudy, tells a different story, as he earmarks the upcoming Haitian Flag Day holiday as a deadline.

“After May 18th, if the government hasn’t done anything, they will see what happens,” he declares. “We’re not going back and they need to give us an answer quick.”

This final challenge comes after a brazen campaign aimed at stoking public anger at the continued presence of the 10,000-strong United Nations stabilisation mission in Haiti, which was put in place after the overthrow of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

On April 19th, the group amplified its intentions as 50 men – some armed with grenades – arrived at parliament and disrupted a legislative session to ratify prime minister Laurent Lamothe.

No confrontation occurred but the inaction of the UN mission and the Haitian national police (PNH) was a major embarrassment. The ragtag army took full advantage of the impunity, and has now used the resulting traction and sense of legitimacy to invite a violent confrontation with authorities.

This cavalier approach is deliberate and seeks to manipulate the situation whereby the UN mission is viewed by many as an occupying force installed to entrench the 2004 coup against Aristide.

Shortly after their arrival, anger at the peacekeepers began to grow after violent incursions into the Port-au-Prince slums of Cité Soleil and Bel-Air, which resulted in numerous civilian casualties. Instances of abuse and extreme negligence have compounded matters. In March, for example, two Pakistani peacekeepers were convicted of the January 20th rape of a 14-year-old boy in the town of Gonaïves, and several similar claims have emerged.

IN OCTOBER 2010, Haiti suffered its first ever cholera outbreak. Since then 7,000 people have died and over half a million have become ill. Overwhelming evidence suggests that troops from Nepal brought the disease to Haiti, but the UN mission has yet to officially accept responsibility.

Against this backdrop, it’s understandable that some would favour the reinstatement of the dreaded army over “foreigners“, as Aubin claims they do. Wary that this hostility could ignite a public backlash, it’s likewise easy to see why the UN mission is reluctant to deploy chapter seven of the UN charter, which allows military action when peace is threatened.

Finally testing the waters last Sunday, however, a joint Haitian police/UN operation saw checkpoints set up in Port-au– Prince and other towns, and two armed men in military uniforms were arrested. These were the first detentions since the armed gangs began patrolling cities. The move was a subtle response, aimed at both sending a message to the army camps and gauging the public’s reaction, yet it signals the opening of a potentially dangerous new chapter.

“Our goal remains to support the PNH to disarm those in possession of illegal firearms,” said UN mission spokesman Lt Cmdr Jim Hoeft, offering an ambiguous explanation of the arrests.

Though Hoeft declined to discuss exactly when a decision was made to begin flexing muscles, he did say that UN troops were “always ready for actions like these” and that “some operations are predetermined, some are based on operational observations”.

The mood of the people will most likely dictate the strategy of both sides as the situation begins to boil. With atrocious social conditions prevalent and the country’s fledgling democracy apparently bludgeoned into submission, for some, what has been referred to as “option chaos” may look more and more appealing.

ONLY A year in office, Martelly has lurched from one crisis to the next. Lamothe was installed as prime minister last week, the president’s fourth choice for the job after lawmakers rejected two earlier nominees. Gary Conille was approved for the role in October, but resigned after just four months after his plan to audit reconstruction contracts drew the ire of the president.

Martelly’s election victory itself was soiled by the forced exclusion of Haiti’s most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, and a dismal turnout of just 24 per cent. The technicality used by Haiti’s electoral council to exclude the party was that it had submitted improper documents.

To put into perspective what this expulsion meant: In December 1990, Aristide was elected with 67 per cent of the vote under the banner of the Lavalas movement. In December 1995, another Lavalas candidate, René Préval, was elected with 88 per cent of the vote.

By then representing Fanmi Lavalas – which had emerged from a split in the movement – Aristide was re-elected in November 2000 with a 92 per cent total. Finally, in February 2006, Préval won 51 per cent of votes, also backed by Fanmi Lavalas.

In short, though it is accepted that each election result since 1990 has grown steadily more unreliable, the broader Lavalas movement has clearly served as the voice of the Haitian poor for over two decades. Now, in a country where 80 per cent of the population lives on $2 or less a day, it appears that this platform does not fit the post-earthquake landscape.

“The people no longer believe that Haiti will have the opportunity to have a democracy,“ said Brian Concannon, a human rights lawyer and director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

“Their options are now local gangs, the UN, the return of the army, or some kind of clientelism relationship with the government. That’s what they think is realistic.“

In the face of criticism from western diplomats and with a dubious mandate, Martelly’s plans to create a 3,500-strong army has evoked memories of the Haitian Armed Forces and its dreaded Tonton Macoutes death squads, used by the decades-long Duvalier dictatorships to crush dissent.

In more recent times, Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti paramilitaries helped Gen Raoul Cédras’s military junta – which overthrew the first Aristide government – kill an estimated 3,000 people between 1991 and 1994.

MARTELLY CLAIMS the force is needed to deal with border security and help his struggling police, but critics say there are far more pressing issues facing the nation. Either way, the half-hearted attempts to disarm the “soldiers” has led to widespread speculation in Haiti, including theories that question the president’s true intentions. Others cite political opportunists or outside interests as possible benefactors of the impending chaos.

The group has new trucks and uniforms, and enough fuel and provisions to sustain a prolonged standoff; clearly someone of influence is pulling the strings.

Georges Michel, a member of the commission appointed by Martelly to blueprint the army’s return, says the possibility of this crisis materialising was forecast to the president in a January 1st report, and fears the consequences of inaction may be severe.

“The people are with them,“ he said of the holdouts. “This would be a major catastrophe for Martelly if he calls upon Minustah [UN mission] to crack down on them – they will be seen as heroes and Martelly as the villain.“

In Gonaïves, a three-hour drive north of Port-au-Prince, witnesses to the brutality of the Haitian military are not so sympathetic. We’re in the seaside slum of Raboteau where, at around 4am on April 22nd, 1994, over 100 FAd’H soldiers and their Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti paramilitary henchmen attacked unsuspecting residents, leaving an estimated 26 to 50 people dead.

From the edge of the village, we walk past the stagnant orange-tinged salt mines to the shoreline — the same 300-yard route many of the victims thought would take them to safety exactly 18 years ago. The horror is fresh in the memories of the 12 survivors who accompany us; their stories a chilling reminder of an obscene barbarism.

“The victims were men and women, girls and boys,” recalls Henry-Claude Elismé. “Some of the dead were eaten by pigs and wild dogs. We don’t really know how many died in total because the army stayed for days, digging holes, dumping bodies on top of each other.”

RABOTEAU, SEEN as a pro-democracy safe haven, was punished for its opposition to the Cédras junta, which was barely clinging to power in the face of international isolation. Troops burst into houses as people slept, beating and torturing some and gunning down anyone who ran.

Those who survived the blind sprint to the sea leapt into fishing boats for the safety of the ocean, only to be slaughtered by troops positioned in 13 small boats just offshore. They then used the next several days to cover their tracks.

The Cédras regime fell soon after, as did the FAd’H, which Aristide disbanded upon being reinstated after US intervention. In Raboteau, at least, the victims of one of the final atrocities of the army are under no illusions about what a new force would mean.

In Port-au-Prince, where 420,000 people made homeless by the 2010 earthquake still live in horrendous tent cities, impatience is growing. Cholera cases have tripled since the rainy season began a month ago, and access to fresh water or healthcare is sparse. Much of the capital remains a trash-filled wasteland of broken buildings where malnutrition kills and violence is spiralling out of control.

Irwin Stotzky, author of Silencing the Guns in Haiti, served as an adviser to presidents Aristide and Préval and investigated the human rights abuses of the Cédras regime. He says the thought of throwing 3,500 armed men at this problem is obscene.

“The idea that they need an army in the middle of all this is ridiculous,“ he says. “What they need is an educational system, a governmental structure, food, housing.

“Who are they going to fight?“ he asks. “The Haitian army has never fought anybody but Haitians.”

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