Violence erupted in Haiti's largest and most volatile slum, Cité Soleil, on Thursday, October 19th and has continued to escalate into the weekend. Residents threw rocks and glass bottles at United Nations soldiers protesting the alleged destruction of homes by U.N. peacekeepers. Residents insist that three civilians were killed in the ensuing gun battle. Violence of this level has not been seen in Cité Soleil in over two months. Since Thursday, five civilians have been killed and many more have been wounded residents say.
The fire fight broke out on Thursday as Brazilian U.N. engineers were demolishing the remains of an old wall and several uninhabited structures in order to open the narrow road to traffic. The AP quoted one resident, 24 year-old Naomi Exint, as saying that part of her home was destroyed.
A professor, who asked that his name be withheld for security reasons said "Cite Soleil spent two months in peace but since Thursday the U.N. soldiers went out and started breaking down a few small houses, among them, some belonging to the gangs." To some Haitians, the gangs are known as chimere - paramilitary men with mythical powers that protect them from bullets who are fiercely loyal to the deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Since then, the situation has deteriorated. The professor believes that the U.N. thought the gangs in that area had handed over their weapons through the DDR process (Demobilization Disarmament and Reintegration Program run in coordination with the Preval administration and the U.N.) and that is why the U.N. demolished the houses.
Photographs taken by the U.N. suggest that all destroyed buildings were abandoned.
The Associated Press and Reuters published slightly differing accounts on the incident in which casualty counts range from two to three civilians killed in the clash between Brazilian U.N. troops and armed groups fiercely loyal to the deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Brazilian U.N. military spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Neuzivaldo Dos Anjos, maintains that the engineers came under attack and returned fire in self defense. The once narrow passageway runs along one side of the U.N. military base Strong Point 16 and connects with a main road.
No Brazilian peacekeepers were injured in the battle.
The U.N. demolished the buildings without plans to compensate the homeowners or offer them an alternative plan. The residents fled their homes because the area sees an intense level of fighting. Although the residents had fled, they still considered the abandoned structures their homes.
Before 11:00 AM Saturday morning there was calm but the situation rapidly deteriorated as residents claim that the U.N. soldiers fired into a church filled with 300 parishioners and critically wounded three children, aged between five and eleven years-old. Three others fainted for more than three hours as the fire fight around the church lasted around two hours, residents say.
A 58 year-old woman alleges that the U.N. soldiers shot at them because they were digging a trench in the road in order to prevent APCs or tanks from passing through the area. "We don't need them in the area", she explains "they must go, because they cause us too much pain and we are afraid of them." The few roads that exist in Cité Soleil are being destroyed in order to hinder the mobility of U.N. troops who only patrol the slum in Armored Personnel Carriers. Local infrastructure has also been heavily damaged in the fighting.
The roads had just been built with money from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) in cooperation with the IOM (International Organization for Migration). "Digging trenches in the roads is the only we can stop the tanks", a teacher in his late forties explains. Earlier saturday morning, U.N. tractors came into the area and filled in many of the trenches.
"We're working for peace but the soldiers are working for war according to their attitudes", according to the teacher.
The teacher believed that the peace was going to be long lasting. "But since Thursday, when we were in the school, we heard the tanks coming and at the end, they started shooting." As the shooting continued, bullets went into the school. The children fell to the floor. The school was then closed and the children sent home. As the students were leaving the L'ecole le Normaliene, two girls, aged seven and eight years-old, were shot in the stomach and their intestines "spread out".
Another man near the school was shot twice in the head near the market. "I would ask the president to ask the soldiers stay in the rules so the Cité Soleil people could live in peace", the teacher pleads.
"We're asking for justice," one pro-gang supporter says, "We're asking for the white people to leave."
"Why do people consider building a military base in Cité Soleil?", he asks, referring to the U.N. base there, Strong Point 16. "If they want to build a base, they can go to Titanyen." Titanyen was an old dumping ground for victims of Tonton Macoute violence during the Duvalier regimes. "With their presence this morning, three people have been killed."
On Saturday, the approach to the Boston area of Cité Soleil from Boulevard Jean Jacques Dessalines, a once lively commercial district and the main artery in Port-au-Prince, is quiet. Many of the stores and industries have closed. Six, maybe seven United Nations Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs), from China, Peru and Jordan, have permanent positions here. A large barricade has been constructed in front of the abandoned Texaco station. Behind it, four APCs take strategic positions. The buildings have been damaged by thousands of bullet holes - two years of near warfare have all but destroyed the area.
Six Peruvian and Brazilian APCs rumble into Boston. Amos, a journalist from Radio Metropole and I begin interviewing residents. Two minutes later, automatic weapons fire erupts and the street empties. The Colonel, a "chimere", has opened fire on U.N. forces. Amos records everything on his tape recorder which infuriates the Colonel. "Fuck! He recorded me! I'm going to kill that mother fucker journalist!" While other armed men are shooting at MINUSTAH, the Colonel fires three bursts at Amos. One bullet grazes his back.
All of Amos' recordings are then destroyed.
Children laugh at the Colonel because he was unable to kill Amos. In response, the Colonel jokingly tells them to go stand by the road so he can shoot them. Amos tells me that children with sacks and buckets filled with ammunition reload empty cartridges and distribute them to the chimere during the fight.
The armed groups have a plethora of weapons, among them; AK-47s, M14s, M16s and an assortment of handguns. Clips are taped together: after one clip empties, it is flipped over and and the fresh clip put in.
Leaving the alley and moving towards Strong Point 16, automatic weapons fire fills the street. We flee to another ally. Many children laugh during the fire fight as they find my reactions funny. They jokingly ask me why white people find gun fire scary - "they like killing." Some of the children, six years and older, have bullet wounds.
The fight rages on and off for more than an hour, but it was more on than off. We escape through a safe passage during a lull in the fighting. We learn that there have been two casualties and and unknown number of wounded. Final casualty counts are unknown, as we didn't see the fight through.
