Oct. 9, 2011
A Tale of Eviction
By Nicole C. Lee
Special Commentary
Families still living in thousands of tents since the earthquake in Port-au-Prince now suffer the tyranny of abusive landlords. PHOTO: TransAfrica.org
Camp Riviere Grise PHOTO: TransAfrica.org
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Despite the lack of attention in the media, the situation in Haiti remains dire. Despite money donated by international organizations and regular people, real relief has not reached the people who need it the most. The blue tarps that blanketed the city, reminiscent of the early reporting by Anderson Cooper, are still there – an obvious sign that things have not returned to normal.
Twenty months after the earthquake, most inhabitants of
Two months ago, Danny Glover and I traveled to
While traveling to meet with some VIPs, we got a call about an eviction taking place in Barbancourt 17. We made a quick turn and went to investigate. There we found an enraged rich landowner screaming at families, women and children loudly in Creole demanding that they leave “his property”. He had already beaten a small, but grown man and personally destroyed several tents. Bulldozers and construction equipment stood by and ready. And oddly, so did the UN peacekeepers.
A lot has been said about the UN peacekeeping mission in
I asked the UN soldiers who called them to this location what was their purpose. I noticed how the people watched the UN soldiers. Even the children, so clearly traumatized by the prospect of being uprooted, knew that the peacekeepers were not sent to Barbancourt 17 to protect them. They were there to ensure the landlord was protected.
Our presence did not deter the landlord. “If you like them so much, you take them back to Washington with you,” he callously and repeatedly remarked. What did deter him was a Haitian human rights lawyer who came with legal documentation stating the landlord could not evict the families without the proper paperwork. While that day was a victory for those people, we knew that it would only be a matter of time before the landlord got his ducks in a row.
A few days ago he did. The inhabitants of Barbancourt 17 were evicted from the only home they have had in the past two years. They were allegedly put on buses by the International Organization of Migration, perhaps to give the appearance they were going to a relocation site. But they were soon dropped off in front of a police station, without anywhere to go.
The international community continues to fail Haiti. Regardless of our humanitarian rhetoric, we continually and willfully make decisions that cause more misery in Haiti. We can be repulsed by the individual landlord, but it was an international force that supported him. This year, the UN peacekeeping mission costs almost one billion dollars. I have no idea where those children and their parents are sleeping tonight, but I do know that a billion dollars would go a long way in providing those families and many others with housing and basic necessities.
Nicole C. Lee is the president of TransAfrica.