Battle for Haiti

 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Battle for Haiti

There are no big winners in Haiti right now.

Chaos rules.

And Haitian gangs and the United Nations forces (MINUSTAH) have been at war for 5 years.

And just in case you didn't know, MINUSTAH is not perfect.

In 2008, I was 50 yards from a young man who had his head blown off by UN soldiers right after Father Jean-Juste's funeral mass at the Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. He was standing right outside the church. MINUSTAH denied murdering him even though it was captured on video by a Haitian television station.

In 2006, I was in a lady's house in Soleil after she claimed a UN helicopter flew over and shot down on them, hitting three of her girls. I photographed the bullet holes in the second floor ceiling of her place in Soleil and photographed her wounded and afraid daughters. MINUSTAH denied doing this too. Here is another article regarding this topic.

And a march through Soleil in 2007 was an experience that is still fresh in my mind.

There are good guys and bad guys in Haiti, and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.
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Read this from the New York Times.