Gang violence increases as angry Haitians see quake aid benefiting the wealthy elite

[defendandprotect]

Gang violence increases as angry Haitians see quake aid benefiting the wealthy elite

Former supporters of President René Préval arm themselves against government amid claims that poor's plight is ignored
(56)Tweet this (39)Comments (6) Peter Beaumont, Port-au-Prince The Observer, Sunday 18 April 2010 Article history
Women queue for food at a homeless earthquake survivors' camp in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: Ramon Espinosa/AP


Groups who once supported the president of Haiti, René Préval, are arming themselves against the government, putting the earthquake-ravaged country in danger of renewed instability and political violence.

Threats from individuals closely linked to a number of leading gangs who once enjoyed the patronage of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide come amid growing private concern among diplomats and aid workers over Haiti's increasingly dangerous trajectory.

The country's parliament expires next month, but with no elections on the horizon Préval has moved to consolidate his control over the country's reconstruction. The Senate voted last week to extend the state of emergency by 18 months, creating a reconstruction commission to administer billions in aid that will be overseen by Préval and former US president Bill Clinton.

Despite pledges of billions in aid from the international community following January's earthquake – which killed 230,000 people – anger and resentment are growing against both the Haitian government and the international community. The anger is being driven by the widespread perception – three months after the catastrophe – that what aid and reconstruction money is coming into Haiti is benefiting the country's more articulate and wealthy minority, while not reaching the vast mass of victims of the quake. That, in its turn, has revitalised the country's long-existing political and social antagonisms between a huge and impoverished class and a tiny political and business elite.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/haiti-tension-gang-violence-preval



There have also been reports/article on women being raped --

[Tejas]

1. Meanwhile, Detroit is still disappearing. nt

[tkmorris]

2. It really isn't clear to me why you brought that up

[Lilyeye]

3. Me either.

[Lilyeye]

4. This reminds me of all the reports on New Orleans and how those "Savages"

were killing and raping women and children. Most of those reports turned out to be false. I am sure that people are probally upset, if they're not getting help. However, I wonder how true all of it is when it comes to the violence and rape.

Some of the comments were interesting in that article. Lots of anti American sentiment.


buddha9

There's been a lot of lies told about this and the press, particularly the Anglo press have been complicit in it from the off --

They?ve given the usa a free ride when the US invade Haiti and sat around and let people starve --- the press have gone on trips to see gang violence most of it staged or simply hungry people and they've printed this excuse as a reason why the US couldn't distribute humanitarian aid when only an idiot with no brains at all would actually believe it -- John snow went there got all concerned circulated more lies and more excuses for letting these people starve to death --

The horrors perpetuated on the Haitian people by various ideologically driven US agencies and 'charities' - organ harvesting, stealing children, the Clintons taking over the telephone company in Haiti, have never been reported in this paper or any of the other mainstream 'free' press.

Now the people are trying to do something about it they will be further demonised in articles like this - bottom right Ed Pilkington?s report is exactly what I'm talking about

Its bullsh*t and its about time the people of this island of Britain woke up to the simple truth that the biggest source of evil in this world today is the the US government, its agencies and puppet NGO?s plus of course its partner in crime the state of Israel.


WeHappyFew

OMG!!

I hope that was meant to be funny.

I agree with Buddha9, when the quake hit, Haiti was then devoured by a plague of locusts from the US and Israel.

Kidnapping of children and organ harvesting is what they brought, that and starvation under martial law.

Wake up, Guardian, the independant media are leaving you behind in their wake. It's time you started to print the ugly truth and not the AP/Reuters feed.


dontmesswithtexas

Buddha--you couldn't be more right on this! It's funny how they keep predicting violence from day 1 and were shocked at the 'peacefulness or resilience' of the Haitian people. Just after the earthquake and even now when I talk to my family and friends the feeling is that of disbelief and coping with the trauma, far from engaging in a violent take over of the government or putting their hopes or wait idly for Preval or some political party or NGOs to make them 'whole' again. As a Haitian-American who was raised in Haiti I know that whenever the NGOs, State Dept and their international counterparts,the media and supposedly political groups in Haiti start perpetrating these rumours or have these story lines with predictions it means something is about to go off cause the plot against the will of the Haitian people is moving along just fine. How pathetic in this still dark hour of the nation!