Destination Haiti

February 8, 2007

Destination Haiti

I made my first trip to Haiti in January 2006. I took this photo two days after a deadly UN incursion into Cité Soleil in January 2006. According to residents, UN forces opened fire on a crowded market place, killing four women. People came pouring out of the shanty town dwellings, showing us scars, bullet wounds, spent munitions and bullet scarred buildings. They talked of the recent attack and the large-scale massacre perpetrated by UN forces (MINUSTAH) in the summer of 2005. The man on the left, Amavil Joudain, later showed us a huge scar on his stomach from the operation required to save his life after being shot by MINUSTAH soldiers that summer. Attacks by the UN continue unabated to this day, as seen by Kevin Pina’s recent work on HaitiAction.net.
I leave for Haiti in mid-February to add photographs, interviews and video footage to the increasingly rich documentary record on the real story of Haiti. I’ll be blogging throughout for the Dominion and Citizenshift. I’ll be exploring the UN attacks and the ongoing impact of the coup, especially in light of the horrifying revelations by the British journal, The Lancet, which pointed out that between 2004 and 2006, 8,000 people were murdered and 35,000 women were sexually assaulted in Port au Prince alone. These crimes were a direct result of the coup which ousted the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a coup supported and legitimated after by the Canadian Government. I’ll also be talking to adolescents to get their perspectives on their futures in Haiti.