Quake: Is U.S. Invading Or Relieving Devastated Haitians?

Paul Arhewe, Online/Foreign Editor



The U.S. role in administering aids and relief effort to the millions left devastated in the massive January 12 quake has been criticised many as a moved to invade the poor Latin American country. Critics slight Pentagon’s despatch of 15,000 troops (comprising those troops on ground and those who are on high sea) to Port-au-Prince as signalling invasion, other than providing relief aids.
France and Brazil were the first to let out their voices against U.S. move, when America soldiers refused landing permit to their medic teams sent to help the millions injured and those traumatised.
Though, U.S. government is claiming it intends to maintain peace and security in the state that is fast growing into a ‘state of nature’ as described in the Hobbessian cannibalised and uncivilised early stage of human society.

Last week, six helicopters pack full with American soldiers landed in Haiti’s presidential palace. This move alone would openly signify a new version of takeover, maybe a new pattern of conquering new kingdom as witnessed in the early years culminating into human civilization.

The Italian government official who led the country's response to the L'Aquila earthquake has condemned relief efforts in Haiti as a disorganised "vanity parade", ahead of an international conference on rebuilding the devastated country.

Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italy's civil protection service, said there had been a fundamental lack of leadership thus far in foreign aid missions to Haiti, warning also that the large US military mission in the country was not entirely helpful.

Also the Venezuelan and Bolivian presidents vent their anti-U.S. invective, claiming Washington was using a relief operation in Haiti to mask a military takeover of the impoverished country.

"The empire," said Mr. Chavez using his favourite epithet for the United States, "is taking Haiti over the bodies and tears of its people."

"They started with the airport," he said, referring to Port-au-Prince's single runway airfield, which U.S. forces have operated since last week, assisting hundreds of aid planes in landing”.

"If you want to go inside the destroyed presidential palace, you'll find US Marines standing in your way," Chavez added.

"They brazenly occupied Haiti without consulting the UN or the OAS (Organization of American States)," said Mr. Chavez, who on Sunday made similar accusations about the U.S. relief effort in Haiti.

Meanwhile, Bolivian President Evo Morales, one of Mr. Chavez's closest allies in the region, said he would request an emergency UN meeting "to repudiate and reject this military occupation of the United States in Haiti."

"It's not right the United States should use this natural disaster to invade and militarily occupy Haiti," he told a press conference.

"If you have all these problems with the injured and the dead from the earthquake, you have to go there to save lives, and you don't do that from a military standpoint," he added.

The U.S. tight grip on the relief efforts have stalled and slowed the rate of administration of food in the devastated poor country. Many prominent individuals including Jean Saint-Vil, Canada Haiti Action Network, Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee, USA , Noam Chomsky, MIT, Niraj Joshi, Toronto Haiti Action Committee, Roger Annis, Canada Haiti Action Network, Brian Concannon Jr., Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, BC Holmes, Toronto Haiti Action Committee, Yves Engler, Canada Haiti Action Network, Peter Hallward, Middlesex University, Kevin Pina, journalist and film-maker, and Kevin Skerrett, Canada Haiti Action Network, recently took to undersigning an open letter to protest the increasing death toll that is mounting in Haiti over U.S. tight grip on the emergency relief.
According to them, “Since the US Air Force seized unilateral control of the airport in Port-au-Prince, it has privileged military over civilian humanitarian flights. As a result, untold numbers of people have died needlessly in the rubble of Port-au-Prince, Leogane and other abandoned towns”.

“If aid continues to be withheld, many more preventable deaths will follow. We demand that US commanders immediately restore executive control of the relief effort to Haiti's leaders, and to help rather than replace the local officials they claim to support”.

The open letter further stated that “We note that obsessive foreign concerns with 'security' and 'looting' are largely refuted by actual levels of patience and solidarity on the streets of Port-au-Prince. The decision to avoid what US commanders have called "another Somalia-type situation" by prioritizing security and military control is likely to succeed only in provoking the very kinds of unrest they condemn”.

“In keeping with a longstanding pattern, US and UN officials continue to treat the Haitian people and their representatives with wholly misplaced fear and suspicion”.

The U.S. government has rushed in its own military to re-establish a repressive force under cover of a “humanitarian” mission needed to bring aid to people who are injured, hungry and thirsty, and without shelter.

Spokespeople from what is left of Haiti’s government estimate that some 200,000 people have died in the disaster, that hundreds of thousands have left the capital area to seek shelter in the North of the country, and there are still some 609,000 without shelter in the capital area itself. (Reuters, Jan. 25)

The U.S. Marines and Airborne forces have seized the destroyed presidential palace, the banks, the Port-au-Prince airport and the severely damaged seaport. The U.S. forces took control of air traffic at the airport on Jan. 14. Currently 120 planes can land daily on the one runway, but 1,400 planes are backed up waiting for U.S. permission to land.

Accompanying the U.S. troop surge, the U.N. forces that have occupied Haiti since 2004 have rebuilt their command, which was severely damaged by the earthquake, and are increasing the number of troops from 9,000 to 12,500. Canada, which invaded Haiti in 2004 along with the U.S. and France after the U.S. deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has doubled its contingent to 2,000 troops.

All reports on the ground from Haiti show that Washington gave first priority to the military buildup, while delaying emergency aid. Comments from officials engaged in aid and rescue missions — even from U.S. allies — show that by giving the military priority, Washington hampered the international humanitarian effort.