By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Dr. Serge L. Bernard, Professor and Vice-Chair of the board of directors of the University of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was shot dead by five gunmen on motorcycles around midday on Friday August 31, 2012, within sight of police. Dr. Bernard is the latest victim of the traditional Spring-to-October insecurity that has preceded the renewal of MINUSTAH’s mandate every year since 2005.
Continue reading →Marco A. Gandásegui Jr, America Latina en Movimiento | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In an annual exercise called Panamax, from August 6 to August 17, 2012 Panama was virtually occupied by troops from the U.S., France, Canada, the Netherlands, and 14 supposed Latin American allies, although the Panamanian Constitution says Panama has no army and its sovereignty is inalienable and nontransferable. (English | Spanish).
Continue reading →By Joseph Guyler Delva, Buenos Aires Herald | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Brazil and Ecuador plan to help install a new army in Haiti that is meant to replace the UN “peacekeeping” force MINUSTAH.
Continue reading →By spp and jmd, Radio Kiskeya. According to residents of the Nan Beny and Ti Bois areas of Martissant, Haiti, in retaliation for having two of their numbers injured by unknown assailants Tuesday July 31, 2012, elite police in uniform, while under observation by MINUSTAH troops, beat and shot several people and torched at least four motorcycles plus 15 houses. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirty six commandos from Haiti’s Departmental Unit for Maintenance of Order (UDMO), together with presidentially-appointed regional and local government representatives, arrived in La Visite Park, near the southern city of Jacmel, to evict 142 families by force on July 23, 2012. In the battle that ensued, 4-12 people were killed.
Continue reading →By Staff, Defend Haiti | Meagan Fitzpatrick and Staff, CBC News Online | Sheila Dabu Nonato, National Post. Canada Foreign Aid Minister Bev Oda — the woman responsible for the relocation of hundreds of thousands from the tent camps on Champs de Mars, Port-au-Prince, Haiti — has resigned. She was replaced by Julian Fantino, a former policeman risen to the ranks of police chief, Member of Parliament, and Defense Minister. Mr. Fantino has been followed in every political post by allegations of corruption.
Continue reading →By Nicole Simon, Le Nouvelliste | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The worst thing was to find this French friend, blonde with blue eyes, two days later, who admitted that she has visited the same store on Louverture Street with all her gear, and no one has ever denied her access. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Staff (WJL), HPN | Staff, Nouvel Observateur via RadioTV Caraibes | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Residents from the Jalousie neighborhood of Petion-Ville took to the streets Thursday, July 12, 2012 to call for a halt to the measures from Haiti’s Ministry of the Environment to demolish thousands of their homes. “It’s not right that a person should be offered only $465 after his house is demolished,” said a protestor. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Kim-Jenna Jurriaans, IPS | UPDATE from Haiti Chery. The United Nations is increasingly hiring Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) for its missions across the world, raising concerns over the use of firms known for participation in human rights abuses, as well as an overall lack of accountability structures governing these contractors within the U.N. system. UPDATE 1: DynCorp boasts of having trained 400 “Haitian police” and is awarded a $48.6 million contract to insert 100 contractors and 10 advisors into the “UN police force” in Haiti.
Continue reading →By Staff, Radio Metropole | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. With the reactivation of the defunct 2005 Council of Economic and Social Development (Conseil de Développement Economique et Social), Haiti establishes a permanent dictatorship with elections. The CESD replaces the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC). (English | French)
Continue reading →PRESS RELEASE, UN via RadioTV Caraibes | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The heads of the UN peacekeeping missions forces in the Congo (MONUSCO), Haiti (MINUSTAH) and South Sudan (MISNUSS) said that these operations have broad mandates: from classical peacekeeping to conflict mitigation, and even the fight against cholera. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Joaquín Rivery Tur, Granma | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A new U.S. base was hurriedly built in Fort Aguayo, Chile, in 60 days. The facility will train United Nations ‘peacekeepers,’ and Latin-American soldiers and police, in urban warfare. Chilean civil society has denounced the supposed military college as a center to train future repressors and torturers.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. So many superb blues for bad girls! This was a tough choice. In the end, I picked Etta James’s marvelous rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Don’t Start Me to Talking,” and one of Koko Taylor’s many excellent versions of her own song “Stop Watching Your Enemies” because they are an excellent commentary on the week’s news about France’s possible role in Rwanda’s genocide and UNASUR’s decision on a slow military withdrawal from Haiti.
Continue reading →By Linda Melvern, Liberation | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Belgian peacekeeper Yves Teyssier testified that the night before the April 6, 1994 attack he was blocked by the Rwandan army from entering the Camp Kanombe area, and the next day he heard a UN colleague’s voice report on UN radio that two missiles were fired at president Habyarimana’s plane from the camp. (English | French)
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