Haiti Cholera Protest Turns Violent (Clashes & Gunfire Between Protesters & UN Troops)

[Turborama]

Source: Al Jazeera English

Clashes and gunfire have broken out between protesters and UN troops in Haiti, where a cholera epidemic has claimed over 900 lives in about three weeks.

Protesters, who hold Nepalese UN peacekeepers responsible for the cholera outbreak, threw stones and threatened to set fire to a base in the country's second-largest city of Cap Hatien on Monday, Haitian radio and eyewitnesses reported.

There are also unconfirmed reports that five protesters and one UN peacekeeper have been shot dead.

The UN disputes the claims against the Nepalese mission, but the suspicion persists.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/11/20101115165524154228.html

---

Cap Haitien, where protests have turned violent, has been badly affected by the epidemic

[dipsydoodle]

1. Hardly surprising.

.

[DesertFlower]

2. i'd rather see our troops nation building

in haiti than killing and being killed in afghanistan.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nalnn]

5. ...And?

Then they left again: HuffPo

The U.S. is in no position to invade yet another country or countries. I say Codswallop! :)

[Ginto]

9. All part of Obama's plan?

Puhlease.

[Odin2005]

8. The US has never done anything good in Haiti.

[XemaSab]

4. Jesus

x(

[CJvR]

6. There is no situation...

...so bad that human stupidity can't make it worse!

[nalnn]

7. Not misdirected?

Is this aggression misdirected toward the Peacekeepers or not? Who knows. There is this however: NYTimes report on South Asian origins of Haiti Cholera epidemic.


edited for S

[Karenina]

10. And of course, there's that little matter of a broken sanitation system

in the UN camp dumping human waste into the water...

[Turborama]

11. The story has been updated. "At least two people have been killed during clashes"

Not much else updated at the link.

The Sydney Morning Herald has this, though...

Two killed in violent protest over cholera in Haiti
Clarens Renois
November 16, 2010 - 3:09PM

Two men were killed in northern Haiti in clashes with UN peacekeepers, as anger turned to violence over a cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 1,000 lives, officials said.

The body of a 20-year-old man was found in front of a base of the UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in Quartier-Morin, on the outskirts of the country's second city of Cap-Haitien, local officials said.

It was the scene of violent clashes earlier between demonstrators angry at the UN mission and how officials have allowed Haiti's spiraling cholera crisis to get out of hand since it broke out a month ago. UN peacekeepers said they fired in self-defense.

"At first (the blue helmets) fired to disperse the crowds, and then later, I have the impression they fired on a man," local official Bimps Noel said.

Full article: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/two-killed-in-violent-protest-over-cholera-in-haiti-20101116-17vdk.html

[Ginto]

12. Haitians protest UN base over cholera claim

Source: AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Protesters who hold Nepalese U.N. peacekeepers responsible for a deadly outbreak of cholera that has killed 1,000 in three weeks threw stones and threatened to set fire to a base in the country's second-largest city Monday, Haitian radio and eyewitnesses reported.
The protesters also blame the unit for the death of a Haitian youth at the base in August.

The demonstrations began in Cap-Haitien about 6 a.m. (6 a.m. EST; 1100 GMT) and have paralyzed much of the northern port city, national television reporter Johnny Joseph told The Associated Press by phone.

Demonstrators are also targeting other U.N. bases and Haitian national police stations in the city, he said. U.N. police spokesman Andre Leclerc said the demonstrators blocked traffic in the area.

Radio Kiskeya and Radio Caraibes reported that U.N. soldiers and Haitian police fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse at least 1,000 protesters at the Nepalese base. Joseph said at least three people were injured by Haitian police.

A case of cholera had never before been documented in Haiti, and fear and confusion is following its destructive path. President Rene Preval addressed the nation on Sunday to dispel myths and educate people on good sanitation and hygiene.

Cholera is transmitted by feces and can easily be prevented if people have access to safe drinking water and can regularly wash their hands.

But those conditions don't exist in much of Haiti, and tens of thousands of people have been sickened as the disease has spread across the countryside and to nearly all the country's major population centers, including the capital, Port-au-Prince. Doctors Without Borders and other medical aid groups have expressed concern that the outbreak could eventually sicken hundreds of thousands of people.

The suspicions surround a different Nepalese base located on the Artibonite River system where the outbreak started. The soldiers arrived there in October following outbreaks in their home country and about a week before Haiti's epidemic began.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_disease_outbreak

[provis99]

13. morons. Blaming those who came to help.

I suppose they'd be happier if foreigners just left Haiti completely, so it can continue to collapse.

[nalnn]

14. Posted this in another thread about this:

Is this aggression misdirected toward the Peacekeepers or not? Who knows. There is this however: NYTimes report on South Asian origins of Haiti Cholera epidemic.


edited for S

[Igel]

16. Probably misdirected.

Even if the Nepalese did introduce this particular strain, it's still misdirected.

The aggression helps nothing, regardless of whether the introduction of this strain of cholera was intentional or not. And since it's very likely that it was not intentional and probably not even done through negligence, it's basically trying to hold a set of guilty of 1st degree homicide for what one person caused by accident.

That's apart from the mention of the death of the lad in August. Still, having a stone-throwing mob show up in mid-November for a death that happened three months ago--assuming it wasn't just announced--is a bit strange. Sort of a xenophobic, fear-based overreaction looking for an excuse to happen.

Personally, my favorite bit is the bit about documentation. In a poor, poorly developed country with a sucky health care system, a history of totalitarian and yet oddly jingoistic government, and with a strictly separate upper class, not documenting cholera in run-down, impoverished areas seems almost a given. It's like airplane crashes and suicides in the USSR: Officially, they never happened, but the lack of information just makes you wonder exactly how huge the problems were and not whether the problems existed.

[canoeist52]

15. Would love to read Haitian citizens side of this story.

I have a feeling there's more to it.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dipsydoodle]

18. Haiti cholera protester shot dead by UN peacekeepers

Source: BBC News

At least one man has been shot dead in clashes with UN peacekeepers in Haiti, amid a continuing cholera epidemic that has killed more than 900 people.

UN troops fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators throwing stones and blocking roads in Cap Haitien.



Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11761941

[de novo]

19. Damn, from bad to worse.

[tonekat]

20. Haiti has been one big misfortune for so long now

Does anyone really believe that Haiti will ever amount to anything but a place that produces misery for it's citizens (except for a few corrupt ones). I often wonder if the people wouldn't be better off if they just ceded the whole country to the Dominican Republic. The border between the two countries is so extreme...no trees left on the Haitian side.

[struggle4progress]

21. Cholera death toll in Haiti surpasses 1,000

09:37, November 18, 2010

More than 1,000 people have died in Haiti due to the cholera epidemic affecting the impoverished country, Haitian Health Minister Gabriel Timothee said on Tuesday.

According to news from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, Timothee also said that about 16,800 people have been hospitalized due to this disease.

However, according to him, last week there was a reduction of the number of deaths, dropping from 66 weekly to 46.

The most affected departments are Artibonite, Norte and Oeste, said Timothee ...

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/90880/7203294.html

[struggle4progress]

22. Haiti cholera epidemic could claim 10,000 lives

By Clarens Renois, Agence France-Presse November 17, 2010 8:25 PM

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's cholera outbreak could kill 10,000 people, health officials warned Wednesday, amid fears the epidemic which has claimed hundreds of lives may spill beyond the country's borders.

"Our projections show that we could have around 200,000 cases of infection in Haiti over the next six to 12 months," Pan-American Health Organization regional adviser Ciro Ugarte told AFP.

"If the fatality rate (of four to five per cent) is maintained . . . we may have 10,000 dead," said Ugarte, stressing that would be the worst case scenario.

Isolated cholera cases have been found in the Dominican Republic — it shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti — and as far away as the southern U.S. state of Florida, prompting local officials to take precautions ...

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/denies+accusation+over+Haiti+epidemic/3841456/story.html