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Reply #1: Beyond obscene. Far beyond. I hope DU's friend and activist magbana will see this article. [View All]

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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-03-11 06:53 PM
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1. Beyond obscene. Far beyond. I hope DU's friend and activist magbana will see this article.
I have to include the last paragraphs from Weisbrot's posted comments:
And make no mistake about it: the UN occupation of Haiti is really a US occupation – it is no more a multilateral force than George W Bush's "coalition of the willing" that invaded Iraq. And it is hardly more legitimate, either: it was sent there in 2004 after a US-led effort toppled Haiti's democratically elected government. Far from providing security for Haitians in the aftermath of the coup, Minustah stood by while thousands of Haitians who had supported the elected government were killed, and officials of the constitutional government jailed. Recent WikiLeaks cables also confirm that the US government sees Minustah as an instrument of its policy there.

This latest incident could shed some light on the nature of its mission, just as the photos from Abu Ghraib made plain for most of the world the brutality of the US occupation of Iraq. Images cannot be so easily dismissed or buried as words. And the images from this video are symbolic of what the "international community" has been doing to Haiti since the country won its independence from France in the world's first successful slave-led revolution.

There is no legitimate reason for a military mission of the United Nations in Haiti. The country has no civil war, and is not the subject of a peace-keeping or post-conflict agreement. And the fact that UN troops are immune from prosecution or legal action in Haiti encourages abuses. The occupying troops don't speak the language either, which severely limits their capacity for any positive security role; can you imagine how effective a police force in Washington, DC would be if it spoke only Japanese?

To make things even worse, it is now virtually certain that Minustah brought the cholera bacteria to Haiti that has killed more than 6,000 Haitians and infected more than 400,000 in the last 10 months. This was an act of gross negligence: there should have been supervision to make sure that fecal waste from UN troops was not dumped into the water supply, given the risks of such a deadly contamination and the known incapacity of Haiti's water, sanitation and public health system.
Can't bring myself to watch that video. The feeling of dispair is far too overwhelming already. I do remember reading in your other article, EFerrari, the victim's mother said she could not stop crying after she saw it.

Thank you for posting some news we NEED so much to know. What a filthy shame it hasn't gotten the attention it actually demands and deserves. Only racist right-wingers could keep sweeping this #### under the carpet.
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