Taking Note
DM
Two Faces of Oppression in Haiti The stretch of land was gray and pock-marked like a desolate moonscape. A swath of 1,000 shanties in Cite Soleil, Portau-Prince's largest slum, had...
...Members of one grass- roots organization in Cite Soleil complained that Boulos' operation is full of "recycled Macoutes," and there is fear that the extensive dossiers that CDS keeps on each family might fall into the wrong hands...
...Those who are more militant have trouble getting services...
...C DSrun by wealthy Leba- nese businessman Reginald Boulos as his personal fiefdomis a key prong in the effort to stifle dissent...
...A swath of 1,000 shanties in Cite Soleil, Portau-Prince's largest slum, had been burnt down on December 27th in retaliation for the death of Issa Paul, a militant of the right-wing FRAPH, the day before...
...In an interior courtyard, children dressed in neat red-aproned dresses and matching bows frolic...
...Because the clin- ics cannot possibly provide full health services for everyone, a selection process is inevitable...
...Because CDS tracks the movement of families into and out of the neighborhood, the organization's records would be a useful way for the army to control and monitor the population...
...But Cite Soleil residents are worried, unsure what the future holds and distrustful of CDS' intentions...
...Virulent arguments broke out among the residents on the day of our visit about how some families were denied assistance, while other people got more than their fair share...
...The poor who are compliant and docile get health services," explains Gerard Blot, a progressive doctor who is familiar with CDS...
...These are the "post-malnourished" chil- dren in the center's kindergarten program...
...Founded 20 years ago with funds from 100 privileged Haitian families, the center has grown over the years...
...Some 5,000 people lost their homes...
...As Haiti languishes in its third year of military dictatorship, the protracted, often brutal work of consolidating the military regime is underway...
...According to the Catholic human rights group Justice and Peace, some 70 people died in the fire, of which, the Haitian Press Agency reports, at least 30 were killed by gunshot...
...At the "Brooklyn" clinic, mothers with their infant children hold cards issued to them by CDS, and make their way among the stations set up for immunizations, weigh- ing, and vitamins...
...Embassy, was promptly on the scene after the fire to distribute aid...
...Another room is full of bassinets for 100 malnourished children who are brought to the clinic each day for feeding...
...The January afternoon that I visited the site with NACLA' s fact-finding dele- gation, two weeks after the fire, some people were camped Out on the plots under the blazing tropical sun, afraid the government would use the opportunity to take away their land...
...As the fire took its deadly course, the men fired shots into the air to pre- vent people from fleeing the fire and neighbors from dousing the flames...
...U.S.AID came on board in 1980...
...Witnesses testified that police stood idly by, and that the fire department was kept away...
...U.S.AID-funded Centers for Development and Health (CDS), having just received a $100,000 special grant for "disaster relief" from the U.S...
...It's only in the broader context that its potentially pernicious effects become apparent...
...Cite Soleil, along with other Aristide strongholds, has been targeted by the army in an effort to obliterate all opposition whether by the overt repression of FRAPH or the more subtle methods of CDS...
...No one disputes the fact that CDS is providing a useful service...
...A select 100 malnourished babies are show- ered with attention and care, but what of the thousands of other impoverished children in the slum...
...Others claimed that they were too intimidated to even try to register for aid...
...By funding organiza- tions such as CDS that may actually be aiding the de facto regime, the U.S...
...CDS says plans are in the works to rebuild the area...
...today it is the principal backer of CDS' $2-million-a-year operation...
...In one particularly gruesome incident, a six-year-old girl trying to escape a burning shanty was allegedly shot in the arm and pushed back into the inferno...
...Moreover, the user fees that patients must pay preclude the very poorest from receiving treatment...
...Like the good cop/bad cop routine, CDS' social work has come to complement FRAPH's iron hand...
...government ends up sending mixed signals about its resolve to kick out the putschists...
...The center operates three clinics in Cite Soleil, and sends volunteers into the neighborhoods to do a census and register the children in the preventative health care program...
...Attesting to the intricate web of repression, people claimed many of those handing out food aid were also among those who started the fire...
...Each family was supposed to be allotted some food and 15 Haitian dollars (about US$6...
...According to residents, a gang of attachesparamilitary troops in civilian clotheshad descended upon the area in the afternoon and set houses alight with gasoline...
Vol. 27 • March 1994 • No. 5
