Haiti Anti-U.N. Cholera Protests Turn Deadly
Anti-U.N. riots spread to several Haitian cities and towns, as protesters blaming a contingent of Nepalese peacekeepers for a deadly outbreak of cholera barricaded roads and exchanged gunfire with U.N. soldiers in clashes that lasted late into the night.
The protests left at least two people dead. A demonstrator was shot by a U.N. peacekeeper during an exchange of gunfire in Quartier Morin, near Haiti's second-largest city of Cap-Haitien, the United Nations mission said. It said it was investigating the shooting but asserted the soldier acted in self-defense.
Haiti Senate President Kelly Bastien told Radio Vision 2000 that a second demonstrator was shot and killed in Cap-Haitien itself. He did not know who shot him.
The 12,000-member force reported that at least six U.N. personnel were wounded in protests at Hinche in the central plateau, while local Radio Metropole reported that at least 12 Haitians were injured in Cap-Haitien.
The protests apparently began in Cap-Haitien early Monday and within hours had paralyzed much of the northern port city. An APTN television cameraman trying to reach the area was repelled by protesters throwing rocks and bottles from a barricade.
As the day went on, other protests broke out in surrounding towns and the central plateau. A police station was reportedly burned in Cap-Haitien and rocks thrown at peacekeeping bases. A small protest was also reported in the northwestern city of Gonaives, but U.N. police said it ended peacefully.
The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, dismissed the protests as politically motivated, linking them to the fast-approaching Nov. 28 presidential elections.
"The way events unfolded suggests that these incidents were politically motivated, aimed at creating a climate of insecurity on the eve of elections. MINUSTAH calls the people to remain vigilant and not be manipulated by enemies of stability and democracy in the country," the mission said in a statement.
The cholera backlash plays upon some Haitians' long-standing resentment of the 12,000-member U.N. military mission, which has been the dominant security force in Haiti since 2004. It is also rooted both in fear of a disease previously unknown to Haiti and internationally shared suspicion that the U.N. base could have been a source of the infection that has now left nearly 1,000 dead.
The disease outbreak couldn't have come at a worse time for Haiti, reported CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts, who traveled to the nation already struggling to recover from last January's earthquake recently for a "60 Minutes" report on the progress made since that disaster. Pitts was surprised to find how little progress has been made.
60 Minutes Overtime: Haiti
For "60 Minutes" producer Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson, Haiti is more than a story. It's her homeland. "60 Minutes Overtime" talks with Magalie about her worst memory while reporting on the disaster.
Frustration and Anger Over Conditions in Haiti
Frustration and Anger in Haiti
Extra: Education and Recovery
Extra: Dr. Farmer on Haiti's Recovery
Extra: Leadership and Haiti
Link: Partners In Health
Cholera had never before been documented in Haiti before it broke out about three weeks ago.
Suspicions quickly surrounded a 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 was discovered.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the cholera strain now ravaging the country matched a strain specific to South Asia, but said they had not pinpointed its origin or how it arrived in Haiti.
Following an Associated Press investigation, the U.N. acknowledged that there were sanitation problems at the base, but says its soldiers were not responsible for the outbreak. No formal or independent investigation has taken place despite calls from Haitian human-rights groups and U.S. health care experts.
Transmitted by feces, the disease can be all but prevented if people have access to safe drinking water and regularly wash their hands.
President Rene Preval addressed the nation on Sunday to dispel myths and educate people on good sanitation and hygiene.
But sanitary conditions don't exist in much of Haiti, and more than 14,600 people have been hospitalized 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.
In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, health officials banned used clothing from being sold in outdoor markets along the shared border as a precautionary measure to stop the disease's spread.
CBS/AP The protests left at least two people dead. A demonstrator was shot by a U.N. peacekeeper during an exchange of gunfire in Quartier Morin, near Haiti's second-largest city of Cap-Haitien, the United Nations mission said. It said it was investigating the shooting but asserted the soldier acted in self-defense.
Haiti Senate President Kelly Bastien told Radio Vision 2000 that a second demonstrator was shot and killed in Cap-Haitien itself. He did not know who shot him.
The 12,000-member force reported that at least six U.N. personnel were wounded in protests at Hinche in the central plateau, while local Radio Metropole reported that at least 12 Haitians were injured in Cap-Haitien.
The protests apparently began in Cap-Haitien early Monday and within hours had paralyzed much of the northern port city. An APTN television cameraman trying to reach the area was repelled by protesters throwing rocks and bottles from a barricade.
As the day went on, other protests broke out in surrounding towns and the central plateau. A police station was reportedly burned in Cap-Haitien and rocks thrown at peacekeeping bases. A small protest was also reported in the northwestern city of Gonaives, but U.N. police said it ended peacefully.
The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, dismissed the protests as politically motivated, linking them to the fast-approaching Nov. 28 presidential elections.
"The way events unfolded suggests that these incidents were politically motivated, aimed at creating a climate of insecurity on the eve of elections. MINUSTAH calls the people to remain vigilant and not be manipulated by enemies of stability and democracy in the country," the mission said in a statement.
The cholera backlash plays upon some Haitians' long-standing resentment of the 12,000-member U.N. military mission, which has been the dominant security force in Haiti since 2004. It is also rooted both in fear of a disease previously unknown to Haiti and internationally shared suspicion that the U.N. base could have been a source of the infection that has now left nearly 1,000 dead.
The disease outbreak couldn't have come at a worse time for Haiti, reported CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts, who traveled to the nation already struggling to recover from last January's earthquake recently for a "60 Minutes" report on the progress made since that disaster. Pitts was surprised to find how little progress has been made.
60 Minutes Overtime: Haiti
For "60 Minutes" producer Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson, Haiti is more than a story. It's her homeland. "60 Minutes Overtime" talks with Magalie about her worst memory while reporting on the disaster.
Frustration and Anger Over Conditions in Haiti
Frustration and Anger in Haiti
Extra: Education and Recovery
Extra: Dr. Farmer on Haiti's Recovery
Extra: Leadership and Haiti
Link: Partners In Health
Cholera had never before been documented in Haiti before it broke out about three weeks ago.
Suspicions quickly surrounded a 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 was discovered.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the cholera strain now ravaging the country matched a strain specific to South Asia, but said they had not pinpointed its origin or how it arrived in Haiti.
Following an Associated Press investigation, the U.N. acknowledged that there were sanitation problems at the base, but says its soldiers were not responsible for the outbreak. No formal or independent investigation has taken place despite calls from Haitian human-rights groups and U.S. health care experts.
Transmitted by feces, the disease can be all but prevented if people have access to safe drinking water and regularly wash their hands.
President Rene Preval addressed the nation on Sunday to dispel myths and educate people on good sanitation and hygiene.
But sanitary conditions don't exist in much of Haiti, and more than 14,600 people have been hospitalized 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.
In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, health officials banned used clothing from being sold in outdoor markets along the shared border as a precautionary measure to stop the disease's spread.
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We've already got the Somalis and 20 million illegal Mexicans.. Might as well bring the VooDoo HooDoo's in too.
They want assistance, yet decry that assistance as dominance from another nation.
Proud of their nation, yes.
Fearful of another nation helping them, yes they are. However, if this help was accepted beforehand, they could have prevented the losses they are incurring now.
These people don't take care of themselves, they have lived like animals all their lives and ***** about the fact that they don't have what we have in the US, but they won't get up off their lazy ass to actually do something about it. YES, THAT IS WHAT I SAID.
For over 60 years I have watched every person who was too lazy to get up and actually do something for themselves make excuses for the crimes they commit against those who do the work to have what they need and want.
And you don't have to "Racially Profil" to see who is doing it. All you do is put down numbers on a paper and it will show you the attitude of people from all over the world. There are rich and successful black folks, rich and successful asians, rich and successful indians (East & West.) rich and successful arabs and jews. The people who got off their ass and did something for themselves.
These people just blame others for not building their buildings right so they fall down during an earthquake or blow over in a huricane or don't clean themselves and get sick. It just goes on and on and they wonder why they have their problems and blame someone elss for their inactivity.
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well ... that sounds pretty simple ... all they have to do it get off their ass and do something?