I was looking around on YouTube for some new videos to highlight on THAC’s new WordPress blog, and I stumbled upon this video by Al Jazeera about MINUSTAH:
I confess that I’m usually fond of Al Jazeera’s coverage. In the days after the earthquake, they were one of the few news agencies to really hone in on the relationship between the last decade of destabilization and Haiti’s lack of readiness or capacity to respond to the disaster. But this video left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
UNITED NATIONS—The United Nations dealt out “rapid” justice to two Pakistani U.N. peacekeeping policemen sentenced to a year in prison with hard labor after a rare trial in Haiti found them guilty of sexual abuse and exploitation, a U.N. police official said Wednesday.
But U.N. peacekeeping police adviser Ann-Marie Orler refused to comment on whether a one-year sentence was severe enough punishment for the men.
Amnesty International last week called the one-year sentence for raping a 14-year-old boy, doled out by a Pakistani military court, a “travesty of justice” and called for public trials in such cases.
“In this, case, we immediately dispatched a team to go there and investigate this case really urgently. In this case, we actually got justice. I will not comment on the sentence itself, but justice was done in a very rapid manner,” Orler told reporters.
The two Pakistani police officers were convicted by a Pakistani military court in the Haitian port city of Gonaives and were discharged. No U.N. personnel or Haitian officials were present for the trial, U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg said last week in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
It was the first time that troops from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym of Minustah, have been tried and sentenced within the country.
U.N. authorities also were told that Pakistan intends to compensate the victims but has not determined the amount, Van Den Wildenberg said.
The trial came just months after six Uruguayan troops with the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti were accused of abusing a young Haitian man. The case was referred to the Uruguayan judicial system.
– “UN: ‘Rapid’ justice done in Haiti UN rape crime”, Boston Globe
This might be the first case I’ve seen where members of MINUSTAH have actually been held accountable for crimes they’ve committed in the country.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 5, 2012
Contact:
Brian Concannon, Jr., Esq., Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, brian@ijdh.org, +1-541-263 0029 (English, French, Creole)
Mario Joseph, Av., Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, (in Haiti), mario@ijdh.org, +509 3701-9878 (French, Creole, English)
Monday, March 5, 2012
Boston, Port-au-Prince — In a statement to the United Nations (UN) Security Council last week, U.S. Permanent Representative Susan Rice stressed the importance of UN accountability for its role in bringing cholera to Haiti, calling on the UN to “redouble its efforts to prevent any further incidents of this kind and to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.”
The UN has not accepted responsibility for the outbreak despite extensive evidence, including by the UN’s own panel of experts, that cholera was brought to Haiti by troops from the UN peace-keeping mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and introduced into Haiti’s largest river system through negligent waste disposal practices. The epidemic has killed over 7,000 Haitians and sickened over 500,000 since October 2010. It is expected to worsen as the rainy season begins.
Continue reading Press Release: Human Rights Groups Applaud U.S. Call for UN Accountability for Haiti Cholera
Originally posted at Al Jazeera’s blog
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – A bas Kolera, a bas Minista,– Creole for “down with cholera, down with MINUSTAH,” the United Nation peacekeeping force in Haiti – can be seen spray-painted across Port-au-Prince. One national newspaper headline recently read, “MINUSTAH must go.” And the refrain of a popular song by the Haitian band Brothers Posse mocks UN soldiers.
After years of scandal, including allegations of sexual abuse and accusations of introducing cholera into the country, many Haitians want the UN’s third-largest peacekeeping force to leave.
Continue reading In the News: UN peacekeepers not about to leave Haiti
From the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada:
| Recipient Name: | United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) |
| Location: | New-York, New-York, United States / New-York, New-York, États-Unis |
| Date: | 2011-11-17 |
| Value: | $19,161,370.00 |
| Type: | Contribution |
| Purpose: | Canada’s assessed contribution to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). |
| Comments: | Assessed contribution. |
The United Nations is investigating allegations that five Uruguayan naval troops at a UN base in southern Haiti sexually molested an 18-year-old man in an attack reportedly captured by a cellphone camera.
The UN mission learned of the allegations last week and the scandal prompted Uruguay to sack its naval chief in Haiti.
The soldiers were confined to their barracks pending the outcome of the probe.
Shot with a cellphone camera, the clip shows several men in camouflaged uniforms laughing as they pin down a young man on a mattress.
The men seem to be saying “no problem” in Spanish as they hold the teen’s arms and hands behind his back. The camera jumps around, and it’s not clear from the video what’s happening.
A magistrate in Port-Salut, the southwestern coastal town in which the assault allegedly happened, has gathered testimony from the alleged victim and his mother and filed it in court.
— “UN Haiti peacekeepers accused of sex assault”, CBC
Continue reading MINUSTAH sexually assualts 18-year old man in Port-Salut