Delmas Camp

What is affected

Housing private

Type of violation

Forced eviction
Demolition/destruction

Date

23 May 2011

Region

LAC [ Latin America/Caribbean ]

Country

Haiti

Location

Delmas Camp

Affected persons

	Total 233941
	Men 0
	Women 0
	Children 0
	166000 threatened

Proposed solution

Details

Development

Forced eviction

Costs

Demolition/destruction

Housing losses

- Number of homes

- Total value €

Duty holder(s) /responsible party(ies)

State

Brief narrative

233,941 Displaced Haitians Evicted, 166,000 Threatened HAITI: Unlawful Eviction of Homeless Haitians from Displacement camps Date: 20/06/2011 Organisation: Americas Policy Program, Center for International Policy Resource type: News release Author: Kathleen Bergin and Nicole Phillips One-thousand Haitians left homeless after the earthquake have been evicted from their displacement camp with little or no prior warning, with those opposing the eviction being shot, beaten and arrested. Now, families with small children, have no shelter and nowhere to live just as hurricane season begins. Though this incident is only snapshot of a larger epidemic of forced evictions that began shortly after the earthquake, and which the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates has resulted in 233,941 Haitians being left homeless. [16 June 2011] Last month, the Haitian police, a local mayor, and private security agents raided and destroyed three displacement camps in the city of Delmas outside of Port-au-Prince to remove approximately 1,000 homeless earthquake victims. Some residents were warned about the raid the day before, but most were caught by surprise. Residents were given almost no time to collect their belongings before security forces destroyed them. The police shot one camp resident in the leg. Others were beaten with batons. At least three who tried to stop the eviction were arrested. When an attorney and community organiser called a press conference at the scene, police and municipal workers charged them with machetes. They survived, but now hundreds of people, including families with small children, have no shelter and nowhere to live just as hurricane season begins. What happened at Delmas is a snapshot of a larger epidemic of forced evictions that began shortly after the earthquake. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that 233,941 Haitians have been evicted from displacement camps, and that 166,000 of the 680,000 people remaining in camps face an ongoing threat of eviction. They say that the “rapid pace of eviction” is causing people to leave the camps even though they have nowhere else to go. Of the more than 180,000 residential buildings destroyed in the earthquake, only 4,100 have been repaired. Only a fraction of the needed temporary shelters have been built. These violent and extrajudicial evictions not only threaten the lives and dignity of the hemisphere’s poorest people, they also violate Haitian and international law. Evictions that leave people homeless or subject them to violence, threats, or coercion, violate international human rights norms. Even people who occupy land without permission from the owner are entitled to due process protections, including prior notice of an eviction and an opportunity to consult with government officials regarding their relocation. The evictions in Haiti are especially violent and cruel. Police brutality and surprise raids are common, and basic survival needs are often withheld from camp residents to force them off the land. In one case, people who identified themselves as camp “organisers” set up a wire fence to divide the camp in half, and then denied people on one side of the fence access to food, water and sanitation facilities that were being distributed to people on the other side of the fence. Last fall, the Americas Policy Program at the Centre for International Policy was part of a team that brought a claim before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of displacement camps that resulted in a directive to the Haitian government to protect earthquake victims living in camps from unlawful evictions. The directive urged former President René Préval to adopt a moratorium on evictions until displaced people had an alternative and safe place to live. The Commission also ordered the government to provide people who have been illegally evicted with a safe place to live, to establish an effective complaint mechanism to report and respond to unlawful evictions, to implement security measures to protect camp residents, to train law enforcement personnel on the rights of displaced people, and to ensure that international monitors have access to camps and to internally displaced people. It appears that President Préval made little effort to comply with the precautionary measures or otherwise respond to the Commission’s directive. The duty to protect the Haitian people now falls on Haiti’s new President Michel Martelly. President Martelly pledged to close the camps in six months, starting with six camps during his first 100 days as president. The public still awaits details on how he will meet that ambitious goal without forcibly evicting people. Mayor Wilson Jeudy claimed to have President Martelly’s authority to carry out the Delmas raids with the help of the national police. The president’s staff unofficially denounced the raids after being pressured by the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti, but the brutal actions have so far gone unpunished. 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We have returned to the IACHR on behalf of displacement camps to ask for renewed protections against forced evictions under the Martelly government. The international community also bears responsibility for the desperate situation in Haiti. As the first eviction in Delmas was happening, the UN’s camp coordination body in Haiti, led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, cancelled its meeting, squandering an opportunity for humanitarian actors to coordinate a response to the evictions and find shelter for hundreds left without housing. To frustrated Haitians languishing in camps and now fearing government raids, this is another example of the UN’s inability to respond to crisis and protect their human rights. The epidemic of sexual assaults in the camps and a cholera outbreak that has led to 302,401 reported cases and a death total of 5,234 since October, are other examples. The United States bears responsibility too. Congresswoman Barbara Lee cited “the lack of urgency on the international community’s part,” as one reason for Haiti’s sluggish recovery, and introduced a bill to require accountability for humanitarian and reconstruction aid in Haiti. The bill passed by a voice vote in the House of Representatives and awaits Senate action. More recently, Congressional Representatives Don¬ald Payne, Yvette Clarke, Fred¬er¬ica Wil¬son and Max¬ine Waters denounced the evictions at Delmas. Along with 48 other members of Congress, they also urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to dedicate “significant attention” to the worsening situation in the camps, and to ensure “accountability and transparency” in humanitarian aid projects, including those administered by USAID. President Obama and members of Congress should support these efforts. The US government strongly supports President Martelly and his promise to open Haiti for investment. It condoned the Haitian elections, despite the fact that they were marred by fraud and historically low voter turnout (22.7 per cent). Martelly was elected by only 16.7 per cent of Haitian vot¬ers. With Martelly at her side last month, Secretary Clinton vowed “to be a good partner for Haiti.” If the US wants to be a good partner for Haiti, first we should make good on our financial commitments to Haitians–the United State has disbursed only one quarter of the funds it pledged to rebuild Haiti. We must also ensure that taxpayer money does not support forced evictions or other human rights violations against earthquake victims. http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?ID=25236 IACHR Expresses Concern over Situation in Camps for Displaced Persons in Haiti http://www.cidh.org/Comunicados/English/2010/115-10eng.htm Torture Firm, Risks Incorporated, Tied to Destructive Evictions in Haiti US Security Firm Caught Training Mexican Police in Torture Techniques Is Working in the Caribbean (added commentary by Haitian-Truth) 30 May 2011 By Ansel Herz, Narco News Bulletin Security forces that are tearing down makeshift tent camps inhabited by Haitians displaced in last year’s earthquake were trained by Risks Incorporated, a US private security firm involved in torture trainings in Mexico, a Narco News investigation has found. Three camps in Delmas, a district in central Port-au-Prince, have been destroyed in the past week, sending families fleeing into the street with nowhere to go. The Delmas Mayor’s Street Control Brigade, also known by the acronym BRICOR, helped carry out the evictions. Risks Incorporated’s Andrew Wilson, who also goes by the names “Orlando” and “Jerry,” confirmed in a telephone interview that he trained them in “use of force.” In 2008, Narco News revealed that Wilson trained Mexican police in torture techniques in videos leaked to the Mexican press. Videos posted in March 2009 on Risks Inc.’s YouTube page show a man training several dozen Haitian men in the then-partially-constructed city hall of Delmas Mayor Wilson Jeudy. Delmas is the largest municipal commune in Port-au-Prince, with at least 600,000 residents. “Yes, that’s me,” Wilson said by phone from Miami. The men, wearing T-shirts bearing the Delmas Mayor’s emblem, perform exercises leaping over walls, kicking, and hitting tires on the ground with batons. In one scene, they practice controlling a boisterous demonstration. One group steps forward, jutting out their batons in striking motions, while the other chants in mock protest. In the Mexico videos, Wilson is seen dragging a police trainee into his own vomit as punishment for an incomplete exercise, placing a man’s head into a dirty hole, and training police to squirt mineral water up the noses, another torture technique. Mayor Jeudy and Daniel Antoine, the brigade chief, said in interviews last year that BRICOR received training from an American security contractor. “BRICOR is a service that exists to control the streets, the merchants, and ��?��`�VioId�� ?�VioAuthor�� ?�??��VioOrganisation��?�??��VioLocation��?�??��VioContactEmail��?�??��VioTitle��?�??��ongoing��?�VioEviction��?�VioDemolition�� ?�VioDispossession��?�VioPrivatization��?�VioHousingPublic��?�VioHousingPrivate��?�VioHousingCommunal��?�VioLandPublic�� ?�VioLandPrivate��?�VioCommunal��?�VioRespauthority��?�VioWater��?�VioEnergy�� ?�VioOthers�� ?�??��VioDate��]��VioToDate�� ]��VioRegionId�� ?�VioCountryId�� ?�VioCity��?�??��VioTotal��VioTotal_to��VioMen��VioWomen��VioChildren�� ?�VioDisabled��?�VioDisabled_text��?�??��VioElderly�� ?�VioElderly_text��?�??��VioIndigenous�� ?�VioIndigenous_text��?�??��VioMigrants��?�VioMigrants_text��?�??��VioRefugees��?�VioRefugees_text��?�??��VioIDPs��?�VioIDPs_text��?�??��VioPersonsOthers��?�??��EvictionLossesL��EvictionLossesH��DemolitionLossesLCheck��?�DemolitionLossesLNum��DemolitionLossesL��DemolitionLossesHCheck��?�DemolitionLossesHNum��DemolitionLossesH��DemolitionLossesInfrastructureCheck��#��?�DemolitionLossesInfrastructure�� DispossessionLossesLCheck��?�DispossessionLossesLNum��5��DispossessionLossesL�� DispossessionLossesHCheck��?�DispossessionLossesHNum�� DispossessionLossesH�� DispossessionLossesInfrastructureCheck��&��?�DispossessionLossesInfrastructure��!� ��DispossessionLossesWaterCheck��?�DispossessionLossesWater�� PrivatizationLossesLCheck��?�PrivatizationLossesL��PrivatizationLossesHCheck��?�PrivatizationLossesH��PrivatizationLossesWaterCheck��?�PrivatizationLossesWater��PrivatizationLossesSanitationCheck��?�PrivatizationLossesSanitation��PrivatizationLossesEnergyCheck��?�PrivatizationLossesEnergy��PrivatizationLossesOtherCheck��?�PrivatizationLossesOther��VioRespState��?�??��VioRespLocal��?�??��VioRespOrg�� ?�??��VioRespTNC�� ?�??��VioRespPrivate��?�VioRespOther��?�??��VioYouSolution��?�??��Viofile��?�??��Viofile2��?�??��Viofile3��?�??��Viofile4��?�??��Viofile5��?�??��VioDev��?�??��VioDev2��?�??��VioDev3��?�??��VioDev4��?�??��VioDev5��?�??��VioApproved��?�VioActive�� ?�Brief_narrative��disorderly people. To put them in order,” Jeudy said, sitting in the pristine second floor hallway of the finished, palace-like city hall building. “[The American] was here to train them...We knew him from his work training the Haitian National Police.” Jeudy claimed the BRICOR training was done for free. “The brigade is here to keep the streets clean and prevent merchants from selling in the streets,” Antoine said. “There’s a lot of disorder out there. . .and when foreign tourists come, they say, ‘This is so ugly.’” He said his men had received training twice, the last time in November of 2009, with Delmas Police Commissioner Carl Henry, who commands the Haitian National Police in Delmas, in attendance. Henry and Jeudy are reported to have threatened quake victims on the grounds of St. Louis Gonzague, an elite private school in Delmas, with forced expulsion as early as last February, only one month after the quake. Haitian National Police accompanied Jeudy’s forces in this week’s camp demolitions. Jeudy said BRICOR is a 75-member unarmed force, without batons or guns, and is not authorized to make arrests. Yet they are seen training with batons in the Risks Incorporated videos and this reporter observed BRICOR personnel with handcuffs on their belts last year. The Miami Herald reported this week that security forces descended on a camp “wielding machetes and knives…tearing through the makeshift tents as unsuspecting campers fled for cover or yelled in protest.” [...] Evictions of displaced earthquake victims from private property have been ongoing since the earthquake. With more than 60 percent of camps on private land, more than 47,000 people have already been evicted and 165,977 more are facing possible eviction, according to the International Organization for Migration. In March of 2010 the Inter-Press Service published a story about a camp torn down overnight at the behest of a Catholic priest. [...] A joint study by City University of New York Professor Mark Schuller and the State University of Haiti found last year that 40 percent of camps did not have reliable access to water, and 30 percent did not have toilets of any kind. General food distributions ended last spring, and 53 members of Congress wrote to Secretary of State Clinton last month, calling on the government to “dedicate significant attention to the critical and urgent task of improving the appalling conditions in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps.” Rep. Darrel Issa, the chairman of the House [of Representatives] Oversight and Government Reform Committee told the head of USAID, “you would be fired” if the recovery efforts had achieved the same results in the United States in a hearing last week. “It’s not going to look nice for the media but they have to do this,” Wilson said. “I’m sure the police going through knocking down tents is not very politically correct but that’s what they have to do.” President Martelly, a right-wing former singer who took office on 14 May, plans to dismantle Port-au-Prince’s six largest tent camps in his first hundred days in office. On Thursday he distanced himself from Jeudy, saying he had “nothing to do with these operations,” stopping short of condemning them and repeating the Mayor’s assertion that armed criminals lived in the camps, Agence Haitïenne de Presse reported. “Of course there’s violence in these areas, but if there were criminals in the camp they’d have found machetes, guns, or weapons,” Dupain said. “They didn’t find anything. They didn’t find people with machetes. That’s not a reason to destroy the camp. This is a pretext they’re using to justify what they’re doing.” Jeudy has said that BRICOR, acting as a municipal police force, is authorized by Haiti’s constitution. Patrick Elie, who served as a security advisor to Haitian Presidents Aristide and Preval, says that is patently false. “It’s definitely illegal. The constitution specifically says that there are only two armed public forces in Haiti, which are the Haitian army and the Haitian police,” Elie said, noting that he personally believed that someday Haiti should have municipal police forces. Elie said the rise of private security companies in Haiti, domestic and foreign, began during the military regime following Jean Claude Duvalier’s ouster in 1987. “Those private security companies were introduced, almost without the knowledge of the Haitian people,” Elie said. “Who is to say if this mayor or the next one won’t start arming them and then have them start acting has his own Praetorian guard?” Elie said the private security sector was experiencing “mission creep,” with companies doing everything from guarding homes to transporting funds to guarding VIPs in armed escorts. Risks Inc. advertises that it can provide services like these in Haiti and other countries, and the company’s blog says it has an office in Port-au-Prince. Wilson said he provided security to an Al Jazeera English crew in the immediate aftermath of last year’s earthquake in Haiti. He identifies himself as veteran of the British ��?��`�VioId�� ?�VioAuthor�� ?�??��VioOrganisation��?�??��VioLocation��?�??��VioContactEmail��?�??��VioTitle��?�??��ongoing��?�VioEviction��?�VioDemolition�� ?�VioDispossession��?�VioPrivatization��?�VioHousingPublic��?�VioHousingPrivate��?�VioHousingCommunal��?�VioLandPublic�� ?�VioLandPrivate��?�VioCommunal��?�VioRespauthority��?�VioWater��?�VioEnergy�� ?�VioOthers�� ?�??��VioDate��]��VioToDate�� ]��VioRegionId�� ?�VioCountryId�� ?�VioCity��?�??��VioTotal��VioTotal_to��VioMen��VioWomen��VioChildren�� ?�VioDisabled��?�VioDisabled_text��?�??��VioElderly�� ?�VioElderly_text��?�??��VioIndigenous�� ?�VioIndigenous_text��?�??��VioMigrants��?�VioMigrants_text��?�??��VioRefugees��?�VioRefugees_text��?�??��VioIDPs��?�VioIDPs_text��?�??��VioPersonsOthers��?�??��EvictionLossesL��EvictionLossesH��DemolitionLossesLCheck��?�DemolitionLossesLNum��DemolitionLossesL��DemolitionLossesHCheck��?�DemolitionLossesHNum��DemolitionLossesH��DemolitionLossesInfrastructureCheck��#��?�DemolitionLossesInfrastructure�� DispossessionLossesLCheck��?�DispossessionLossesLNum��5��DispossessionLossesL�� DispossessionLossesHCheck��?�DispossessionLoArmy who served in Northern Ireland. On his blog, he offers instructions on weapons usage and points out what he calls “fuck ups” by security forces in news articles. In one post, he links to an article on drug violence in Jamaica and writes “They know they can kill the cops but if the cops hurt them it’s a human rights violation. I think the Western world has gone too soft. The powers that be do [not] seem to comprehend that violence is all that some understand!” “It amazes me that the U.S. and Western Europe have got to stage where they no longer have the balls to confront and deal with those that want to kill and eliminate their cultures,” Wilson wrote in an entry last year. Original blog: http://www.haitian-truth.org/torture-firm-risks-incorporated-tied-to-destructive-evictions-in-haiti-us-security-firm-caught-training-mexican-police-in-torture-techniques-is-working-in-the-caribbean-added-commentary-by-haitian-tr/ Haiti: Destruction of IDP Camps in Delmas PI/ HaitiLibre 25 May 2011 On Monday, 23 May 2011, while people were still asleep, Delmas municipal authorities together with the Police Nationale d`Haiti (PNH), have conducted an strong operation of destruction and expulsion of a camp located in a public place, at the corner of the intersection of Delmas Road and International Airport. The tents housing the displaced, who occupied this place since January 2010 have been destroyed and the goods and merchandise moved, destroyed or seized. Several gunshots were heard in the area and arrests were reported. To justify this operation Wilson Jeudy, the Mayor of Delmas explained ...We can not give people a public square as a gift, to set up tents favorable to gang activity [...] this evacuation takes place in two stages: the first step is to eliminate all the empty tents, suspected to serve as hideouts for gangs, the second step will be to will be to begin discussions, from today with people living in other tents, to see how the town hall can displace them... Asecond step, which does not appear to be shared by the displaced, who argue on the contrary that their tents were torn and their personal effects taken during the operation. Following this intervention, Camille Chalmers, Executive Director of Advocacy Platform for Alternative Development (PAPDA), argues that the problem of rehousing of the victims should not be resolved in the repression. Mr. Chalmers indicates that the town hall had first, look for another place to rehouse the victims who did not chosen this situation It is unacceptable that the Haitian government uses repressive force without thinking to prepare adequate space to relocate victims of the earthquake. He encourages the authorities of the country to protect IDPs and to prepare a suitable location to accommodate them For his part, Me Patrice Florvilus, the lawyer of displaced, has strongly condemned this act of expulsion, which he describes as a violations of fundamental rights of the person [...] IDPs have the right to shelter in a temporary space after a natural disaster and must be protected by the state. Outraged, the lawyer has announced, that he had sent a request to the Deputy Judge of the Court of Peace of Delmas, Mr. Durand Jean Rigot, allowing him to file a complaint against the authors of this act a complaint will be filed against the Mayor of Delmas Wilson Jeudi, the municipal agents, who took part in the operation so that they can answer of their acts. Several leaders of social and popular organizations whose POHDH, PAPDA and ACPRODDH have also denounced, Tuesday the strong intervention of the mayor of Delmas. These organizations have expressed their will to force the government to develop a comprehensive housing policy to provide shelter respecting the human dignity of the citizens. They have urged the parliamentarians to be prepared to vote a law on housing, that will allow any Haitian to have access to decent shelter, as recommended in Article 22 of the constitution of 1987 and the international convention of human socioeconomic and cultural. According to rumors circulating in the city, the Mayor of Delmas would consider in the coming days, a huge operation of expulsion, on all public places of the municipality occupied by the displaced, while the country is on the eve of hurricane season and that the population is already suffering the ravages of the heavy rains. Original article: http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3026-haiti-social-strong-operation-of-destruction-of-an-idp-camps-in-delmas.html Other related links : http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3130-haiti-social-the-expelled-of-camps-of-delmas-demanding-justice.html http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3032-haiti-social-some-members-of-congress-outraged-by-the-violent-evictions-of-displaced.html http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3037-haiti-social-martelly-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-destructions-of-camps-in-delmas.html Homeless Haitian Earthquake Victims Violently Evicted from Tent Camps in Midst of Rainy Season 24 May 2011 melindayiti| Just One Week into His Mandat��?��`�VioId�� ?�VioAuthor�� ?�??��VioOrganisation��?�??��VioLocation��?�??��VioContactEmail��?�??��VioTitle��?�??��ongoing��?�VioEviction��?�VioDemolition�� ?�VioDispossession��?�VioPrivatization��?�VioHousingPublic��?�VioHousingPrivate��?�VioHousingCommunal��?�VioLandPublic�� ?�VioLandPrivate��?�VioCommunal��?�VioRespauthority��?�VioWater��?�VioEnergy�� ?�VioOthers�� ?�??��Vie, Is This the Change New President Michel Martelly Promised? Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Washington, DC: Let Haiti Live and TransAfrica Forum are gravely concerned about the well-being of homeless earthquake survivors in the Delmas neighborhood of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Yesterday the Haitian National Police and agents from the Mayor’s office in Delmas arrived without warning and violently destroyed the makeshift shelters of internally displaced people (IDPs). At the intersection of the airport road and the main Delmas road, it looks as though a hurricane tore through the tarps at the park. Several hundred people living in the park were evicted without warning and without a relocation plan. Piles of tarps donated by the American Red Cross and USAID are strewn amongst the few possessions these families had. These forced evictions are taking place in the midst of the rainy season. Homeless families are now without even the most rudimentary shelter and have nowhere else to go. The Mayor of Delmas, Wilson Jeudy, announced he would continue to evict IDPs in the Delmas area. People were injured as the police swung batons. Later as people protested in front of their devastated camp, the police fired shots to disburse the crowd and continued to beat those who came within arm’s reach. Life is becoming more untenable for victims of Haiti’s earthquake. After 17 months living under torn tarps and tents, families are now being forcibly evicted from the public and private property where they have been living for more than a year. President Michel Martelly has a pilot program to relocate six camps, at least three during his first 100 days in office. If yesterday is any indicator, these evictions will be done without due process, without community consultation, without any known plan for relocation and with violence. President Martelly promised to resolve the problem of IDPs on both public and private land, but after running his campaign for change many did not believe he would continue with illegal forced evictions. Neither President Martelly nor his representatives were at the scene of the violent destruction in Delmas today. Also missing from the scene were representatives of the United Nations’ Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster. And despite being responsible for management of the camps, the CCCM’s leadership from the Organization for International Migration (OIM) canceled this week’s cluster meeting. OCHA recently reported that at least 50% of IDP camps were under threat of forced eviction, yet evictions and relocation did not even appear as main issues for the CCCM this week. Contact: Nicole C. Lee, Esq., President, TransAfrica Forum (US – English): 202-270-0774 Etant Dupain, Director, Bri Kouri Nouvel Gaye (Haiti – Creole, Spanish, French): +1 (509) 3768–0221 Melinda Miles, Director, Let Haiti Live (US – English, Creole): +1 (413) 923–8345

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