|
Brief narrative |
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
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....
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 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.’” [...] 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.”
Journalist and organizer Etant Dupain raised the alarm about the evictions on 23 May, after posting photos online of hundreds of tents scattered and smashed into the ground that day at Carrefour Aeroport, a prominent intersection. Two days later, another camp was destroyed. Dupain’s photos show the Haitian National Police and bulldozers on the scene, as well as an image of Jeudy with a man in a BRICOR uniform at his side.
Another image shows a BRICOR-clad man ripping apart a tarp shelter with a knife. Dupain believes about 350 families have been displaced. “I saw one family today,” he said by phone. “I know their names, they have three children. They’re in the street, still at Carrefour Aeroport. And it has rained since the camps were torn down.” [...]
Aid and human rights groups were taken aback by the sheer brazenness of this week’s evictions, which were both violent and directed by officials at highly visible camps. Nigel Fisher, the UN’s top humanitarian official in Haiti, wrote to Haiti’s new President Michel Martelly and his pick for Prime Minister, Daniel Rouzier, on Wednesday asking them to “immediately stop the deportation of those displaced,” unless alternatives for resettlement are found.
Amnesty International and several members of Congress also weighed in this week, urging a stop to the evictions. Jeudy was quoted in the Haitian press saying his obligation is to clear public spaces, not relocate or compensate quake victims. Wilson said that he has worked closely with Jeudy, although he did not give specifics. The evictions were designed to root out criminals involved in a recent fatal shooting near the airport, Wilson said, and “legitimate” internally displaced camp residents had been relocated. “A lot of the people with homes are getting food, free benefits, when in reality they have homes to go to. The thing is with the camps, they want to clear them all out, so they know what’s going on,” he said. “A good majority of the people that were in there were trying to scam the system.” [...]
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/ |
