Black Caucus Members: We Will Not Ignore Poor Treatment of Haiti’s Displaced

Four members of the Congressional Black Caucus have condemned actions by police in Haiti against earthquake victims now living in camps in Port-au-Prince.

U.S. Representatives Donald M. Payne, D-New Jersey, Yvette D. Clarke, D-New York, Frederica Wilson, D-Florida, and Maxine Waters, D-California, said they “were alarmed at the startling news that three camps of internally displaced persons in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince were effectively destroyed.”

One of the parks, the representatives said, “was destroyed at the hands of the Haitian police, under direction of Mayor Wilson Jeudy.” Police destroyed belongings, the statement said, and some people who did not flee “were violently beaten with batons by police.”

That camp housed several hundred individuals, the May 26 statement said, part of the 800,000 displaced people in Haiti, according to official estimates.

Haiti has a number of camps that house families who have had no place to live since January 12, 2010, when a massive earthquake destroyed their homes and much of the city of Port-au-Prince.

Damage was extensive through wide areas of the Caribbean nation. Despite assistance from other countries and from aid organizations, Haiti has struggled to recover, and the camps of earthquake homeless, known in Haiti as “internally displaced persons,” remain part of Port-au-Prince and other communities.

Jeudy, the mayor of Delmas, has said he wants the camps removed from public land. According to the online magazine World Upside Down, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean, Jeudy told the newspaper Le Nouvelliste, “This is a public place…. It can’t remain privatized by a group of people.”

In the interview, World Upside Down reports, Jeudy claimed that many in the camps did not actually live there. They had homes, he said, but came to the camps during the day to steal or practice prostitution. “They just come to do their commercial activities and go back to their homes in the evening,” he told the newspaper.

Jeudy also said the residents of the camps should not be compensated or provided aid if forced to leave. “We were all victims of the earthquake,” he said.

The four members of the Congressional Black Caucus expressed not only dismay over the actions of Jeudy but also frustration with the administration of President Michel Martelly, who was elected March 20 and took office May 14.

“During President Martelly’s visit to the United States, we were all encouraged by his assertion that Haiti will face a new day — a new beginning,” they said in their statement. “We extended, and continue to extend, our arms to assist and support the people of Haiti and its government as it transitions upward.  We will not, however, idly stand by and hear such reports of evictions, without seeking an explanation or taking action.”

Bill Edmonds is Managing Editor to Politic365.com and a consultant in communications in Tallahassee, Florida. A native of Virginia, he has worked in the Florida capital for three decades in journalism, in public affairs and in communications. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University and a master’s in American Studies from Florida State University.

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One Response to Black Caucus Members: We Will Not Ignore Poor Treatment of Haiti’s Displaced

1. Ya Za says:

   2:20pm June 16, 2011 at 2:20 pm

   OMG.. Check out the album entitled "We WIll Not Ignore".. dedicated and benifiting the victims of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake..
   http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-in-the-key…

   Reply