Comment les USA “contrôlent” Haïti

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Comment les USA “contrôlent” Haïti

Je trouve en général que le site WSWS.org couvre d’une façon très satisfaisante, exhaustive, avec des références utiles, des citations bienvenues, la crise haïtienne. Bien entendu, WSWS.org se concentre sur la présence US, qu’il critique violemment, mais le plus souvent d’une façon factuelle.

Il y a l’article du 19 janvier (lien : http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j19.shtml), et aussi et surtout, celui du 21 janvier (lien : http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j21.shtml). On y voit bien comment les entraves des militaires US aux autres interventions que la leur se multiplient, combien les procédures de sécurisation, de contrôle, etc., ralentissent l’amélioration de la situation humanitaire et sanitaire.

»US forces who have taken over the Port-au-Prince airport are denying humanitarian flights permission to land. US helicopters also landed troops yesterday, who took over the ruins of Haiti’s Presidential Palace. Roughly 10,000 US troops will be in place in Haiti in the coming days.

»In response to protests by Doctors Without Borders that “hundreds of lives were lost” because one of its flights was denied landing rights at Port-au-Prince, US military spokesman Captain John Kirby said: “It’s a question of physics. The airport is the only way in, it has only one runway, and there are literally hundreds of flights trying to make it in.”

»Publicly, US officials are taking the absurd position that they do not know the contents of humanitarian aid flights and cannot decide whether they deserve priority to land. Citing discussions with US General Ken Keen, commanding operations in Haiti, the Washington Post wrote, “if an air traffic controller doesn’t know what’s on an incoming plane, then he doesn’t know what priority to give it.” Apparently, priority goes to US military flights. Keen said: “If the young airman [controlling air traffic] has three planes coming in and he knows what’s on one of them, he’s going to land that one.”

»Doctors Without Borders issued a statement yesterday protesting the US military’s continuing refusal to allow its planes to land at the Port-au-Prince airport. It quoted Loris De Filippi, the coordinator at Choscal hospital in the Cité Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince: “they are begging us there in front of the hospital. It’s a very unacceptable situation. What we are trying to do is to expand our capacity to answer these calls. But we need supplies to get to the airport—and we don’t know why the planes are being redirected.”

»Joint UN-US efforts to deliver food and water to the millions of homeless Haitians are grossly insufficient. Nancy Exilos, of the UN’s World Food Program, said: “We go to a site, where the first assessment is there are 100 people [in need of help]. We bring enough [supplies] for 100 people but when we arrive we find there are 2,000 people.” The UN was hoping to provide water and food for 200,000 people in Haiti yesterday.

»Reporters in Port-au-Prince said signs are sprouting everywhere across the city, asking for food and water. US Corporal Clifford Sajous, a Haitian-American who was serving as translator in the group of 125 Marines sent by helicopter to Léogâne, said: “we’re going to hand out some water and food and not everyone is going to get some.”

»The US build-up is proceeding, citing as justification fears of possible “looting” by Haitians desperate for food and water—with the New York Times writing that “the threat of mass looting seems to increase by the day.” However, there have been no reports of violence against aid personnel. In fact, General Keen commented, “The level of violence we see now is below pre-earthquake levels.”

»Teams of Cuban doctors have traveled to Haiti and are treating earthquake victims without armed guards.

»US forces nonetheless refuse to move shipments out of the airport without massive guards, further delaying rescue attempts. Gilberto Castro, emergency response director of transport company Deutsche Post DHL, told the Wall Street Journal: “Twenty containers go out, but you have to have about 100 heavily armed soldiers” to escort them.»

Jean-Michel Sider

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