Thursday, February 11, 2010
 (One day from "A Chronology of Haitian Protest and Resistance since the Earthquake")
A resource produced by Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade

Thousands joined "several spontaneous street demonstrations." Some gathered at UN headquarters, others at the airport.

Protesters clash
with police
following rain in Haiti

by Kevin Pina

 

Haiti Information Project
February 11, 2010

 

Port au Prince, Haiti  — About one inch of rain fell on the capital of Port au Prince early this morning sparking angry protests that tied up traffic near the airport for nearly four hours.

 

At 4:30 am as the rain began to fall a collective wail could be heard rising from the makeshift camps of those left homeless due to a massive earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12. Cries of helplessness and misery quickly turned into shouts of anger and invectives against Haitian president Rene Preval as thousands then took to the streets in several spontaneous street demonstrations.

 

Throughout one of the largest marches that headed towards the United Nations headquarters located near the airport protesters also sang, “If Aristide was here he would be soaked along with us.”

...

 

“We can’t take this anymore!,” shouted the protestors as the march snaked thru traffic towards the Touissaint Louverture Airport currently under the control of the US military. As the march approached UN headquarters where relief efforts are currently being organized a line of shield and club wielding Haitian riot police barred their progress. The police held the march back as a short scuffle broke out with angry protesters demanding tents, food, water and the return of former president Aristide to help in relief efforts. Two protesters received minor scrapes and injuries as the police pushed a few of them towards a deep canal lining the road where they fell in. There were no reports of injuries to the police as the march turned back and protesters began blocking the main road to the airport with large rocks and debris.

 

 

 

Sign reads:

"The rain has soaked us.

MINUSTAH [UN troops] must go.

We need help.

We need aid."

 

Watch Video
(6:13)

[Note: This video accompanies the above photographs and article "Protesters clash
with police
following rain in Haiti"
by Kevin Pina.
 

 

 

 

Protester Jude Jean Pierre is stopped by anti-riot police as he and other demonstrators try to reach the police post where government ministers have temporary offices in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Haitians are demanding shelter after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed thousands and left the city in ruins forcing people to live in the streets and refugee camps.

(AP Photo/

Andres Leighton)

 

Source

 

Protester Jude Jean Pierre wears a Haitian flag as anti-riot police block him and other demonstrators from reaching a police post where government ministers have temporary offices in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Haitians are demanding shelter after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed thousands and left the city in ruins forcing people to live in the streets and refugee camps.

(AP Photo/
Andres Leighton)

Source

 

"First Protest after the Earthquake in P-A-P"
Watch Video (9:32)
(Images of the huge protest begin at 4:36)

 

[Note: This video from a Haitian news program on TELEIMAGE TV is erroneously titled.
Clearly this was not the "first protest after the earthquake". 
 

The video shows thousands of chanting and singing protesters walking peacefully towards the airport.]

 

 

Quake Victims Protest at Haitian Airport
ntdworldnews,
February 12, 2010
 

Watch Video (1:14)


A heavy rainfall prompted close to two hundred Haitians to demonstrate at the country's international airport on Thursday. The drenched and frustrated quake victims insisted that they were not getting enough supplies and that aid groups should do more.


[Unidentified Quake Victim]:
"A whole month after the earthquake we are still in the streets. The rains are coming and we are demanding a place to live. I came here with the Haitian people to take some of the aid given to the country. I wish I could get something."

 

Many protesters blocked cars and trucks in front of the airport.
[Unidentified Quake Victim]:
"We went to ask the Haitian police to give us the aid they received. We demanded that the police and the government give us the aid because we have nothing. I don't understand why the government is not helping us. We are all victims of this disaster."


The demonstration escalated quickly, but no violence broke out. Haitian police and American forces dispersed the crowd before the situation got worse.

 

eeeerrrricaaaaa Now, February 12, 2010
 

Watch Video (12:23)
(Coverage starts at 5:32)

 

"Hundreds of people marched on the Port-au-Price airport to protest a lack of tents...."

 

[Note: This video news coverage includes footage of peaceful protesters using their bodies to stop  cars, trucks and an armoured MINUSTAH vehicle with UN troops pointing weapons at the peaceful crowd. These images are reminiscent of protesters in Tiananmen Square blocking tanks in 1989.]

 

Beyond tears in Haiti
NBC News, February 14, 2010
By Mike Taibbi
Source

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- We heard there were protests downtown that were angry enough they could soon become riots, so we gathered our gear and headed that way. It had rained overnight, brief drenching downpours, the first rain in the month since the quake, but the morning skies were clearing.

When we got to the airport road, blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeeping troops tried to turn us around and away from the protestors we could see and hear from a couple hundred yards away, until the troops understood we were press.

It was a group full of rage and frustration, some holding signs in English saying ‘We Need Food,” “We need water,” “We need toilets,” “We need HELP!” One man told me, through our translator, that the group all came from the tent encampment that had sprung up between the airport grounds and a wide sewage trough, a couple of thousand people squeezed in that fetid noisy space, and that it was the rains overnight that had pushed people over the edge.

“A baby was born last night and then died,” he said, “the mother with no cover from the rain.” He said most in the camp had lost loved ones to the earthquake, but that "living like this…with no help… it’s like we are dying mentally…”

Just then a tractor-trailor rig inched toward the crowd of protestors, who massed in front of it and forced the driver to stop. There was a big Red Cross logo tied to the front bumper and the driver, gesturing nervously, waved a manifest in front of the face of a man who’d climbed to the cab to confront him. Other protestors forced open the back flaps of the trailer, confirming there were no supplies inside worth taking. The truck was allowed to pass.

 

 

 

Beyond tears in Haiti
NBC News, February 14, 2010
By Mike Taibbi

 

Watch Video (2:10)
(Protest starts at 0:29)

 

An earthquake survivor holds a sign reading 'We Are Haitians' at a protest about the lack of tents and adequate food aid on February 11, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Source

Demonstrators shout "Down with Preval," referring to Haiti's President Rene Preval, as anti-riot police block their protest from reaching a police post where government ministers have temporary offices in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Haitians are demanding shelter after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed thousands and left the city in ruins forcing people to live in the streets and refugee camps.

Source

 

Earthquake survivors shout at Haitian policemen while blocking a road to protest the lack of tents and adequate food aid on February 11, 2010 inPort-au-Prince. An early morning rain storm drenched camps for earthquake refugees, many of whom are living under sheets proped up with sticks.

Source

A Haitian policemen argues with protesters who were blocking a road to protest the lack of tents and adequate food aid on February 11, 2010 in Port-au-Prince. An early morning rain storm drenched camps for earthquake refugees, many of whom are living under sheets proped up with sticks.

John Moore/Getty Images
Source

An earthquake survivor holds a sign reading 'We Are Haitians' at a protest about the lack of tents and adequate food aid on February 11, 2010 in Port-au-Prince.

Source

Earthquake survivors protest the lack of tents and adequate food aid on February 11, 2010 in Port-au-Prince.

Source

 

A Haitian riot policeman kicks a demonstrator demanding for food, shelter and other aid at a rally in Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
Source

A Haitian riot policeman points his weapon towards demonstrators demanding for food, shelter and other aid at a rally in Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
 Source

Haitian riot policemen remove rocks from the main road to the airport during a rally by earthquake survivors demanding for food, shelter and other aid in Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
Source

A woman yells at anti-riot police officers blocking demonstrators from reaching a police post where government ministers have temporary offices in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Haitians are demanding shelter after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed thousands...

AP Photo/Andres Leighton
 Source

An earthquake survivor holds a placard reading "We are Haitian people" during a rally to demand for food, shelter and other aid in Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
 Source

An earthquake survivor yells slogans against riot policemen during a rally to demand for food, shelter and other aid in Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
 Source

A riot police tries to break up a rally at the main road to the airport as people demand for food, shelter and other aid in Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
 Source

An earthquake survivor yells slogans as they block the main road to the airport during a rally to demand for food, shelter and other aid in Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
Source

 

 

Protesters walk in the rain toward the police post where government ministers have temporary offices in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Haitians are demanding shelter after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed thousands and left the city in ruins forcing people to live in the streets and refugee camps.

AP Photo/Andres Leighton

Source

Demonstrators are blocked by anti-riot police from reaching a police post where government ministers have temporary offices in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. Haitians are demanding shelter after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed thousands and left the city in ruins forcing people to live in the streets and refugee camps.

AP Photo/Andres Leighton

Source

 

Earthquake survivors block the main road to the airport during a rally to demand for food, shelter and other aid at Port-au-Prince February 11, 2010.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
 Visit Source

 

 

Rain pours new misery on quake-struck Haiti
By Jim Loney and Joseph Guyler Delva
Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Xavier Briand

Reuters, Feb 11, 2010
Source

 

Although skies cleared by dawn, the overnight downpour and a noisy, early morning protest by several hundred Haitians at the U.N. mission headquarters brought into sharp focus simmering anger over the dire need for shelter in the poorest country in the Americas.

...

...protests are a near-daily occurrence. Demonstrators blocked trucks passing the U.N. base in Port-au-Prince on Thursday.

The United States has 13,000 military personnel assigned to the massive international relief effort, some of them helping Haitian police and U.N. troops with keeping the peace.

 

Conditions in Haiti
By Andres Fortunato (YMCA of the Dominican Republic)
 Source

However, many are still not seeing the donations and are going hungry, and this could trigger mass protests, which could further increase the level of chaos in this unfortunate country.

On February 11, the first protest was staged by the victims in front of the improvised (make-shift) government palace, near the Port-au-Prince international airport. The protesters demanded the ousting of president Preval for his lack of support to the victims; this was likely the beginning of what everyone fears – mass protests becoming uncontrollable and creating even more problems and nightmares for the Haitian people.  

[Note: The article errs in saying the "first protest" in Haiti was on Feb 11.  Almost daily protests had been going on for almost a month before that.  It is interesting that the author says "everyone fears mass protests" and sees the Haitian people's response in such a negative way.]


 

Haïti: AU MILIEU DES RUINES, LA PLUIE ENFONCE LES SINISTRÉS DANS LA BOUE
AFP, Thur, 11 Feb 2010
Source

"Ce matin, j'étais mobilisé, je suis allé à la manifestation, à 6H00 du matin, on y a tous été pour demander qu'on nous aide a trouver une tente", explique-t-il.

"Nous n'avons jamais vu un dirigeant, ou un Haïtien, pour nous donner une tente", dit Démosthène

 

 

Thursday, February 11, 2010
 (One day from "A Chronology of Haitian Protest and Resistance since the Earthquake")
A resource produced by Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade