U.N. establishes a replacement for departing Haiti peacekeepers
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
The Miami Herald
JUNE 25, 2019 12:54 PM
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday approved the establishment of a new political mission for Haiti to replace its departing blue-helmet peacekeepers this October after 15 years in the country.
With the United States calling it “a historic moment,” Security Council members voted 13-0 — with China and the Dominican Republic both abstaining — to request that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres establish the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, or BINUH, to succeed its U.N. Mission for Justice Support in Haiti.
The mandate of the latter will end on Oct. 15, and the new smaller special political mission will go into effect on Oct. 16. It will have an initial mandate of 12 months and, like its predecessors, be headed by a special representative of the secretary-general.
No one voted against the resolution, and the New York meeting lacked the vigorous debate of past Security Council discussions on the situation in Haiti. However, the representatives of Peru, Germany, France and the Dominican Republic all highlighted their disappointment on the lack of mention of climate change in the resolution, and its ramifications on Haiti’s security and stability.
“Haiti is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the adverse effects of climate change,” said Germany’s Permanent Representative Christoph Heusgen, who noted that this is the first time since 2011 that the Security Council failed to include a mention of climate change. “[The] effects of climate change in the case of Haiti constitute a threat multiplier, threatening to destabilize the country further to create new conflicts over increasingly diminished resources and to derail efforts in pace-building and stabilization.”
Patrick Saint-Hilaire, Haiti’s newly appointed chargé d’affaires to the U.N., said the new mission was “a step in the right direction,” and something President Jovenel Moïse has been working toward since January.
While he acknowledged Haiti is undergoing what he described as “major difficulties,” Saint-Hilaire said the situation “is no real threat to peace and international security.” Still, given Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change, on top of its ongoing humanitarian challenges and inability to revise agricultural production, he conceded: “We even fear hunger riots.”
This is the Security Council’s second transition in Haiti since peacekeepers returned in 2004 amid a bloody coup. After 13 years, a mixed legacy of stability and controversy, it ended its large multinational military presence in the country in 2017. It was succeeded by the current mission focused on justice, human rights and police development.
As that goes away, Haiti is once again in the throes of a deepening political crisis with violent protests demanding the resignation of Moïse amid corruption allegations.
At the same time, Haitians are seeing skyrocketing inflation, a rapid deterioration of their domestic currency, the gourde, and a recurrence of the kind of deadly gang violence that U.N. peacekeepers spent their first few years battling. A recently released U.N. investigation into a November massacre in the poor Haiti slum of La Saline in Port-au-Prince pointed the finger at the Haitian government and criticized the U.N.-trained police force for not doing enough to stop the slaughter.
MIGRATION
"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty."
The captain of the Sea-Watch 3 charity rescue vessel threatened Tuesday to enter Italian waters illegally to bring 42 migrants to shore after they spent 13 days in limbo at sea.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has banned the Dutch-flagged vessel from approaching under a "closed ports" policy, which has seen migrants repeatedly stranded at sea.
"I will enter Italian waters and bring them to safety on Lampedusa," Carola Rackete said in an interview with La Repubblica daily, in reference to Italy's southernmost island.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg on Tuesday declined to intervene but called on Italy to "continue to provide all necessary assistance" to vulnerable migrants.
The German NGO Sea-Watch had asked the ECHR to impose "interim measures" on Italy, saying the court could ask Rome to take urgent steps to resolve the standoff in order to "prevent serious and irremediable violations of human rights".
Salvini said Tuesday the charity vessel could "stay there until Christmas and New Year" but would never be allowed in.
Of the 53 migrants initially rescued by the Sea-Watch 3 off Libya on June 12, Italy took in 11 vulnerable people.
"That's enough! Whatever Strasbourg tells us, with great serenity we will maintain our position," Salvini said.
"Imagine if a country like Italy -- the second-largest industrial power in Europe -- let an NGO dictate immigration rules," he said.
On Lampedusa, where Salvini's far-right League won 45 percent in May's European elections, a priest has camped in the street to demand those on board -- including three minors -- be allowed to disembark.
Dozens of German cities have said they are ready to welcome them, and the Bishop of Turin, Cesare Noviglia, said Monday his diocese would be willing to take them in.
"We can't hold on any longer. It's like we're in a prison because we are deprived of everything. Help us, think of us," one migrant from the Ivory Coast said in a video broadcast by Sea-Watch.
In January, 32 migrants rescued by the vessel were stranded on board for 18 days before they were allowed to disembark in Malta thanks to a distribution deal made between several European countries.
Those on-board Sea-Watch 3 risk prosecution for aiding illegal immigration, as well as the seizure of the boat and a fine of 50,000 euros, according to a new decree of the Italian Minister of the Interior.
Doctors Without Borders humanitarian affairs adviser Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui told the Star: “Every stand-off at sea further exposes how broken the European asylum system is, as politicians prioritize political point-scoring rather than the wellbeing of vulnerable people.
“Men, women and children continue to flee Libya, where many suffer in detention centers in inhumane conditions amidst an active conflict. There must be sustainable, reliable and predictable disembarkation systems for survivors where they will be treated humanely and will be able to seek asylum.
“As European governments criminalize search and rescue efforts, we see that they are losing their humanity.
“Fining humanitarian actors for rescuing people at sea is like fining ambulances for bringing patients to hospital.
“Saving lives is not a crime, it’s a duty. Life must prevail over political grandstanding.”
We urge the European Institutions, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights to take action and protect Carola against any charges. Saving life cannot be criminalized.
Beach hotels on the Côte des Arcadins are about to close their doors!
HaitiReyèl 3
Because of the insecurity that has arisen in recent days due to political turbulence, most of the beaches in this tourist area have closed.
Royal Decameron is in a difficult situation, dropping from 420 to 20 employees… The dismissal of staff has become the catchword to severely avoid any possible bankruptcy.
Moulin Sur Mer, known for its attractions that bring
explorers, is on the verge of closing because in recent weeks it has not had a single customer.
Those who work in the tourism sector are mourning with tears, as each political commotion causes the involuntary withdrawal of tourists, and the ongoing removal of Haiti on the world tourism map. Each political unrest reaffirms that the country is not prepared to peacefully receive visitors, not ready for investors jockeying for its development, and not prepared for tourists who want to explore our territory, and immerse in its tropical atmosphere.
As a result, it is Haiti that loses. It is our local entrepreneurs who close the doors of their businesses. It is the employees who are going home without hope as the unemployment rate continues to rise.
Kenley Jean-Baptiste
Asylum-seeker from Haiti finds an army of supporters in Cleveland
Ansly Damus spent over two years in jail despite having committed no crime. Ted Koppel reports on how he came to live in Melody Hart and Gary Benjamin's upstairs bedroom in Cleveland Heights, Ohio
It's a proud Independence Day tradition, naturalization ceremonies for new U.S. citizens across the land, including one at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Yet even as others take the oath of citizenship this Thursday, a refugee from the Caribbean is continuing his fight for the right to stay.
This is the story of how Ansly Damus, a 42-year-old asylum seeker from Haiti, came to be living in Melody Hart and Gary Benjamin's upstairs bedroom in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Melody and Gary told Ted Koppel of "CBS Sunday Morning" no discussion was needed before taking Ansly in.
"We knew that could be his room without talking to each other," Gary said.
Gary, Melody and a bunch of neighbors who began calling themselves "Ansly's Army" were outraged that an asylum seeker who had committed no crime, was spending endless months in jail. He clearly needed help and they were ready to provide it.
But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. Back in Haiti, where he was a teacher, Ansly spoke Creole and French. He taught mathematics and physics and ethics and pedagogy.
You know, "pedagogy," the theory and practice of education. Ansly Damus is an educated man.
His troubles began back in Haiti in 2014, when one of his former teachers went into politics. Ansly began peppering his lectures with references to that teacher's corruption.
In retaliation, he says in a court statement, the politician sent thugs to beat him and threaten his life. Ansly's father called him and told him to get out.
"'Leave your house. Leave your house,'" Ansly recalled him saying.
Ansly was afraid, he says, that if he stayed, his wife and two children would be in danger. So he left Haiti, ending up in Brazil. After 18 months, he says, he found Brazil too violent and claims he encountered too much discrimination.
So he decided to come to the United States.
Baja, California, is where Ansly sought asylum, where he was processed by the border patrol and ultimately shipped to a jail outside Cleveland to await his day in court. That turned into a very long stay.
"Two years, 27 days," Ansly said.
Understand, a jail is not the same as a prison. Jails are meant for short stays. This jail doesn't have exercise facilities, inside or outside. And you can't see through the windows.
After his first six months in jail, Ansly got word that an immigration judge, had ruled in his favor, but twice, Ansly was granted asylum by immigration courts and twice the government successfully appealed. All the while, Ansly stayed in jail.
According to Cecillia Wang, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the long-term detention of asylum seekers is pretty commonplace these days.
"The vast majority of people who are now in immigration custody, 50,000 human beings on any given day, have no criminal record," Wang said. "They are fighting their deportation cases, and the majority of them don't pose a flight risk or a danger; and we are spending our tax money to lock people up in these abominable conditions."
The Trump administration makes no bones about trying to discourage asylum seekers; and Ansly Damus was certainly getting discouraged.
For more than a year, Ansly's only visitor had been his pro-bono lawyer. Until one day, out of the blue, Melody Hart and Gary Benjamin showed up.
"He'd been in jail about 14 months when we decided we would apply for-- to be sponsors," Melody said.
Melody, a financial consultant, and her husband, Gary, an attorney, learned about Ansly through a friend.
They went to visit him; but even that was an arm's length proposition.
"You sit there and you pick up the phone and you look at him in a monitor, and he sees you in a monitor," Melody said.
Now, here's the problem, noise level, hard to hear, you don't speak French, he doesn't speak English at that point.
"I don't understand Melody," Ansly said. "She talk and I… yeah."
But he understood he had a sponsor.
"After Melody and Gary come, I-- my life change," Ansly said.
It was the difference between a life of isolation and having a support network.
"What we could do is put money in his commissary account," Melody said.
"He wanted to be able to go to the commissary because he couldn't get soap or toothpaste or a toothbrush," Gary said. "They didn't hand those out, you had to buy them."
To give him a connection to the outside world, Melody and Gary started sending Ansly photos of their house to show him where he'd be living when he came out.
"'Here's your room, here's the yard and here's the dog,'" Melody said. "But then we'd take pictures of the seasons because he hadn't seen it. So we took pictures of the leaves turning we sent him snow pictures."
Loneliness, though, remained a constant problem.
"He wanted more companionship," Gary said. "So we started talking to people about sending him letters and sending him cards. And when we couldn't go on some Sundays, other people would fill in."
Which is how Ansly's Army got its start. It's forces rallied outside the ICE office in Cleveland, urging his release from jail; and they began holding regular meetings. At this point, Gary and Melody still hadn't been officially approved as sponsors. Ansly's release from jail was rejected on the grounds that he was a flight risk and lacked community support.
"So we did our second application," Gary said. "We tried to make it bulletproof. We got our bishop endorsing us, three doctors, a local judge, a priest, a rabbi. It was a pretty good showing of support in the community."
And it was rejected again.
"Flight risk and-- and not enough contact in the community," Gary said.
That's when the ACLU filed a petition stating that Ansly's detention was unlawful. The government was keeping him locked up indefinitely and denying his release without providing any evidence.
"We went to court and we chartered a bus and got Ansly's Army on the bus," Melody said.
Melody said 35 people showed up for Ansly.
"We filled the courtroom," Melody said. "They had to pull in more chairs."
Which clearly had the intended impact on the judge.
"And she said, 'Well, you know, it says here that he has no community ties. Who are all these people?'" Melody said. "And she says, 'So I'm just gonna cross that off if that's not a valid reason.'"
And, last November before the judge had a chance to rule, the government finally agreed to release Ansly from jail, on the condition that he wear an ankle bracelet, and live with his sponsors, Melody and Gary, while his asylum case is being appealed.
Ansly's Army is still active. Last winter, they held a fundraiser raising $10,000.
He is studying English diligently, in class and also with volunteer tutors from his army.
He now gets himself to one part-time job doing maintenance at a church. He also works part-time as an electrician restoring houses.
As for the troops in Ansly's Army, they're involved in more of a crusade than a military operation
"A reason why I got involved is because I felt that the way Ansly was treated was so un-American," one member said. "I wanted to stand up for principles that I think are important for this country."
"I think we're all people of faith, deep faith," another said. "In our values and how we treat other human beings."
Which brings us back to Gary and Melody and that upstairs bedroom, now occupied by Ansly Damus. All in all, it could be two years before his asylum case is finally resolved.
In the meantime, Ansly video-chats with his wife and kids every day. And, yes, he is thinking about how and when he can bring them to Cleveland.
"I told my wife all the time - Cleveland is very cool," Ansly said. "I don't have life before. People in Cleveland give me my life."