Haitians with out meals, medication as gang violence delays assist

Tens of thousands of people have fled Haiti asgangs have effectively toppled the government, from a organizations already on the ground, it is getting harder and harderto help the Haitian left behind. Including for Boston-based partners in health andhealth equity international, based in Newton. Philip Martin joins me now.Thank you for joining us today. Help us understand what is happening,what caused the situation that allowed the government to fall?Philip: We have to go back many years but before that I will talk aboutthe immediate and contemporary moment. What we are seeing, some might call ita logical conclusion of instability..

You have gangs that have emerged from Haiti'schaos of starting in 2010 from the earthquake. Avon proceeding that, let us say in 2010earthquake killed almost 200,000 people. It ushered in an extraordinary level ofinstability in the country, a country that was already facing massive underdevelopment and underexperience in the health sector in food sector. In terms of water and interms of basic resources. This has been greatlyexacerbated by the earthquake. You had successive governments thatcame in following the earthquake. You also had a group of challengingpeople challenging the police, gangs even led by a former policeman who hasbeen waging war against police and the military.

Will be so after the assassination — military.This is after the as a summation of the previous president, we saw a challenge to the situation,the gangs basically decided that they wanted a seat at the table and they oppose the notion ofan appointed president or the opponent president who they saw as representing the bourgeoisie.Not surprising, it is a French background. These gangs have essentially attacked theairport, they attacked the police department, they had talked all symbols of government,of control in Haiti and in effect are the de facto rulers in Haiti at this point.>> One of the gangs trying to gang — what are the gangs trying to gain here?>> They are criminal organizations, their opportunistic and I think that opportunismalso means that they want a seat at the table..

They want to be a part of the coalitiongovernment that is being formed at this point. Obviously, there is the intent tocreate a long-term government. The United States, Canada, and France areworking on solutions to the long-term problem. In the immediate sense of the provisionalgovernment consisting of various individuals. That is what is being discussedand possibly determined right now. These gangs are profited from kidnapping,kidnapping is rampant right now. Sexual violence is rampantright now throughout Haiti. Particularly Port-au-Prince, we have areas thatare stable, even those areas are contested right now and they are not controlled by the gangs.They are contested by the gangs, we are talking.

About parts of the South of Haiti, a town forexample and other large population centers. Port-au-Prince is theepicenter of this instability. >> Are there any government institutionsleft to push back against the gangs or is the Haitian government nonfunctional?Philip: You have a semblance of a police department that is operating on the streetsbut they are basically targets at this point. They do not control much.They are protecting some upper class neighborhoods.Human those upper class neighborhoods, many have fallen victim to the gangs.They were largely protected by police and the military.That seemed to be their function for many.

Years and decades to protect those in power.I think people are shocked at the level of instability, some folks who have worked in Haitifor years and other troubled areas say they have never seen anything quite like this.They have juxtaposed it to situations in Afghanistan and even find that even therethere is a greater level of instability in kabul compared to Port-au-Prince.>> Where is Haiti in all of this? The military?Philip: The military, he could almost say they are waiting for orders, theydo not have, there is no functioning government. The last place the PrimeMinister was Puerto Rico. >> He is?Philip: He was the provisional Prime Minister..

As a provisional because he waslargely appointed by committee. That committee was initially appointedby the assassinated President. He then transitioned to the Prime Minister.As a military essentially is waiting to see what happens next and it is waiting for orders fromtheir commander-in-chief, they do not have one. You could say that those who are in controlright now, nominally, external through Haiti, the United States, France, and Canada.They are trying to work out some type of deal that would restore stability in Haiti andalso of course, satisfy the Haitian people. The only thing that would satisfy theHaitian people of course instability. Right now, there is a food crisisand there is a famine that is a.

Great possibility in Haiti right now.>> What might that deal look like? Philip: I think that deal, it is somethingthat is going to have to be worked out, interestingly, they may have to involvethe gangs to some degree, because, again, of the control and exercised by these groups,they gangs themselves, this came together as an alliance, this is unprecedented, these gangshave been fighting each other for years. They came together around an agreementto try to force out the provisional president, the prime minister, rather.And to impose themselves in some form or another in the country.>> A political scientist would say another form of gangs is government?Is there an issue that is stopping us from.

Talking with the gangs and using them asa part of a creating a new government? What is the obstacle here?Philip: These are violent criminal groups that have killed,it is still not determine how many people but a large number of them,33,000 people have fled the country, mainly towards the Dominican Republic, someare on rickety boats heading to Miami. You have these groups that have beeninvolved in killing people and kidnapping. The notion of negotiating with themseems anathema to maybe for negotiators. Like a lot of negotiations that happenlike negotiating with the Taliban. Again, the Taliban was a political group,the gangs consider themselves a political.

Group at this point.>> In that scenario, what about the Dominican Republic?As shares an island with Haiti? Philip: It has always had a tenuous and a tenserelationship with Haiti, they have thousands of soldiers on the border, between Haiti andthe Dominican Republic, they do not like to see it and they do not want to see Haitians cominginto the country, they have expatriate it many who were in the urban Dominican Republic back toHaiti and they are simply — they do represent a source of transporting food and resources.There is the attempt by partners in health and health equity international of helping to createan air bridge from the Dominican Republic to Haiti to bring in necessary food.Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Is a staging area, it is a source ofstability on this contested island. It is a place where some Haitiansare and again, an ongoing source of tension between the two countries.Philip: How about these Boston-based nonprofits? How are they involved?>> They are working hard to do what they have always done.Care for the people of Haiti. Medicine, obviously, they aredealing with an emergency situation. They are seeing hundreds morepeople in emergency rooms. Burns, famine, hunger, all types of problemsthat are associated with a crisis of this sort. Also trying to keep the lights on and keepthe generators running so they need fuel,.

They are trying to get their staff intothese places to care for these people. Many of these staff membersare stuck in the hospital. The partners in health staff, they havenot been able to leave the hospital for fear of being kidnapped on theroad or at home and at the same thing is true for health equity international.Again, working hard to keep their hospital open and again, in service of the Haitian people.>> Do they have any protection from the gangs? Are they on their own?Philip: It is not clear what their security situation is, I think it is fair to assume thatthey have security around the hospital to protect this and for, partners in health has 17 facilitiesthroughout Haiti including a main hospital..

The hospital that is run by the health equityinternational, that is a main facility in the south and we have to assume that they have somesecurity protecting the structures and the people who operate these structures, the staff.>> This current crisis was triggered by the assassination of the former president?Philip: Yes, but instability in Haiti is so important, this current crisis was indeedprecipitated by the assassination of a president. When you talk about Haiti, we need togo back so many years, back to 1914, when the United States essentially went intoHaiti, Rob's, that is the only word you can use, took money from the treasury and all of the goldthat Haiti had and took it from the treasury, since then, Haiti has owed money to the unitedstates and to the United States corporations and.

Has for a long time been a piggy bank.Same with France, due to a deal, France and Haiti, after the overthrow of France.Since that time, Haiti has been paying indemnities to someone corporations to France.This contributes to the instability. I do not think we could talk aboutHaiti without the historic conditions that have led to its instability.>> Given the remarkable scale of the reparations for Haitian independence, alarge multiple of the total Haitian GDP? Philip: Precisely.>> Is their motivation on the French government to say that the lease weshould try to do is stabilize the situation? Philip: There has been partners of Haiti withinthe French government who have essentially said.

That this debt is paid many times over and that weshould extricate ourselves from this situation. Not from Haiti itself, but from thesituation that requires Haiti to pay. Indemnities to the French government.>> On that note, thank you so much for joining us today.Philip: Thank you.

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