Protests Shake Hinche, Shut Down Cap-Haïtien
Large, militant protests against the presence of United Nations (UN) troops in Haiti broke out on Nov. 15 in Hinche in the Central Plateau and Cap-Haïtien on the northern coast. The protesters demanded the withdrawal of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a Brazilian-led multinational force with more than 13,000 soldiers, police agents and staffers that has occupied Haiti since June 2004. Many Haitians blame MINUSTAH for an outbreak of cholera in October that by Nov. 18 had already caused more than 1,100 deaths.

Thousands of people participated in the protests in Cap-Haïtien, the country’s second-largest city. Some threw rocks at MINUSTAH troops and blocked streets with barricades of flaming tires. Protesters reportedly set fire to the police stations at Barrière Bouteille and Pont Neuf in retaliation for actions by Haitian riot police, who allegedly fired on demonstrators. People also looted a World Food Program (WFP) warehouse in the city’s southeastern section.

MINUSTAH claimed that six of its soldiers were injured and that armed protesters fired on troops in Quartier Morin, on the outskirts of the city. “One of these demonstrators lost his life when he was hit by a bullet coming from a blue helmet [a UN soldier], who responded in legitimate self-defense,” according to a Nov. 15 UN press release. Later in the day the body of a young man was found at 24th Street; according to witnesses, an armored car belonging to a Chilean MINUSTAH contingent had been in the area and two blasts had been heard. In addition to the two deaths, some 19 people were injured in Cap-Haïtien on Nov. 15, according to local media, about 15 of them with bullets.

“We’d rather die from bullets than be decimated by the cholera epidemic,” some of the Cap-Haïtien protesters shouted while throwing rocks at the base of a Nepalese MINUSTAH contingent.

In Hinche a large number of protesters reportedly threw stones at MINUSTAH troops on Nov. 15, injuring six Nepalese soldiers; two demonstrators were arrested. Hinche, the capital of Center department, was the site of a protest by some 10,000 peasants in June rejecting an offer of hybrid seeds by the Monsanto Company, a US-based biotechnology multinational, supposedly to aid the country after a devastating earthquake on Jan. 12 [see Update #1036]. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 11/15/10, __, 11/16/10; MINUSTAH press release 11/15/10 via AlterPresse; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 11/15/10; Radio Métropole (Haiti) 11/16/10)

Cap-Haïtien remained largely paralyzed by the protests through Nov. 17. There was extensive use of tear gas by security forces, and 17 arrests were reported. One more protester was killed on Nov. 17, and several others were wounded at the city’s southern entrance; according to witnesses, MINUSTAH troops opened fire when their vehicle was immobilized. (AlterPresse 11/17/10; Radio Métropole 11/17/10)

from Weekly News Update on the Americas