- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 410
Yes you can sign a waiver. Some guys that went to Afganistan signed a waiver to go to Bosnia. Regularily I think its 9 months at a minimum.
The Haiti Super Thread- Merged
- Thread starter Sh0rtbUs
- Start date
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 410
I don‘t recall the VCDS Canforgen for it off the top of my head...
But along this idea it states, upon return from operational area you shall have a 60 day period where you are not to be placed on any career courses or excersices which take you away from home. And you shal not be redeloyed to another operational theatre for 12 months. You may waiver that descision, but it is a voluntary thing you can not be forced into nor be held against for not going.
But along this idea it states, upon return from operational area you shall have a 60 day period where you are not to be placed on any career courses or excersices which take you away from home. And you shal not be redeloyed to another operational theatre for 12 months. You may waiver that descision, but it is a voluntary thing you can not be forced into nor be held against for not going.
- Reaction score
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- Points
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I don't remember anyone taking Scott Taylor seriously anyhow....he writes some good stuff.....however, he may be a little bitter methinks
Now that being said, there are a fair share of portly and out of shape service personnel in the NCR. However, I don't think the percentage of under-PT-ed soldiers in Ottawa would drastically differ from any other base in Canada. Every base, unit, formation and wing has it's share of these people too, it just may not be as apparent as those here at NDHQ.
Also, I don't know where Mr Taylor got his information regarding Haiti, but I don't think it's entirely truthful. I work in a position where we support and plan deployed ops. When Haiti came up, we had a great deal of fit people ready to deploy, and indeed, we fulfilled our compliment. NDHQ and the NCR provided a good percentage of support/staff positions. Obviously we could'nt provide an infantry coy, there are none based in Ottawa. I tend to take everything Mr Taylor says with a grain of salt.
Anyhow, that's just my opinion!
Now that being said, there are a fair share of portly and out of shape service personnel in the NCR. However, I don't think the percentage of under-PT-ed soldiers in Ottawa would drastically differ from any other base in Canada. Every base, unit, formation and wing has it's share of these people too, it just may not be as apparent as those here at NDHQ.
Also, I don't know where Mr Taylor got his information regarding Haiti, but I don't think it's entirely truthful. I work in a position where we support and plan deployed ops. When Haiti came up, we had a great deal of fit people ready to deploy, and indeed, we fulfilled our compliment. NDHQ and the NCR provided a good percentage of support/staff positions. Obviously we could'nt provide an infantry coy, there are none based in Ottawa. I tend to take everything Mr Taylor says with a grain of salt.
Anyhow, that's just my opinion!
Lance Wiebe
Sr. Member
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
- 230
Scott Taylor has had his day.
He has brought up some very embarrassing facts that made some general officers look bad, and he was very outspoken when it came to his infanteer friends. However, Scott quickly ran out of material. Now he's living on his reputation, visiting Iraq where he writes extremely biased anti-American reports for the Halifax Chronicle (? Seems to me anyway, I might be wrong).
Go away Scott.
You've had your day, and your say.
He has brought up some very embarrassing facts that made some general officers look bad, and he was very outspoken when it came to his infanteer friends. However, Scott quickly ran out of material. Now he's living on his reputation, visiting Iraq where he writes extremely biased anti-American reports for the Halifax Chronicle (? Seems to me anyway, I might be wrong).
Go away Scott.
You've had your day, and your say.
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 410
"In one case, a female service member had simply left her post because she had to drive her daughter to a Girl Guide meeting. "
Its stuff like this that pisses me off. Everyone is coddled and if they have to stay longer then their regular work hours they get all pissy. Your not civvies. Same goes for cmbt troops getting out of tours and refusing to go up the mountain etc.
Its stuff like this that pisses me off. Everyone is coddled and if they have to stay longer then their regular work hours they get all pissy. Your not civvies. Same goes for cmbt troops getting out of tours and refusing to go up the mountain etc.
L
logau
Guest
Best near DND website is this one (IMHO) the COMBAT DIVERS at http://www.donlowconcrete.com/CDAC - and done by me 
well folks here my 2 cents worth. I think that the military is a joke work ethic wise. we have very few people who understrand the actual commitment of the military. from what i have seen most people in the military would be starving if they did what they did in civie street. leave your work and pick up your kids hmm my boss would have fired me on the spot. as for the old worn out equipment. well if we had toops generals and admirals that looked after the well being of the the country and not their pockets then our equipment would be better off. lets just say other countries around the world are using the equipment we are and its the all around the same age and lets say they have few problems with it. Lets just say when you rebuild equipment it means to completely overhaul it. i use to work on Civy aircraft and we rebuilt them. hmm a 1952 beaver airplane with origonal bullet holes from the vietnam war. this plane was in rough shape. lets say lots of money and hard work and the the Beaver was better then new. this included all new electrical, new skins new windscreens etc the only thing that wasnt new but overhauled was the engine that was beacuse thats all any one is using now. the people i worked with doing this job were paid a decent wage and had a love for their job. that airplane was used in the bush and was severly abused. sounds like our equipment. if the contracters and our people in charge had a real interst in maintaing equipment that was good and servicable they would do the proper job and spend the proper money. half a^%#@! the job is only giving us half of what we need. ass for not being able to deploy to troubled spots around the globe hmm solution all those reg force spots that arent filled yet call up reservists and give them short term contract and send them over seas. seems like it would work for me. i know 20 guys that would sign on for 2-3 years to do peace keeping and other duties. for all the reg force slugs out their you need to decide if you are in the military for Your Country or for a job. if you are in it for your Country then dont wine if you have to go to the field or staty late to do what the military does best "defend your Country" as for you people who are in for just a job well i am sure you could find a better one on civie street, oh wait a minute no you cant. and for any of you journalists that like to put down the military and look at all the bad things we do. why dont you let me tag along with you and your family for a week and i will report on your problems and only your problem. remember people we are the choice of good or bad and our descions to do good or bad need to be choosen wisely as not only do we jepordize our troops we jepordize our way of life.
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- Points
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It was in the news a long time ago and like most modern tragedies, it is replaced by something more severe, but I was wondering if anyone has anyone news on Haiti and Canada's role, if any, there at the present time?
Cheers,
Patrick
Cheers,
Patrick
AmmoTech90
Army.ca Veteran
- Reaction score
- 833
- Points
- 1,010
We have two pers deployed with Op HAMLET as part of MINUSTAH, the UN mission currently underway in Haiti. MINUSTAH is the French abbreviation for United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Op HALO, the larger mission ended 16 Aug.
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/operations/current_ops_e.asp
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Newsroom/view_news_e.asp?id=1389
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/operations/current_ops_e.asp
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Newsroom/view_news_e.asp?id=1389
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
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Interesting.
Head of UN peacekeepers in Haiti found dead
The Brazilian general commanding UN peacekeepers in Haiti, Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, died Saturday.
CTV.ca News Staff
Updated: Sat. Jan. 7 2006 12:17 PM ET
The Brazilian general commanding the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti was found shot dead in a hotel room in the nation's capital on Saturday.
Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar died Saturday morning after a "firearm accident" in Port-au-Prince, Brazilian army Lt. Col. Fernando da Cunha Matos told the official Agencia Brasil news agency.
According to unconfirmed. reports, Bacellar was found with a bullet wound to the head
The Brazilian Army confirmed Bacellar's death in a brief statement on its website but did not elaborate on the circumstances.
The general replaced another Brazilian, Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, to assume control of the more than 9,000-strong UN force in Haiti in late August.
The peacekeeping force, known by its acronym MINUSTAH, comprises more than 7,250 troops, 1,700 civilian police officers, supported by more than 400 international civilian personnel from more than 40 countries.
Haiti continues to be plagued by violence and instability, nearly two years after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted following a month-long armed revolt.
Despite the presence of the UN troops, the country of 8.5 million has continued to be afflicted by violence, instability, and a wave of kidnappings.
The mission's mandate, which expires in mid-February, also includes supporting the political process.
Haiti has also struggled to organize its first presidential election since Aristide fled into exile.
The election has faced repeated delays because of spikes in violence, delays in distributing 3.5 million voter identification cards and problems with polling stations.
On Friday, the UN Security Council urged the country's interim government to hold an election by Feb. 7.
Voting had originally been scheduled for November, and has since been postponed three times.
There are 35 candidates for president and hundreds for 129 legislative seats in the elections. The winners will replace an interim government installed after Aristide's ouster in February 2004.
Head of UN peacekeepers in Haiti found dead
The Brazilian general commanding UN peacekeepers in Haiti, Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, died Saturday.
CTV.ca News Staff
Updated: Sat. Jan. 7 2006 12:17 PM ET
The Brazilian general commanding the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti was found shot dead in a hotel room in the nation's capital on Saturday.
Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar died Saturday morning after a "firearm accident" in Port-au-Prince, Brazilian army Lt. Col. Fernando da Cunha Matos told the official Agencia Brasil news agency.
According to unconfirmed. reports, Bacellar was found with a bullet wound to the head
The Brazilian Army confirmed Bacellar's death in a brief statement on its website but did not elaborate on the circumstances.
The general replaced another Brazilian, Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, to assume control of the more than 9,000-strong UN force in Haiti in late August.
The peacekeeping force, known by its acronym MINUSTAH, comprises more than 7,250 troops, 1,700 civilian police officers, supported by more than 400 international civilian personnel from more than 40 countries.
Haiti continues to be plagued by violence and instability, nearly two years after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted following a month-long armed revolt.
Despite the presence of the UN troops, the country of 8.5 million has continued to be afflicted by violence, instability, and a wave of kidnappings.
The mission's mandate, which expires in mid-February, also includes supporting the political process.
Haiti has also struggled to organize its first presidential election since Aristide fled into exile.
The election has faced repeated delays because of spikes in violence, delays in distributing 3.5 million voter identification cards and problems with polling stations.
On Friday, the UN Security Council urged the country's interim government to hold an election by Feb. 7.
Voting had originally been scheduled for November, and has since been postponed three times.
There are 35 candidates for president and hundreds for 129 legislative seats in the elections. The winners will replace an interim government installed after Aristide's ouster in February 2004.
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What a mess....
It would be interesting to know exactly where the accidental bullet entered his head, and whether or not there were burns around the wound.
I'm willing to bet that as sloppy as it is there, there was no accident.
Of course I'm feeling conspiratorial today ;D
It would be interesting to know exactly where the accidental bullet entered his head, and whether or not there were burns around the wound.
I'm willing to bet that as sloppy as it is there, there was no accident.
Of course I'm feeling conspiratorial today ;D
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 60
Conspiratorial......hmmmm...that reminds me to the X-Files-text :"The truth is out there".
Back to the conflict of Haiti:
These are the forgotten conflicts, I think.
I never heard about the troubles in Haiti.
Then I saw an article in a military newspaper.
And there was the problems of Haiti, and the dead
of the U.N.-Troops commanding General described.
The tv-pictures and magazine-news of iraq and iran
are the most we can see and read all the time.
And so it's easy to forget wat's wrong with the world
on other places, too.
Back to the conflict of Haiti:
These are the forgotten conflicts, I think.
I never heard about the troubles in Haiti.
Then I saw an article in a military newspaper.
And there was the problems of Haiti, and the dead
of the U.N.-Troops commanding General described.
The tv-pictures and magazine-news of iraq and iran
are the most we can see and read all the time.
And so it's easy to forget wat's wrong with the world
on other places, too.
- Reaction score
- 1,300
- Points
- 1,040
Just found this little gem:
(Posted here in accordance with the Treaty of Ghent, or whatever the free-dealing thingy is):
Source: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=7929ef74-557b-456d-8c07-723e4d8f96a9&k=6586 (1720 ADT 07 Sept 2006)
MONTREAL - The Department of National Defence is looking into allegations of death threats and sexual threats by Canadian troops in Haiti in 2004.
''The military police are conducting a review of the information relating to these allegations,'' said Capt. Mark Giles, spokesman for the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal.
''They're aware of it, obviously, and they're going to make an assessment as to whether further investigation is warranted.''
Giles was commenting on a front-page article last Saturday in the Montreal Gazette.
In the article, the co-author of a new U.S. study on human-rights abuses in Port-au-Prince said Canadian soldiers were blamed for threatening people after the ouster of president Jean Bertrand-Aristide in early 2004.
The allegations were made in a December 2005 survey done by the author, Athena Kolbe, and a fellow researcher at Wayne University's school of social work, in Detroit. Their report was published last week in The Lancet, the British medical journal.
In one alleged incident, a resident of Delmas on the outskirts of the Port-au-Prince said Canadian troops raided his house and threatened to kill him if he didn't give them names of Aristide supporters.
In another alleged incident, a woman said she was grabbed by a drunk, off-duty Canadian soldier while out with friends near a base in the capital. She said he threatened to have sex with her.
But Giles suggested that may not have been possible.
''There's some information from our end suggesting our troops were pretty much confined to the camp, to the base, for the majority'' of the Canadian troops' time in Haiti, from March to August 2004.
''So whether or not it's feasible that there's reality or not to these allegations, I don't know. But certainly we take any allegation like this seriously.''
(Posted here in accordance with the Treaty of Ghent, or whatever the free-dealing thingy is):
Source: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=7929ef74-557b-456d-8c07-723e4d8f96a9&k=6586 (1720 ADT 07 Sept 2006)
MONTREAL - The Department of National Defence is looking into allegations of death threats and sexual threats by Canadian troops in Haiti in 2004.
''The military police are conducting a review of the information relating to these allegations,'' said Capt. Mark Giles, spokesman for the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal.
''They're aware of it, obviously, and they're going to make an assessment as to whether further investigation is warranted.''
Giles was commenting on a front-page article last Saturday in the Montreal Gazette.
In the article, the co-author of a new U.S. study on human-rights abuses in Port-au-Prince said Canadian soldiers were blamed for threatening people after the ouster of president Jean Bertrand-Aristide in early 2004.
The allegations were made in a December 2005 survey done by the author, Athena Kolbe, and a fellow researcher at Wayne University's school of social work, in Detroit. Their report was published last week in The Lancet, the British medical journal.
In one alleged incident, a resident of Delmas on the outskirts of the Port-au-Prince said Canadian troops raided his house and threatened to kill him if he didn't give them names of Aristide supporters.
In another alleged incident, a woman said she was grabbed by a drunk, off-duty Canadian soldier while out with friends near a base in the capital. She said he threatened to have sex with her.
But Giles suggested that may not have been possible.
''There's some information from our end suggesting our troops were pretty much confined to the camp, to the base, for the majority'' of the Canadian troops' time in Haiti, from March to August 2004.
''So whether or not it's feasible that there's reality or not to these allegations, I don't know. But certainly we take any allegation like this seriously.''
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 410
[Liberal Media Voice #1] Oooh, heres a nasty completely unsubstantiated allegation of those evil Cnadian soldiers doing realy evil things to innocent destitute Haitians lets print it! [/Liberal Media Voice #1]
[Liberal Media Voice #2] But isn't that slander?[/Liberal Media Voice #2]
[Liberal Media Voice #1] Naw, we'll put a caveat at the end of the article and nothing will ever come of it except we will get another dig in at the Evil Jackbooted soldiers. [/Liberal Media Voice #1]
[Liberal Media Voice #2] But isn't that slander?[/Liberal Media Voice #2]
[Liberal Media Voice #1] Naw, we'll put a caveat at the end of the article and nothing will ever come of it except we will get another dig in at the Evil Jackbooted soldiers. [/Liberal Media Voice #1]
Weinie
Army.ca Veteran
- Reaction score
- 3,346
- Points
- 1,140
Here's the rebuttal to the story. Seems the author of the report has a bit of a history and an axe to grind.
Posted IAW all those fair dealing thingys: from yestrdays Globe and Mail
The study, co-authored by Athena Kolbe, found that 8,000 Haitians have been slain and 35,000 women and girls raped since the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early 2004. Ms. Kolbe said that according to local Haitians, Canadian peacekeepers made death threats against them during house raids, and sexual advances against women while the peacekeepers were drunk and off duty.
However, Ms. Kolbe herself is now the subject of controversy after revelations that the 30-year-old master's degree student at Wayne State University's school of social work in Detroit used to be an advocacy journalist who wrote under the name Lyn Duff and worked at a Haitian orphanage founded by Mr. Aristide.
Full story is here
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060907.HAITI07/TPStory/?query=haiti
Posted IAW all those fair dealing thingys: from yestrdays Globe and Mail
The study, co-authored by Athena Kolbe, found that 8,000 Haitians have been slain and 35,000 women and girls raped since the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early 2004. Ms. Kolbe said that according to local Haitians, Canadian peacekeepers made death threats against them during house raids, and sexual advances against women while the peacekeepers were drunk and off duty.
However, Ms. Kolbe herself is now the subject of controversy after revelations that the 30-year-old master's degree student at Wayne State University's school of social work in Detroit used to be an advocacy journalist who wrote under the name Lyn Duff and worked at a Haitian orphanage founded by Mr. Aristide.
Full story is here
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060907.HAITI07/TPStory/?query=haiti
- Reaction score
- 2,535
- Points
- 1,260
From a bit further back, with the usual disclaimers...
First, the original study:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606692118/fulltext
Human rights abuse and other criminal violations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: a random survey of households
Athena R Kolbe MSW & Dr Royce A Hutson PhD, The Lancet,
Summary
Background
Reliable evidence of the frequency and severity of human rights abuses in Haiti after the departure of the elected president in 2004 was scarce. We assessed data from a random survey of households in the greater Port-au-Prince area.
Methods
Using random Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinate sampling, 1260 households (5720 individuals) were sampled. They were interviewed with a structured questionnaire by trained interviewers about their experiences after the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The response rate was 90·7%. Information on demographic characteristics, crime, and human rights violations was obtained.
Findings
Our findings suggested that 8000 individuals were murdered in the greater Port-au-Prince area during the 22-month period assessed. Almost half of the identified perpetrators were government forces or outside political actors. Sexual assault of women and girls was common, with findings suggesting that 35 000 women were victimised in the area; more than half of all female victims were younger than 18 years. Criminals were the most identified perpetrators, but officers from the Haitian National Police accounted for 13·8% and armed anti-Lavalas groups accounted for 10·6% of identified perpetrators of sexual assault. Kidnappings and extrajudicial detentions, physical assaults, death threats, physical threats, and threats of sexual violence were also common.
Interpretation
Our results indicate that crime and systematic abuse of human rights were common in Port-au-Prince. Although criminals were the most identified perpetrators of violations, political actors and UN soldiers were also frequently identified. These findings suggest the need for a systematic response from the newly elected Haitian government, the UN, and social service organisations to address the legal, medical, psychological, and economic consequences of widespread human rights abuses and crime
Then, the Lancet editorial:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606692982/fulltext
UN peacekeepers in Haiti
6 months after democratic elections, Port-au-Prince has seen another upsurge in violence. Staff at Médicins Sans Frontières report treating more than 200 gunshot wounds in July, double the previous month's number of injuries. The fighting raises questions about the effectiveness of the UN peacekeeping mission, whose intermittent 15-year presence was extended for a further 6 months on Aug 15.
In today's Lancet, Athena Kolbe and Royce Hutson report human rights violations in Port-au-Prince. Central to their findings is the fact that civilian welfare fails to attract the attention it deserves from authorities in times of conflict, with neither the Haitian government, nor the UN peacekeepers being able to estimate the effect of the conflict on civilians. Yet in just 22 months—from the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the end of 2005—an estimated 8000 people were murdered and 35 000 women sexually assaulted, half of whom were under the age of 18 years.
Most perpetrators were identified as criminals, but police, armed forces, paramilitaries, and foreign soldiers were also implicated. Although UN peacekeepers have been investigated for accusations of sexual misconduct in Haiti and elsewhere, Kolbe and Hutson's survey did not find evidence for their involvement in murder or sexual assault. However 14% of the interviewees did accuse foreign soldiers, including those in UN uniform, of threatening them with sexual or physical violence, including death.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has spoken out firmly against exploitative behaviour by UN peacekeepers. In 2005, at Annan's request, Prince Zeid of Jordan, whose soldiers serve in Haiti, proposed a number of measures to reduce sexual exploitation by UN personnel. One result has been the active investigation of allegations. Yet since 2004, only 17 peacekeepers have been dismissed and 161 repatriated out of 313 allegations worldwide. Annan's stand needs to be followed by stronger action to restore both international and local confidence, without which local security cannot be assured. Severely traumatised populations remain vulnerable, and as Kolbe and Hutson show, suffering does not stop when peacekeepers arrive. UN peacekeepers must no longer add to that suffering.
Finally, first MSM reference I've seen....
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=232304ed-6900-4cf4-96d9-64eabd2f7b9a
Canadians threatened us: Haitians
Jeff Heinrich, Montreal Gazette, 2 Sept 06
Canadian troops with the United Nations in Haiti made death threats during house raids and made sexual threats against women while drunk and off-duty, according to Haitians interviewed as part of a meticulous human rights survey by U.S. researchers in December 2005 published Thursday in the British medical journal The Lancet.
The study, which estimated that 8,000 Haitians have been murdered and 35,000 women and girls raped in Port-au-Prince alone since the ouster of then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early 2004, did not mention Canadians specifically, blaming only Brazilian and Jordanian troops for making threats.
But in an interview yesterday, the study's lead author said Haitians pinpointed Canadians as among those UN military personnel who threatened them physically or sexually.
"Canadians were definitely blamed for death threats and threats of physical and sexual violence," said Athena Kolbe, 30, an expert on Haiti who speaks Creole. She has visited Haiti often and is doing her master's degree at Wayne State University's School of Social Work, in Detroit.
One family was interviewed at their home in Delmas, an eastern suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"Canadian troops came to their house, and they said they were looking for (pro-Aristide) Lavalas chimeres, and threatened to kill the head of household, who was the father, if he didn't name names of people in their neighbourhood who were Lavalas chimeres or Lavalas supporters," Kolbe said by phone from San Francisco. "And he refused to, because, as he told us, he didn't know anyone."
How did he recognize the soldiers were Canadians? "From the flag on the uniform," Kolbe said.
How did he remember the incident so precisely? "Because the family was traumatized by it."
That incident was alleged to have taken place around the time of Aristide's departure in February 2004.
In another incident, "one woman said a Canadian soldier tried to have sex with her, that this soldier was drunk and she didn't want to, and that he was threatening her and grabbing at her when she didn't want to," Kolbe said.
The woman was out with her friends near a Canadian base, on a street where drunk and off-
duty Canadian soldiers in uniform tried to pick up local women.
Of the women in the peer-
reviewed study who complained of sexual threats, drunk and off-duty Canadian and U.S. soldiers were most often blamed, Kolbe said. "But regarding Brazilian and Jordanian troops, a lot of the sexual threats were actually when they were on patrol."
Canada sent 450 soldiers and other personnel along with six CH-146 Griffon helicopters to Haiti in March 2004 as part of a UN peacekeeping force of 6,700 military personnel and 1,600 police. The Canadian soldiers left in August of that year, but Canada still has 66 police officers in Haiti leading the UN's police force.
The Lancet survey - which questioned 5,720 randomly selected Haitians living in and around the capital about their lives in the 22 months since Aristide's fall - found that 97 said they had received death threats, 232 had been threatened physically and 86 sexually. One-third of the perpetrators were criminals, about 20 per cent were Haitian National Police and other government security agents, and another 20 per cent were foreign soldiers.
Most soldiers were identified by the flag displayed on their UN helmet or on their uniform sleeve over the upper arm. Other UN personnel were harder to identify by country; they had blue helmets but no flags.
The allegations of misconduct indicate that UN troops in Haiti need to be reined in, Kolbe said.
Canadians would likely have been more frequently cited if the study hadn't been restricted to the greater Port-au-Prince area, where Canadian troops patrol less than elsewhere in Haiti, Kolbe added.
Told of the allegations after Kolbe related them late yesterday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence said they sounded specific and serious but needed verification before any comment could be made. "Is there any way that you could give us time to comment?" said Lt. Adam Thomson, asking publication of the allegations be delayed until after the Labour Day weekend.
Also in Ottawa yesterday, Rejean Beaulieu, the Foreign Affairs department spokesperson for Haiti, refused comment, offering instead only an off-the-record, not-for-attribution "deep background briefing" on Canada's role in Haiti.
Earlier, Beaulieu referred questions to the UN, which he said "should be in a better position to answer since our people in Haiti were and are working under this umbrella."
In Montreal, a spokesperson for Premier Jean Charest - who visited Haiti in June 2005 and received its controversial prime minister, Gerard Latortue, at his Montreal office last March - also declined comment. "The type of relationship we have with Haiti is through humanitarian projects," not peacekeeping or policing, which is Ottawa's jurisdiction, Hugo d'Amours said.
Ridiculous, retorted Marie-Dominik Langlois, co-ordinator of the Christian Committee for Human Rights in Latin America.
"There are lots of humanitarian projects in Haiti that only serve to legitimize so-called community leaders" who had a role in the undemocratic removal of Aristide, and Quebec is involved with them, she said.
But one Montreal Haitian community group took an opposite view.
"Impunity (from justice) reigns like a king in Haiti, but in my opinion things would be even worse without the UN presence," said Marjorie Villefranche, director of programs at the Maison d'Haiti, a St. Michel community centre founded in 1972 that serves some of the 70,000 Haitians here.
"There has been an acceleration of violence. But it's an acceleration caused by armed groups, not foreign soldiers. The real mistake was that the UN didn't disarm everyone when they arrived."
jheinrich@ thegazette.canwest.com
First, the original study:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606692118/fulltext
Human rights abuse and other criminal violations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: a random survey of households
Athena R Kolbe MSW & Dr Royce A Hutson PhD, The Lancet,
Summary
Background
Reliable evidence of the frequency and severity of human rights abuses in Haiti after the departure of the elected president in 2004 was scarce. We assessed data from a random survey of households in the greater Port-au-Prince area.
Methods
Using random Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinate sampling, 1260 households (5720 individuals) were sampled. They were interviewed with a structured questionnaire by trained interviewers about their experiences after the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The response rate was 90·7%. Information on demographic characteristics, crime, and human rights violations was obtained.
Findings
Our findings suggested that 8000 individuals were murdered in the greater Port-au-Prince area during the 22-month period assessed. Almost half of the identified perpetrators were government forces or outside political actors. Sexual assault of women and girls was common, with findings suggesting that 35 000 women were victimised in the area; more than half of all female victims were younger than 18 years. Criminals were the most identified perpetrators, but officers from the Haitian National Police accounted for 13·8% and armed anti-Lavalas groups accounted for 10·6% of identified perpetrators of sexual assault. Kidnappings and extrajudicial detentions, physical assaults, death threats, physical threats, and threats of sexual violence were also common.
Interpretation
Our results indicate that crime and systematic abuse of human rights were common in Port-au-Prince. Although criminals were the most identified perpetrators of violations, political actors and UN soldiers were also frequently identified. These findings suggest the need for a systematic response from the newly elected Haitian government, the UN, and social service organisations to address the legal, medical, psychological, and economic consequences of widespread human rights abuses and crime
Then, the Lancet editorial:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606692982/fulltext
UN peacekeepers in Haiti
6 months after democratic elections, Port-au-Prince has seen another upsurge in violence. Staff at Médicins Sans Frontières report treating more than 200 gunshot wounds in July, double the previous month's number of injuries. The fighting raises questions about the effectiveness of the UN peacekeeping mission, whose intermittent 15-year presence was extended for a further 6 months on Aug 15.
In today's Lancet, Athena Kolbe and Royce Hutson report human rights violations in Port-au-Prince. Central to their findings is the fact that civilian welfare fails to attract the attention it deserves from authorities in times of conflict, with neither the Haitian government, nor the UN peacekeepers being able to estimate the effect of the conflict on civilians. Yet in just 22 months—from the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the end of 2005—an estimated 8000 people were murdered and 35 000 women sexually assaulted, half of whom were under the age of 18 years.
Most perpetrators were identified as criminals, but police, armed forces, paramilitaries, and foreign soldiers were also implicated. Although UN peacekeepers have been investigated for accusations of sexual misconduct in Haiti and elsewhere, Kolbe and Hutson's survey did not find evidence for their involvement in murder or sexual assault. However 14% of the interviewees did accuse foreign soldiers, including those in UN uniform, of threatening them with sexual or physical violence, including death.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has spoken out firmly against exploitative behaviour by UN peacekeepers. In 2005, at Annan's request, Prince Zeid of Jordan, whose soldiers serve in Haiti, proposed a number of measures to reduce sexual exploitation by UN personnel. One result has been the active investigation of allegations. Yet since 2004, only 17 peacekeepers have been dismissed and 161 repatriated out of 313 allegations worldwide. Annan's stand needs to be followed by stronger action to restore both international and local confidence, without which local security cannot be assured. Severely traumatised populations remain vulnerable, and as Kolbe and Hutson show, suffering does not stop when peacekeepers arrive. UN peacekeepers must no longer add to that suffering.
Finally, first MSM reference I've seen....
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=232304ed-6900-4cf4-96d9-64eabd2f7b9a
Canadians threatened us: Haitians
Jeff Heinrich, Montreal Gazette, 2 Sept 06
Canadian troops with the United Nations in Haiti made death threats during house raids and made sexual threats against women while drunk and off-duty, according to Haitians interviewed as part of a meticulous human rights survey by U.S. researchers in December 2005 published Thursday in the British medical journal The Lancet.
The study, which estimated that 8,000 Haitians have been murdered and 35,000 women and girls raped in Port-au-Prince alone since the ouster of then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early 2004, did not mention Canadians specifically, blaming only Brazilian and Jordanian troops for making threats.
But in an interview yesterday, the study's lead author said Haitians pinpointed Canadians as among those UN military personnel who threatened them physically or sexually.
"Canadians were definitely blamed for death threats and threats of physical and sexual violence," said Athena Kolbe, 30, an expert on Haiti who speaks Creole. She has visited Haiti often and is doing her master's degree at Wayne State University's School of Social Work, in Detroit.
One family was interviewed at their home in Delmas, an eastern suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"Canadian troops came to their house, and they said they were looking for (pro-Aristide) Lavalas chimeres, and threatened to kill the head of household, who was the father, if he didn't name names of people in their neighbourhood who were Lavalas chimeres or Lavalas supporters," Kolbe said by phone from San Francisco. "And he refused to, because, as he told us, he didn't know anyone."
How did he recognize the soldiers were Canadians? "From the flag on the uniform," Kolbe said.
How did he remember the incident so precisely? "Because the family was traumatized by it."
That incident was alleged to have taken place around the time of Aristide's departure in February 2004.
In another incident, "one woman said a Canadian soldier tried to have sex with her, that this soldier was drunk and she didn't want to, and that he was threatening her and grabbing at her when she didn't want to," Kolbe said.
The woman was out with her friends near a Canadian base, on a street where drunk and off-
duty Canadian soldiers in uniform tried to pick up local women.
Of the women in the peer-
reviewed study who complained of sexual threats, drunk and off-duty Canadian and U.S. soldiers were most often blamed, Kolbe said. "But regarding Brazilian and Jordanian troops, a lot of the sexual threats were actually when they were on patrol."
Canada sent 450 soldiers and other personnel along with six CH-146 Griffon helicopters to Haiti in March 2004 as part of a UN peacekeeping force of 6,700 military personnel and 1,600 police. The Canadian soldiers left in August of that year, but Canada still has 66 police officers in Haiti leading the UN's police force.
The Lancet survey - which questioned 5,720 randomly selected Haitians living in and around the capital about their lives in the 22 months since Aristide's fall - found that 97 said they had received death threats, 232 had been threatened physically and 86 sexually. One-third of the perpetrators were criminals, about 20 per cent were Haitian National Police and other government security agents, and another 20 per cent were foreign soldiers.
Most soldiers were identified by the flag displayed on their UN helmet or on their uniform sleeve over the upper arm. Other UN personnel were harder to identify by country; they had blue helmets but no flags.
The allegations of misconduct indicate that UN troops in Haiti need to be reined in, Kolbe said.
Canadians would likely have been more frequently cited if the study hadn't been restricted to the greater Port-au-Prince area, where Canadian troops patrol less than elsewhere in Haiti, Kolbe added.
Told of the allegations after Kolbe related them late yesterday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence said they sounded specific and serious but needed verification before any comment could be made. "Is there any way that you could give us time to comment?" said Lt. Adam Thomson, asking publication of the allegations be delayed until after the Labour Day weekend.
Also in Ottawa yesterday, Rejean Beaulieu, the Foreign Affairs department spokesperson for Haiti, refused comment, offering instead only an off-the-record, not-for-attribution "deep background briefing" on Canada's role in Haiti.
Earlier, Beaulieu referred questions to the UN, which he said "should be in a better position to answer since our people in Haiti were and are working under this umbrella."
In Montreal, a spokesperson for Premier Jean Charest - who visited Haiti in June 2005 and received its controversial prime minister, Gerard Latortue, at his Montreal office last March - also declined comment. "The type of relationship we have with Haiti is through humanitarian projects," not peacekeeping or policing, which is Ottawa's jurisdiction, Hugo d'Amours said.
Ridiculous, retorted Marie-Dominik Langlois, co-ordinator of the Christian Committee for Human Rights in Latin America.
"There are lots of humanitarian projects in Haiti that only serve to legitimize so-called community leaders" who had a role in the undemocratic removal of Aristide, and Quebec is involved with them, she said.
But one Montreal Haitian community group took an opposite view.
"Impunity (from justice) reigns like a king in Haiti, but in my opinion things would be even worse without the UN presence," said Marjorie Villefranche, director of programs at the Maison d'Haiti, a St. Michel community centre founded in 1972 that serves some of the 70,000 Haitians here.
"There has been an acceleration of violence. But it's an acceleration caused by armed groups, not foreign soldiers. The real mistake was that the UN didn't disarm everyone when they arrived."
jheinrich@ thegazette.canwest.com
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Complete and utter crap. Having a PhD and drafting questions does not mean a report is unbiased. Amazing how all these death threats and assaults were made yet not one 'victim' can identify their attacker or name a name, nor have any of them come forward and made allegations previously to MP's or UNPO's.
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