Video Evidence

By Kevin Pina

Video Evidence Released of UN Massacre in Haiti

By Shirley Pate
hcvanalysis.wordpress.com

A Haitian web site has released footage that claims to provide video evidence of accusations made by residents that UN forces committed a massacre in their community of Cite Soleil on July 6, 2005. The killings of unarmed victims was said to have occurred after UN forces raided the seaside shanty in a successful attempt to assassinate leaders of an armed resistance movement that grew after the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. More than thirty people died that day after more than 20,000 rounds were fired by UN forces according to internal memos of the US embassy released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The release of the video comes on the heels of UN Special Envoy Hedi Annabi’s calls for a renewal of their mission that is due for review next October. Annabi has also been recently quoted in the press as stating that the withdrawal of UN forces would create a ‘power vacuum’ in Haiti.

The release of the footage adds to the already controversial role of the UN in Haiti at a moment when they are trying to portray conditions as normalizing following the election of Rene Preval as president in 2006.

Despite what the UN has called an improved security situation, human rights activists have recently come under fire beginning with the abduction and disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine on August 12 of last year. Since then, Amnesty International has released three alerts calling attention to threats against community-based human right activists in Haiti.

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Kevin Pina is the founding editor of the Haiti Information Project (HIP)

The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti. Winner of the CENSORED 2008 REAL NEWS AWARD for Outstanding Investigative Journalism