29577: Durban (reply): re. 29566 on Ives Report on Cite Soleil Events (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Reading Kim Ives' reporting of events in Cite Soleil is grammatically
correct but is, as usual, totally off the mark.  The bias should be
apparent to anyone reading it, but there are a few clues that slip
through indicating that maybe the truth isn't quite as reported:

Ives states:
  (U.N.) Soldiers dash from the hatches of UN tanks to the safety
  of the base as if they are under attack rather than attacking.

Darn right, because there ARE a relatively few people in Cité Soleil
who ARE rejecting peaceful overtures made by the Preval administration.
 These are the few folks that Ives would no doubt describe as
"community leaders", and they are the ones who have been taking sniper
shots at those U.N. troops.  These relatively few people reject the
idea that a democratically elected Haitian government (Preval's) should
be responsible for security in the country.  Gun control?... Right,
they're in favor as long as they are the ones controlling the guns!
Let's remember that President Preval backs the U.N. presence in
country.

The Ives' article claims that the Cité Soleil demonstration featured
over 1000 people.  That, in itself is most likely an exaggeration, but
considering that Cité Soleil numbers several hundred thousand people,
one might reasonably ask why so few people turned out!  Is it perhaps
that the afore-mentioned "community leaders" don't really have much
support from the community... other than by virtue of the fact that (1)
they are in the community and (2) they have weapons?  In that
situation, a perfectly rational resident might elect to join the
demonstration to stay on the "community leader's" good side.

Fact is however, a "community leader" in his position by virtue of his
holding a gun, is, by definition, in a precarious (and un-elected),
position.  That is the reality of politics in Cité Soleil, and has been
well-reported by  on-the-ground observers like Michael Diebert and Ann
Fuller.

Lance Durban