Haiti Three Months After the Earthquake

There are two Haitis. There is the Haiti that was just promised $10 billion in assistance. And then there is the Haiti where hundreds of thousands of people live in shelters made of cardboard or plastic sheeting.

Over 3,000 of Haiti's most dangerous prisoners escaped from the Federal Prison in Port-au-Prince shortly after the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Reuters reports that the prison had some damage, it is unclear if the quake allowed the escape. Those criminals have returned to their old ways and are now assuming control of various Haitian slums and displaced persons camps. It took house to house fighting by United Nations troops to break the back of the gangs originally.

AP reported that machinery was clearing rubble at the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince on April 9, while tens of thousands of other structures lay in ruins and roads remained blocked. The Haitian President is quoted as saying that few nations could have undertaken relief and recovery operations by themselves on the scale that Haiti needs.

The current government of Haiti is headed by Rene Preval, former President (1996-2001) and former ally to Aristide, who was elected in 2006 with a very slim majority of the overall vote. A 30-seat Senate and a 99-member Chamber of Deputies were also elected at the same time. Municipal elections were held last in April, 2007.

There is no Haitian Armed Forces. The Haitian police are supervised by the United Nations. The United Nations created the UN Stability Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in 2004. Prior to the quake it had an authorized strength of 7,060 troops and 2,091 civilian police.

The Haitian government lost several government buildings and many employees at all levels in the earthquake of January 12, 2010. Other employees have chosen not to return to their positions. The government is operating out of temporary quarters in the vicinity of the Port-au-Prince airport.

There are many reports of activities by the Haitian government and government officials that appear to address needs other than those of the affected population. On April 7, a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) was bulldozed and Haitian police used batons on the refugees, allegedly to make room for refugees currently staying at a elite school elsewhere in the city. On March 28, UN troops used tear gas on a crowd of women and children receiving food assistance. Haiti has begun holding aid shipments at customs stations for violation of obscure and arbitrary regulations and lack of payment of large customs duties.

Fox News reports on the leasing of two cruise ships by the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP). For refugees? No, for UN officials. The cost to the WFP is $112,500 per day. That level of funding would provide 112 shelter boxes from ShelterBox USA. Each box supplies materials to house 10 people.

All the parties to the Haitian relief effort recognize the necessity of providing shelter to those without homes due to the earthquake. Numbers vary, since many who have homes to return to that have been certified as sound are too scared to do so. One estimate is that 1.5 million Haitians were left in need of shelter and as of March 31 some 285,000 had not yet been contacted.

Many of the camps that IDPs set up were in areas vulnerable to flooding. These people need to be moved to safer and more sanitary locations. The holdup is that land ownership is difficult to determine, due to the loss of records in the quake and the social structure of Haiti pre-quake.

Oxfam was alerted to a site that would be occupied some ten days before the IDPs were to arrive. The site is a dusty, arid plain north of Port-au-Prince. The NGOs were successful in preparing the site but it is clear that the coordination between the Haitian government and those setting up the new sites could be far better.

There are many critics of the Haitian government's handling of the disaster. Criticism of the relief and the recovery effort is mounting. Haiti has had a long history of political unrest tied to the conditions that the majority of its people are forced to live in. Change is coming to Haiti due to the earthquake, but it remains to be seen what that change is.