by Rebecca Bartel, MCC Policy Analyst
Source: BBC News
As the U.S. prepares to send a 10,000 strong military contingent to Haiti, concerns that history is repeating itself arise. While there is little doubt that the U.S. military is perhaps the only institution in the world that has the capacity to respond quickly and effectively to the growing humanitarian calamity in the country, questions begin to arise about the militarization of disaster relief and foreign aid. Haiti is no stranger to foreign military intervention, and the United States has militarily intervened in the country three times in the last 100 years.
It is understood that security is a concern for Haitians and foreign aid workers; however Mennonite Central Committee workers in Haiti warn that the international media’s focus on isolated incidents of violence and justification of increased military presence serve in “criminalizing or demonizing the victims of this tragedy.” Ben Depp reports that “there is a lot of solidarity among everyone here that is not been captured by the news. Most of the rescues that have happened have been [done] by Haitians pulling their neighbors out of the rubble. The outside emergency [relief] is helping in factories and big places that had a lot of people [in them].”
The military response from the United States seems contrary to what Depp sees as “an astounding amount of love and solidarity in the aftermath of the earthquake.” The exaggerated number of troops and weaponry flowing into Haiti to accompany the relief efforts threatens to intimidate the millions of victims in the after effects of the quake and mistake desperate and suffering people for enemies.
Alexis Depp, a Mennonite Central Committee worker in Haiti, relays the following message to the generous brothers and sisters in the United States who have already donated money and time to relief efforts:
“In the aftermath of this crisis, those of us in Haiti are concerned by media portrayal of our Haitian brothers and sisters. We have never seen such a staggering outpouring of solidarity as our neighbors rescuing each other, comforting each other and sharing with one another over the course of the past week. The disturbing images of looting, fighting at food distributions and reports of violence do not reflect the greater reality that we are experiencing here. Please contact your local media and ask that Haitians not be cast as criminals and instead be represented fairly and with dignity. They are victims of a tragedy that is beyond our comprehension. We are also concerned about the pending presence of up to 10,000 US military troops in Port-Au-Prince. Although we welcome the relief efforts being carried out here by UN soldiers and the US military, we ask that you put pressure on your representatives to ensure that the armed personnel in Haiti also treat Haitians with the dignity they deserve.”
As Christians, we are guided and urged by scripture to work towards the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom on this earth. Micah 4:4 tells us that part of this Kingdom is the freedom from fear: “But they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.”
Title for this article is from an excerpt from Bill Quigly’s article, “Ten Things the United States Can and Should do for Haiti,” Center for Constitutional Rights.
Update (January 21, 2010): The latest update from the ground in Haiti indicates that U.S. military personnel are carrying out their operations by showing respect to Haitians. The following is an an email excerpt from MCC Haiti Representative, Kurt Hildebrand, “I wanted to note that Daryl and I drove by a couple of humvees with US military personnel today. We were pleased to see that while they were clearly armed, they did not have their guns out or pointed at anything or anyone. After three years of seeing UN troops driving around with their guns mounted and fingers on triggers, this is a much welcome change.” We welcome and appreciate this fact. However, we are still concerned about the implications of military presence and the long term role of the U.S. military in Haiti.
