By Dady Chery

Haiti Chery

“The right to own property does not extend to the coasts, springs, rivers, water courses, mines and quarries. They are part of the State’s public domain.” – Haitian 1987 Constitution, Section H, Article 36-5.

La Visite Park is a lush expanse of green that straddles the hills of Marigot and Kenskoff and overlooks Marigot, a picturesque fishing town near Haiti’s larger southeastern city of Jacmel. The area is reputed for its market-day Saturdays that attract people from far and wide, including the finest restauranteurs, who travel there to buy the best lobsters, fish and shellfish. The fishing is artisanal, and for some time the fishermen have been asking the government to assist them with credit, fishing equipment and modest facilities such as a refrigerated room. There has been no response. The government has other plans for the region.

There is tourism in Marigot: a few cabins for those visitors who are drawn to the area for its virgin coast and forests such as that of La Visite Park. To hotel builders, these wild places are merely undeveloped territory.

In July 2011, Martelly toured Haiti’s Southeast to promote tourism, and he held a roundtable under the theme “The development of Jacmel and the surrounding area as a tourist destination.”

“We have a huge deficit of hotel rooms [in Haiti],”

complained Tourism Association President Max Chauvet. Even then, well before the amendments to the 1987 Constitution, there was already talk of private beaches.

One year later, during the week of July 15, 2012 Haiti’s Ministries of the Environment and of Public Security ordered a group of residents of La Visite Park to evacuate the area. This order had come from the government, presumably because it had been advised by experts that an eviction would be necessary to safeguard a watershed in the area — for a reservoir that feeds the Southeast and West Departments, including Jacmel and the capital city of Port-au-Prince — and prevent the water level from dropping.

There was no mention of a new location for the families to be displaced. To compensate for the lost homes, the government offered each family $1,160, to be disbursed in equal installments before and after the eviction. The residents calculated that the funds would not allow them to buy farm land in a different location, and they refused to leave. The families had received similar injunctions from Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorship in the 1980’s. They had always resisted.

On Monday July 23, around noon, a group of 36 commandos from the Departmental Unit for Maintenance of Order (UDMO), together with Jacmel Representative Pierre-Michel Lafontant, South-East Police Chief Sagesse Ovilmar, Government Commissioner Antoine Jean Frehaud, and local officials of the Marigot City Hall (recall that all municipal officials have been replaced by presidential appointees) arrived in La Visite Park to evict 142 families. The families had lived there since 1942 in an area called Galèt Sèk, which belongs to a larger neighborhood called Seguin à Chevale.

When the commandos tried to remove the residents by force, they fought back with stones in a battle that lasted 4 hours. Dozens were injured. Initial reports noted that 4 children were shot dead along with 8 adults. Among the dead are:

• Desire Enose – 32 years old
• Nicolas David – 28 years old
• Volcin Robenson – 22 years old (also called Tidye)
• Desire Alexis – 18 years old

The corrective approach, tadalafil best prices effectiveness, significant treatment procedure and the positive outputs and suitable remedial impacts even in case of the patients since it would lead for harmful results during the process of disc degeneration, weakening the joint and making it susceptible to injury. Both active ingredients tadalafil overnight shipping in the medication have been approved by FDA in the year of 1996 as a safe rescue form of various dangerous health ailments. It has been introduced in three different forms of consumption first tablets, second jellies and third soft tablets. buy levitra without rx It is utilized http://deeprootsmag.org/2016/09/23/were-trying-to-unpack-the-mind/ cialis viagra sale in the treatment of erectile dysfunction or impotence.
The children’s bodies have disappeared. The disappeared children include:

• Rosemana Alfred – 9 years old
• Ofaky Mezidor – 7 years old
• Mislaille Alfred, 4 years old

Police Chief Sagesse Ovilmar initially denied that anyone had been killed. He told the press that five policemen had been injured by stones, and the operation had to be aborted to avoid loss of life (July 25, 2012 AHP).

In addition to the human loss, three houses were burned to the ground, numerous others were ransacked, and four oxen were killed. According to well-known Jacmel resident Mr. Frisnel Ticon, a significant area of trees and shrubs was also burned (July 27, 2012 HPN).

Since the massacre, a United Nations (MINUSTAH) delegation from its communications office, police and Civil Affairs visited the site and spent several hours in discussion with community leaders, the victims’ families and grieving neighbors. To represent the victims, the townspeople formed a four-member committee:

• Nadege Excellus (representative of women victims),
• Estinvil Sainvilus (ASEC),
• Jean Dais (community leader),
• Felix Pierre (member of the Organization for the Development of the Seguin Neighborhood).

So far no date has been set for a meeting of the community with the Haitian government. Since the massacre, no Haitian official has appeared in Seguin.

UPDATE #1, Thursday, August 30, 2012. Bodies of children and women victims are still missing. The bodies of the adult male victims were left lying around for two days before they were removed.

In addition to those killed, peasants

• Elius Alfred
• Jean Louis Saint Fort

from La Visite have been imprisoned since July 23, 2012 without any formal charge and merely vague charges of associating with wrongdoers.

Demands from the four-member committee of townspeople include calls for justice for those killed, a stop to all persecution of townspeople, and decent housing/land in exchange for moving.

UPDATE #2, Friday, August 31, 2012. Out of respect for the dead, the photos below were omitted from the original publication, but in response to an AP article that came more than one month too late, neglected to mention the disappeared, and referred to the townspeople and dead of Galèt Sèk as squatters, the photos showing the mutilated bodies with signs of torture are being added here.

UPDATE #3, Tuesday, July 23, 2013. Almost exactly one year after the La Visite massacre, award-winning photographer Thony (Claudy) Belizaire died of complications relating to respiratory difficulties in the only trauma center in Haiti, which is government controlled.

Sources: Haiti Chery | SF BayView | Black Agenda Report | Albared | Featured image: Jacmel, Marigot tourism concept.