Night shift

Yesterday was my first night shift (17:00 to 01:00). The local police had information of a possible transfer of weapons between the Dominican and Haiti within the next hours or days. (I was told by other UNPOLs that information here is usually fairly broad and lack somewhat of details). At 20:00 the local police set up a check point on one of the bridge on the main road near the border. Fortunately we had electricity so the only 2 street lights in the area were on which provided enough light for the officers to be seen by the motorists. They have no flashlights, reflective vests or any other means to alert the motorists of their presence beside 2 green construction cones in the middle of the road. To check the load of a truck or the back of a vehicle, they are using a small light from their cell phone...? After only few minutes at this location, an individual on a motorbike came through the check point, slowed down but obviously didn't plan to come to a full stop. One of the local police officer forced him to stop by grabbing the handle bar of the motorbike and an another grabbed a hand gun from the left waistband of the rider. All this went within few seconds. Seeing the seized weapon I was really on my guard not knowing who we were dealing with. Few minutes later the rider had his gun returned to him and was allowed to go. Since everything was in Creole I did not really understood what took place so I asked the officer in charge. He explained to me that this individual was in fact an off duty police officer but like most police officers here he carries his service pistol (police officers here are apparently often targets of reprisals) but he obviously should have come to a full stop and identify himself. After being given the lesson by the officer in charge he was let go. According to what I was explained, it seems that off duty police officers are in fact a source of trouble. Too much booze and an heated argument can (and did in the past) turn out deadly in the blink of an eye. The rest of the evening was rather slow. As the hours were passing by, the traffic was reducing drastically and no weapons were ever found beside the off duty officer's hand gun.

First run

I try to keep myself active and fit by doing some exercises on the large balcony but today I decided to go for a run. It's the first run outside since my arrival in Haiti. It is not so safe to run in Port-au-Prince in most areas so I was using the treadmill which is fine but kind of boring after a while. There is an Uruguayan UN military base near by and they kindly allow us to get fresh water there and also use their gym. Right beside the base they also have a dirt road that makes a loop of roughly 2,5 kms. I did 2 loops and that was enough. The heat dried me right out of any energy but I felt good afterwards. I kept on looking behind me to see if Nancy was appearing in the horizon since she has been my running buddy for a long time ;-) The only things I saw were few cows and horses on the loose (no idea who they belong to)and they were watching me like if I were an alien chased by an invisible threat. I was at the zoo but this time I was the one being watched, funny feeling. A nice little dinner with my UNPOL friends at the unique local restaurant after that and the evening was complete.

Home sweet home...finally a place to drop by bags for a while

My bedroom on the third floor, a little hot but well if I have to choose between hot and cold, hot is my choice. The shower and toilet. The large balcony to relax after work. The back up battery system which allows us to have at least some light when the juice is not there (and that's often) and the small kitchen on my floor. I like this place despite the fact it is a little noisy early morning with the roosters or the barking dogs but well a pair of earplugs and life is beautiful ;-)

Ouanaminthe

In Ouanaminthe we are now staying in a huge house already occupied by other UNPOLs from El Savador, Benin and Columbia. Everyone is pretty nice with us. We've been told upon our arrival "welcome to the family" which is nice and gave us a very pleasant feeling. Canadians are usually highly regarded by their fellow UNPOLs but also by the local population. Canada has invested so much money here and the previous Canadian UNPOLs here have been really generous and respectuous to the population. It is our goal to perpetuate that image. I'm well aware that we will not change the country in a year but I'm confident that we can do good to many people around us and make their life easier. The good point being deployed here is that we live in a large house with several small kitchens. We have no hot water or electricity 24/7, but that's what I call a mission, getting out of our comfort zone and live with a minimum (based on our North American standards). And yet compare to the population we are very fortunate to live the way we do. We Work 7 days a week, no time off so we employ some local people for cooking and doing laundry. We make our life easier and we are creating jobs for the local economy which I think is great. As for work here, it seems fairly similar to the previous experience I had before in Fort Liberte but in addition we are conducting patrols at the Dominican Republic's border which is about a 1/4 mile away. Having the Dominican right beside is great, we are able to find almost everything we need which is not always the case in Haiti.

Work at Fort Liberte

The first 2 days we worked at Fort Liberte which is a small rural town with some small commissariats dispatched at different locations. One of them is in "Trou du Nord" (Hole in the North) and believe me it's really a hole in the north of the country. We were basically doing the same thing as in PAP but with a longer distance to drive. The only difference is that the PNH here are a lot less fortunate than in PAP so we had to drive them as well as their prisonner to court since they didn't even have a car. A officer told me that sometimes when they have no other option they grab their motorbike with the prisoner in the back and they go to court. At home we do more with less but here they do what they can with nothing. I was also told that the PNH sometimes are not paid for months but they're still working. I can't imagine people at home not being paid for months and still keep on working. We were told upon our arrival by the commanding officer for the region that we were scheduled to be deployed in Ouanaminthe (A small town at about 20 kms) to replace the 2 Canadians already in place there, but no date was given. So, in the meantime we were staying in a hotel for $80 a night for a bed a shower (cold water only) and a small breakfast in the morning. In my opinion it was a total rip off but no choice we had to stay somewhere safe and that was our only option. Anyway, the following day we talked to the commanding officer requesting to go to Ouanaminthe as soon as possible and the following day our wish was granted.

Flight to Fort Liberte

On Tuesday we had our helicopter ride to Fort Liberte. The helicopter according to my partner who knows way more about these machines than me, told me it was a Russian MI8. Whatever it was, I felt like I was flying on an old washing machine on a spinning mode...noisy and shaky if you see what I mean. But we got there safe in roughly 45 minutes instead of a 8 or so hours drive so I'm glad the washing machine was there.

Petionville commissariat's fleet vehicles

Part of Petionville

Awaiting to be deployed North-East in the meantime...

Since my last blog few things changed, so let's start by the beginning. Prior to go to the North-East region I had to work few days in one of the "commissariat" (police station) in PAP since the UN helicopter was only scheduled for the week after. My three days in the Petionville's commissariat principal (main police station) were fairly easy on work load. However, visiting the jail were people are in custody awaiting to go before a judge was quite an experience. The UNPOL have a small office in the PNH (Police National de Haiti) main commissariat so from there, in the morning at 06:00 we were going to check the register to record the names of the people jailed the night before. We had to make sure their detention was legal; that they had opportunity to contact their family (since the family has the responsibility to supply food and water to the prisonner) and also that they were not mistreated by the local police. Any infraction had to be recorded in a UN record book and a report had to be written detailing the issues as well as the recommendations provided to the PNH to remedy to these issues. Since our mandate in Haiti is not executive we can only provide recommendations to the local police but if no action is taken we have to add this in our report hoping that something will happen from it. Among prisoners jailed for rape, theft, assault...some people were locked up because during a road block they were caught with no driving licence. The Haitian Criminal Code specify that this offence is punishable with a fine only but obviously it is not followed by all police officers. In Petionville area, there is the main commissariat and four sous-commissariats. So the checks had to be done to the four small police stations as well. With the traffic situation in PAP, it took more than half a day to do only that. The condition in which people are detained is still very precarious. They sleep on the bare cement in the heat, the noise and the smell of urine and feces. At 06:00 in the morning that sight and smell wake you right up. Some people can wait three or four days before going before a judge even though the Haitian Criminal Code and also the Haitian Constitution make it quite clear that custody should not exceed 48 hrs. Well, this is why we are here. Our presence is definitely justified, I just hope our recommendations and reports will help to make a difference in the long run.

Earthquake scar