Haitian Slum Calm; Declassified Records Reveal U.S. Indifference in Korean War Massacres; Calderon Will Use Anti-Drug Package to Improve Police

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti- While the residents of Haiti’s most notorious slum, Cite Soleil, have notoriously been plagued by violent riots, a “sudden calm" has descended upon the city. Residents say that they do not know whether the quiet is due to a crackdown on the gangs that ruled the slums or exhaustion brought on by hunger. Daniel Jean, a fisherman and resident of Cite Soleil, stated, “the streets were so dangerous that nobody could go out. The security is better today, but the high food prices for food are a calamity. I haven’t fished in three days because the sea is rough, and when I go home at night there is no food.” Cite Soleil’s mayor, Wilson Louis, says the neighborhood has turned a corner. “Our biggest problem is that there are no jobs. Easily 75 percent of our young men have no opportunity.” Willy Jean Baptiste, who runs a small charity school in the slum, says that the calm is temporary. “Cite Soleil may look 100 percent safe, but I think it’s only 50 percent. The gangs and guns are still here, only in hiding. I have some of these young gang members stop here begging for good. Some of them say if they had a job, they wouldn’t be in the gang.”

For more information, please see:

Boston Globe- Haitian Slum Calm, but Racked by Hunger- 6 July 2008

The Daily News- Two Journalists Killed by Haitian Mob- 5 July 2008

SEOUL, South Korea- In a now-declassified record at the U.S. National Archives from the 1950s reveals that Far east commander General Douglas MacArthur took no action to stop multiple massacres of political prisoners in South Korea. The record has revealed that in the early days of the Korean War, other American officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on mass executions. The officers took pictures in July 1950 at the slaughter of dozens of men at one killing field outside the city of Daejeon. Between 3,000 and 7,000 are believed to have been shot there by their own military and police, and dumped into mass graves.  The South Korean government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is investigating what happened during the “summer of terror.” Historian Jung Bying-joon, a member of the commission, commented on the Americans, stating, “The most important thing is that they did not stop the executions. They were at the crime scene, and took pictures, and wrote reports.”

For more information, please see:

Associated Press- AP IMPACT: US wavered over S. Korean executions- 6 July 2008

The Raw Story- AP: U.S. Okayed Korean War Massacres-  5 July 2008

MEXICO CITY, Mexico- Mexican President Felipe Calderon says that he plans the use the recently approved anti-drug aid to improve the country’s police force. The Merida Initiative aid package was approved last week, totaling $400,000 to be given in training and equipment, not cash. In a telephone call with George W. Bush on Friday, Calderon told Bush that “one of his main aims is to improve the technology and capacity of the federal police, in order to continue dismantling the financial and operational networks or organized crime.” Calderon’s office said that the aid package is a sign of the commitment by both countries to fight organized crime.

For more information, please see:

Associated Press- Mexico Sees Anti-Drug Aid for Police- 4 July 2008

The New York Times- Mexico Accepts Anti-Narcotics Aid From U.S.- 28 June 2008