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Plea for Prayer and Help I am forwarding you a letter written by a Haitian, to the UN, pleading with them to help do something to stabilize the country. I feel it is written from their heart and pretty well sums up the feelings of about 98% of the people in the country. I am also forwarding some pictures that was taken in Cite Soleil. This area of 300,000 people is ran by gangs, and it is these gangs who's causing all the turmoil throughout Port-au-Prince. It is sad to see these pictures and see how young many of their members are (View Photos taken recently by the UN of Haitian Gang members). These gangs are starting to go into other areas and try to take them over, also.
It seems like things get worse everyday. It is reported on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there were 140 kidnappings by these gangs. Now the kidnapping figure is about 20 a day, and about that same amount of murders committed each day.
Our hearts and the hearts of the Haitian people are discouraged, it seems like darkness has taken completely over. The Haitian people are living in fear, and needless to say, when we are out and about it is very unnerving.
The elections are now suppose to take place on February 7th, but who knows.
Haiti needs a miracle and we are believing God for one.
Keep us fervently in your prayers, that God will keep us safe and give us wisdom as we go about our daily work.
Thank you,
Following is the note which was sent to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
UN HEADQUARTERS OAS HEADQUARTERS Mr. Secretary General,
HAITI, THE NEXT RWANDA?
As a concerned Haitian citizen I am compelled today
through these lines to send an SOS. In spite of the
presence of the
MINUSTAH, whose mission is to "ensure proper peaceful
transition and lend assistance to the local police",
violence has done nothing but rapidly increase since
February of 2004.
The latest victim, Ronald Francillon, fell under the
murderous bullets of treacherous gangsters yesterday
in Drouillard a dangerous section of town neighboring
the infamous cite Soleil.
But I am surely not telling you anything you don't
already know, the UN mission in Haiti has the
necessary
logistics to obtain all sorts of information should
they choose to do so. They have the man power, the
training and the protection of UN tanks enabling them
to go places Haitian citizens dare not venture. We
have become fugitives in our own land.
Mr. Francillon was a young hard working business owner
whose life was taken in a cowardly manner as he was in
the course of performing his daily activities. The
deadly bullet to the heart took his last breath and
left family and friends in a state of total disarray.
He was my friend and I am mourning his passing and my
grief mixed with sheer anger will not and
cannot let him die in vain.
The popular belief in the international circles is
that our current state of affairs is the result of
years of mismanagement and institutionalized
corruption. Big technical words to describe a human
issue. People are supposedly electing violence and
terrorism as a palliative to the misery and the
poverty. Damn you all and shame on you all for
suggesting that our
impoverished masses are the perpetrators of such
hainous and senseless crimes. Let us not add insult
to injury by suggesting
that hard working penniless people are organizing
themselves into gangs to terrorize the rest of the
population.
The truth is that Haiti is now engulfed in a fight
between right and wrong. Most Haitians want a country
where lawlessness and corruption will cease to be the
way of life, but a small minority both national and
international stand to benefit greatly from the
current state of affairs and will
fight to keep things as they are. As most people in
the world we want to live in a country where we can
raise our families with
dignity and pride. We don't want bullets flying over
our heads as we take our children to school in the
morning.
We are on our way to becoming another statistic or
another tear-jerking American blockbuster movie. The
international community under the pseudo leadership of
the United Nations has developed the terrible habit of
acting after the fact. Hundreds of thousands died in Rwanda and are now dying in Sudan. These are for most, as is Haiti, just a fact mentioned in the 7O'clock news.
Port-au-Prince and its citizens are now hostages to several heavily armed gangs who terrorize, kidnap, rape, murder without mercy. No one is exempt from their wrath, they act in broad day light and they strike everyday under the watchful eyes of the UN troops. A population lives in fear and without hope.
Last night as I wept for my friend, I wept louder for my country caught in an impasse. As I ponder Haiti's fate for this New Year, I leave you Mr. Secretary General not only with best wishes of "Peace,Love and many blessings" but also with a thought: When does the MINUSTAH begin its mission in Haiti? How many must die, how much blood must be shed in order for human greed to be superseded by human dignity and the right to life?
Cassandra Honorat View Photos taken recently by the UN of Haitian Gang members
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