ARTICLE - UN - STUDENTS CONFLICT

UN PEACEKEEPERS CLAIM STUDENTS ATTACKED, UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS SAY PROVOCATION
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The UN peacekeeping mission denied on Wednesday that Brazilian peacekeepers tried to violate the space of the State University on June 15, instead saying that it was students who attacked its soldiers by throwing rocks and bottles.

The Head of Communications for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, Eliane Nabaa denied any information stating that peacekeepers tried to enter the School of Humanities (FASCH) at the State University of Haiti.

Eliane Nabaa said that peacekeepers on Avenue Christophe in Port-au-Prince were on patrol, and that "people friendly spaces are inviolable including the University..."

Rather, Nabaa said, "the Brazilian soldiers were conducting a routine patrol when they were attacked, for unknown reasons; with stones and broken bottles, by members of the public and students."

The windshields of vehicles were smashed and a slight injury was recorded, according to Ms. Nabaa who stressed that peacekeepers were forced, she said, to fire into the air, with rubber bullets, to gain control of the situation.

But, officials at the university said, a bullet entered the door on the inside of the FASCG. This caused a great panic.

Following the incidents of Friday, more informed voices have been raised to denounce what they called a provocation by MINUSTAH soldiers.

In a written statement issued June 18, the coordinator of the Faculty of Humanities required explanations and clarifications, noting that three times, the peacekeepers had tried to enter the inviolable space of the university; thus disrupting the midterm exams, and a joint meeting which was held there, which caused its adjournment.

The Rector of the State University of Haiti (EUH), Jean Vernet Henry, also saw in the act of peacekeepers, a provocation.

"It's a challenge because, besides the fact that the university area is and remains inviolable, nothing justifys the presence of soldiers at the entrance of an institution such as the FASCH, which is at the end of a lane of a residential area," said Mr. Henry, who also asked students to remain calm and not give in to provocations.

The information secretary of the National Union of Haitians Professors (UNNOH), John Willy Belfleur , stated that this was not at their first attempt in this form of violation of the rights of Haitian citizens and institutions of the country by UN peacekeepers, and noted that in 2009 students had been beaten, arrested and humiliated within the UEH's National School of Arts (ENARTS), Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) and the Faculty of Ethnology.

Belfleur called on Haitians to intensify the fight for the departure of peacekeepers from the country.