ARTICLE - DEMONSTRATIONS STIFLE AID

DEMONSTRATIONS IN HAITI STIFLE NORTHWEST AID EFFORTS
(The Seattle Times) - By Hal Bernton

Through a chaotic day of political crises in Haiti, Pacific Northwest aid workers hunkered down Wednesday in their living quarters in the capital of Port-Au Prince. At times, the city seemed strangely quiet, and sometimes there was gunfire. "My staff can do nothing, because there is no possibility to go out," said Christon Domond, World Concern's Haiti country director.

Through a chaotic day of political crises in Haiti, Pacific Northwest aid workers hunkered down Wednesday in their living quarters in the capital of Port-Au Prince. At times, the city seemed strangely quiet, and sometimes there was gunfire.

"Pretty much every half-hour, we hear anywhere from two to five gunshot blasts," said Casey Calamus, of Federal Way-based World Vision, in a telephone interview Wednesday evening. "It started in the early morning, and it's been pretty much all day."

Lisa Hoashi, of Portland-based Mercy Corps, who also heard the gunfire, said the shots appeared to be in the Petionville area, where Haitians angered by election results clashed with police. But it was unclear who was firing and whether they were mostly warning shots.

Hoashi on Wednesday ventured onto a rooftop perch where she saw United Nations peacekeepers with armored vehicles in the Petitionville area, and black plumes of smoke from the fires set to tires and other objects in the streets.

The Associated Press reported that U.N. forces in Petitionville took position outside Haiti's provisional electoral council headquarters situated in a former gym. They fired tear-gas canisters at young men who hurled rocks, and the tear gas washed over a nearby earthquake-refugee camp, sending mothers running from their tarps with their crying, coughing children in tow.

Northwest-based aid groups active in Haiti include Mercy Corps, World Vision and Seattle-based World Concern. They have been involved in rebuilding Haiti in the aftermath of the January 2009 earthquake, and in more recent efforts to combat a cholera epidemic that has claimed some 2,000 lives. Their staffs are largely composed of Haitian workers with a small number of Americans and other international staff.

Hoashi said the city appeared to brace for violence Tuesday in the hours before the election results were announced. Shops closed early in the Petionville. That prompted Mercy Corps to send workers home from its office in that area, and some literally ran down the streets to try to reach residences before the protests erupted, Hoashi said.

By Wednesday, car traffic through the city was stymied by numerous barricades built from cars, tree branches and even latrines hauled out of camps for earthquake victims.

"My staff can do nothing, because there is no possibility to go out," said Christon Domond, World Concern's Haiti country director. "There are many complaints, everywhere in the country. They have burned public offices."

Domond said that his biggest immediate concern is how the election protest will affect their efforts to combat cholera.

His staff can't get out to talk about prevention efforts, and the public won't pay much attention to that message amid all the political violence. He also said that some of the protest actions, such as putting toilets in the street, would likely spread the cholera.

Aid officials also are worried how the political unrest will affect efforts to combat the cholera epidemic outside of Port-au-Prince, including the central plateau region, which has been hard hit by the disease.

"Our folks who are out in that region, which has had a fair share of demonstrations, they are very concerned about not being able to respond," Hoashi said.