Haitian Street Kids, Inc. - Child Murders - Death Squads

Thursday, November 25 2004 @ 09:34 AM PST

Michael Brewer
Wednesday, November 24, 2004

My name is Michael Brewer, RN, an American who lives in Port au Prince,
Haiti, where I have an organization and home for street kids and runaway restavek
slave children. Being as intimately close to the problem of homeless children
as I am, I feel I must let someone know about a very disturbing trend that has
began to surface again in Haiti.

Carloads of men referred to as "ancient military," who are actually members
of the now disbanded military, have began patrolling the streets of Port au
Prince and are indiscriminately murdering street children for no reason other
than sport. These men prowl the streets of the city in groups of 6 to 10 with
high-powered military assault rifles, shotguns and 9mm pistols, wearing all-black
uniforms with black ski masks over their heads to conceal their identities.
They justify the murders of these boys by referring to them as "vagabonds" and
say that they are "cleaning the streets".

An example of the merciless slaughter of these children happened last
Thursday on the 11th of November between 7:pm and 8:pm in the evening, in a
well-known park located in the Petionville section of Port au Prince named Plais Bois.
Many homeless boys of all ages sleep in this park at night due to lack of help
and facilities or support for these children and the organizations that
attempt to care for them.

Here is what happened: At approximately 7:pm in the evening, a carload of
these ex-military members, whom the people wrongly refer to as "police," drove by
the park and stopped where 20 to 30 children were sleeping. The ones that
were not asleep alerted the others, and they all began to run. Three were caught
by the men: one 7-year old by the name of Linxson, one 12-year-old and a
15-year-old. The boys were first beaten severely. Black bags were then put over
their heads and tied around their necks, and then they were shot and killed. The
bodies were placed in the trunk of the car and taken away from the scene.

One week earlier, a nine-year-old named Emmanuel was running from a group of
these men after he refused to come to them when they called him. They shot him
in the leg with an assault rifle to stop him. Three of the men casually
walked up to where the child was lying on the ground and crying. They ridiculed
him, then shot him again with pistols and a shotgun, for a total of 4 more times.

One of my children, a 14 year old boy named Makinzi, was murdered as he was
walking down the side of the road about three weeks ago. His face was terribly
scared from previous abuse suffered while sleeping on the streets before
coming to our home. While sleeping, passer-bys poured flaming liquid of some sort
over his face and shoulders, resulting in thick, dark scaring from third degree
burns. His self-appointed executioners were heard to say that they thought he
was wearing a mask, and assumed that he must be a thief. I’ve attached a
picture of Makinzi, as well as a picture of another
of my kids that was brutally abused while out on the streets.

The incidents I have given as examples are just a very few of the daily
murders of these children that are committed by these groups of men every day and
night in every part of the city. There are "dump zones" where the decomposing
bodies of little boys can be found any day of the week. I have found many. This
is blatant genocide. The merciless atrocities committed on these defenseless,
harmless and innocent street children go completely unnoticed, unreported,
and uninvestigated.

The terror, insecurity and misery being placed upon these children, whose
lives are already far more difficult and painful than any child should be forced
to endure, is now at an unprecedented level. There is no one for them to turn
to for protection or help except for people like me, and organizations such as
mine, who are in reality powerless to do anything real to stop this. Our
support is at a point now, where we have many days we are unable to feed them more
than once, or even once per day, and our efforts to improve the support for
the children renders very little results so far. The United Nations forces do
nothing and completely ignore this crisis. There is no "real" or effective
police for them to turn to due to the children’s inability to "pay" for the
services or protection of the police. I also find it very ironic that the Brazilian
military forces, now constituting the bulk of the UN presence in Haiti, are
from the very country so well known for the murder and abuse of street children
in their own country. Their inaction and lack of concern regarding these
heinous acts is not difficult to understand when viewed in that context.

If you know of any effective way for this ongoing tragedy that has become an
epidemic to come to light so that effective action may be taken, please do
help get the story out. Or let me know what I may be able to do. I am currently
in the U.S. for a short time attempting to do what I can to seek a solution to
this and other problems. It is the first time I have been back to in the U.S.
for 6 years, and have come now only because of the urgent and critical nature
of the problems at hand.

Thank you and hope to hear from you soon.

Respectfully,

Michael W. Brewer, RN
haitian street kids, Inc.

Plot to dump street kids in youth training camps

The Financial Gazette
Staff Reporter
11/25/2004 7:18:10 AM (GMT +2)

THE Harare City Council is planning to dump more than 7 000 street kids at the controversial national youth training centres in a sweep likely to be replicated in other towns and cities.

Plans are already at an advanced stage to forcibly round up beggars and a hardened army of street children, starting in the capital Harare, as the government battles to stem the spiralling population of street people, sources said.

The plans, according to the same sources, are also meant to give impetus to the government’s controversial national youth training programme, widely seen as a ruse to establish ZANU PF’s hold on young people.

It has been established that the government, which held a meeting recently with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on the rights of children in Zimbabwe, has given the same NGOs three months to conceive a workable plan to deal with the street kids menace.

“If the NGOs fail, then government will proceed with its initial plan of sending these street dwellers to the training camps. This is seen as the only solution to restoring normalcy to the streets of Harare and other towns,” the sources said.
The move to dump street kids in the “propaganda” camps comes at a time the government is making serious plans to expand the existing training centres to all of the country’s provinces.

The youth training camps have come under attack for brainwashing unemployed youths who are allegedly used by the ruling ZANU PF to terrorise citizens during election periods. The government denies the charge, saying students at the camps get lessons on patriotism.

Graduands from the camps, derisively referred to by some Zimbabweans as “Green Bombers”, have been accused of a string of human rights violations, including beatings, torture and rape, charges denied by the government and ruling party.
Harare City Council spokesperson Leslie Gwindi professed ignorance on the intended move to dump street kids from Harare in training camps.

At the meeting held two weeks ago between government officials and representatives from the Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children, the government made it clear that it was now taking steps to “round up street kids and place them in places of safety”.

The government’s suspicious proposal, which was immediately rejected by representatives from NGOs at the meeting, is that street dwellers be placed in “residential care institutions”.

Matters came to a head when the NGO representatives demanded to know “whether they (the government) have the capacity to house more than 12 000 people.

“Our bone of contention was also on the fact that institutionalisation is not the best way forward in dealing with the problem. After they are institutionalised, they are likely to return to the streets,” said Trynos Masengwe, a representative of the National Council for the Welfare of Children.