VZCZCXRO3053
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0404/01 0721715
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 121715Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7868
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1838
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1641
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 1064
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1459

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000404 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM HA
SUBJECT: POSTCARD FROM ST. MARC 
 
REF: PORT AU PRINCE 336 
 
PORT AU PR 00000404  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. Summary: The Haitian National Police (HNP) says the 
security situation in St. Marc, located in the Artibonite 
Department, is stable.  However, the HNP admits that violent 
crime arising from land disputes as well as violence against 
women are widespread and threaten security and stability in 
the area.  Prostitution practiced widely in St. Marc's 
organized red-light district is one of the few economic 
options for women, and it is tolerated by the HNP.  A human 
rights NGO, Groupe d'Action pour la Defense des Droits 
Humains (GADH), which has an established local reputation for 
fighting violence against women and promoting non-violent 
conflict resolution, provides victim assistance in an USG 
funded program.  End summary. 
 
¶2. Poloff visited St. Marc on March 4, a major port city in 
the Artibonite Department.  Poloff met with Marc-Arthur 
Mesidort (president), Charline Luma (legal assistant), and 
Jacqueline Bernard (program manager) for Groupe d'Action pour 
la Defense des Droits Humains (GADH), a human rights NGO. 
Poloff also met with Inspector Gedeon L. Georges of the 
Haitian National Police (HNP). 
 
Security Situation is Stable 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. Georges reported that the security situation in St. Marc 
is stable.  The HNP and MINUSTAH enjoy a good working 
relationship and have dismantled the gangs, including those 
that vied for control of the port.  Currently, the most 
frequent crime at the port is theft of food from food depots. 
 The HNP and the port authority -- which has its own security 
force -- jointly inspect arriving and departing ships, the 
majority of which are from the U.S. and Panama.  (Note: Cars 
and automotive parts are the primary goods in volume and 
value that pass through St. Marc's port according to Georges. 
 End note.)  St. Marc is also blessed with working Teleco 
(the GOH-owned telephone company) telephone land lines and 
receives about eight hours of electricity per day -- in 
contrast to many Haitian provincial cities that have neither. 
 Both the HNP and GADH receive electricity and landline 
telephone service.  Nevertheless, the HNP has insufficient 
cars and firearms, and has no radios. 
 
But Violent Property Disputes are Rife 
-------------------- 
 
¶4. Georges specified that conflicts over property are the 
number one threat to security in his area of the Artibonite, 
which includes the Artibonite river delta, a fertile 
agricultural plain.  Individuals with conflicting land claims 
frequently resolve their disputes with machetes or firearms. 
The HNP must often mobilize riot police to quell this 
violence.  Mesidort and Bernard confirmed that violent land 
disputes are a problem, noting that residents often see 
severed body parts floating down the river.  They said that 
landowners often hide their firearms in tombs and cemeteries. 
 Luma and Bernard claimed that parties frequently call on 
GADH to mediate disputes since residents view the local 
judges as corrupt.  Georges confirmed that land conflicts 
arise directly from the corruption in the judicial sector 
because judges often render their decisions in favor of the 
party that pays the larger bribe.  In practice, Georges 
remarked, judges would one day award the disputed property to 
one party that paid a bribe, only to reverse their decision 
days later, once the losing party re-filed the case under a 
different relative or co-owner and paid a larger bribe.  All 
interlocutors claimed that judges also accepted bribes to 
release criminal detainees from jail.  Consequently, many 
disputing parties resort to violence as the only way to 
settle their disputes or to obtain justice. 
 
As is Violence Against Women 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. Georges claimed (and GADH concurred), that rape and 
physical attacks against women are prevalent in St. Marc and 
the Artibonite.  Aggressors enjoy impunity because they 
either bribe judges or threaten victims' families with harm 
 
PORT AU PR 00000404  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
if the victims do not drop the charges.  Doctors, who 
sometimes try to charge a fee for the free medical 
certificate documenting rape, aggravate the hostile 
environment that many women face.  GADH noted that it is an 
ongoing struggle to ensure that women victims have full 
access to their legal rights.  In response, GADH relies on 
radio programming, with air time donated by the local radio 
station, to disseminate information on victims' legal rights. 
 These programs often result in GADH receiving telephone 
requests to mediate abusive or violent situations between 
partners or spouses. 
 
¶6. Even though the HNP contends with a high incidence of 
physical and sexual abuse of women, HNP Inspector Georges 
does not view the prostitution in St. Marc's well-known 
red-light district as a contributing factor to violence 
against women.  Georges views prostitution as within the 
realm of "individual rights."  As long as the prostitutes do 
not walk the streets, Georges claimed, the HNP will not 
arrest or prosecute them, the pimps, or their customers. 
Georges revealed that the HNP intervenes on behalf of the 
prostitutes only when clients fail to pay or when clients 
physically assault these women.  (Note: Prostitution is 
illegal in Haiti, but there are no specific penalties for 
individuals who engage in related activities such as brothel 
owners/operators, clients, pimps or enforcers.  See reftel.) 
In fact, Georges continued, prostitutes are often HNP 
informants.  Georges claimed they are deployed especially 
against Port-au-Prince criminals who come to St. Marc or the 
Artibonite in order to hide from the 
authorities. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶7. With gangs at the port apparently under control, the HNP 
is addressing other equally serious forms of crime in St. 
Marc.  St. Marc and the Artibonite river delta remain plagued 
by violence with deep social roots that is of a type not 
easily remedied by the HNP.  Much of the lawlessness in St. 
Marc and the Artibonite river delta is spawned by a corrupt 
judicial system, aggravated by the lack of security of land 
tenure.  Human rights NGOs like GADH that understand the 
futility of fighting the corrupt judicial sector end up 
trying to mitigate the resulting human carnage themselves, 
for example by providing victim assistance to women in an 
USG-funded anti-violence program or by offering free conflict 
mediation services. 
 
¶8. Comment continued: Regarding violence against women, St. 
Marc presents a complex dichotomy.  The HNP pursues and 
arrests perpetrators of violence against women, only to have 
these perpetrators released by the justice system.  HNP 
tolerance of prostitution also likely contributes to this 
violence.  Many poor and uneducated women in St. Marc and the 
Artibonite become victims of physical and sexual abuse 
because they are unaware of their legal rights and because of 
the corrupt judicial sector.  Others become victims of sexual 
abuse simply because they are poor and must find ways to earn 
money.  The reality is that prostitution in St. Marc's 
organized, HNP patrolled red-light district remains a viable 
economic opportunity for poor, uneducated women in the 
Artibonite. 
SANDERSON