VZCZCXRO2534
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #1439/01 2831830
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091830Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8982
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 2091
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1659
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 001439 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX, WHA/CAR AND S/CRS 
WHA/EX PASS USOAS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
NSC FOR FISK 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR AND OMA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV EAID PREL HA
SUBJECT: CITE SOLEIL - REPOSITIONING A HAITIAN ICON 
 
REF: A. PORT AU PRINCE 583 
     ¶B. PORT AU PRINCE 1307 
     ¶C. PORT AU PRINCE 1317 
 
¶1.    (U)  This message is sensitive but unclassified ) 
please protect accordingly. 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
2     (U)   Cite Soleil, historically the most volatile zone 
in Port-au-Prince and a base for crime on a nationally 
destabilizing scale appears to have lost some of its 
explosive social potential.  Two recent social and natural 
disasters here underlined this change.  USG efforts through 
the Haiti Stabilization Initiative (HSI) have been a 
significant factor in moving Cite Soleil towards a degree of 
normalcy.  However, Cite Soleil now shares in the trials of 
Haiti as the country enters into a difficult period in the 
wake of tropical storms Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶3.    (U)   Over the last decade, Cite Soleil, a bitterly 
poor slum of 300,000 inhabitants became the icon of Haiti's 
dysfunctionality and lawlessness.  Heavily armed gangs took 
control of the slum after attacking and overrunning police 
stations in Cite Soleil with the population,s support in 
¶2004.  During 2005 and 2006 they drove the institutions of 
the Haitian state from the urban third of the commune ) the 
Town of Cite Soleil ) and used it as a base for criminal 
forays, particularly for kidnapping, an activity that became 
so prevalent that by the end of 2006 it was having an impact 
on the whole country.  The Brazilian Battalion (BraBatt) of 
MINUSTAH took Cite Soleil back in a series of sharp urban 
firefights between December 2006 and February 2007. 
 
------- 
Changes 
------- 
 
¶4.    (U)   Cite Soleil maintains the image of one of the 
most dangerous and violent quarters of metropolitan 
Port-au-Prince along with the Martissant/Cite Eternel 
neighborhoods south of downtown.  However, there is evidence 
that the old image of Cite Soleil is becoming, or has become, 
obsolete.  Over the last year economic activity in Cite 
Soleil has grown to the point where Avenue Soleil is a busy 
thoroughfare.  During the food riots which rocked Haiti in 
April of 2008 (Ref A), Cite Soleil remained calm and free of 
violence.  Work on USG-funded projects continued in Cite 
Soleil, while most of the Port-au-Prince area shut down.  A 
UN Civilian Police Officer was killed in downtown 
Port-au-Prince, an attack made on the Haitian Coast Guard 
near Martissant, and access to the south of the country was 
blocked by barricades of burning tires.  By contrast the main 
artery to the north of the country which abuts Cite Soleil 
remained unobstructed the entire week.  While some citizens 
of Cite Soleil joined the demonstrations against high food 
prices in other parts of Port-au-Prince, they did so as 
individuals, and not as organized or spontaneous groups. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Causes  -  Why was Cite Soleil different? 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.    (U)   As Cite Soleil is the impact area for a major USG 
experiment in civilian-led stabilization, the Haiti 
Stabilization Initiative (HSI), some investigation of these 
circumstances seemed in order.  One aspect is the continued 
presence and activity of MINUSTAH,s BraBatt, which patrols 
Cite Soleil and is a visible guarantor of civil order.  There 
is now a small contingent of thirty six HNP officers 
assigned.  They are well respected by the population, but the 
small number of HNP makes it difficult to claim that this 
unit made the decisive difference.  Some, including a 
prominent businessman and the chief justice of the peace for 
 
PORT AU PR 00001439  002 OF 003 
 
 
Cite Soleil, gave credit to HSI.  At the time of the April 
unrest, approximately 5.5 million of the USD 20 million HSI 
budget had actually reached the ground, in the form of 
completed or ongoing projects in community building and small 
infrastructure projects, a large road project, and smaller 
vocational training and justice sector projects.  These 
efforts have improved the living conditions of a large number 
of Cite Soleil residents while providing temporary 
employment.  More importantly, the projects had supported a 
cadre of local community leaders with grassroots support who 
were not interested in joining the riots and demolishing the 
town, unlike the gangs that participated in other places. 
Ongoing projects in Cite Soleil continued through the week 
uninterrupted while much of the rest of Port-au-Prince came 
to a standstill. 
 
------------------ 
Continued Progress 
------------------ 
 
¶6.    (U)   Since that time, the atmosphere in Cite Soleil 
continues to be positive, albeit with continued crime and 
poverty.  One major road project has been completed, and 
another is in the final stages of launching.  The road 
project and a number of smaller street and drainage projects 
under the community building segment of HSI have materially 
improved living conditions and critical drainage.  During the 
recent tropical storms which devastated low-lying areas all 
over Haiti, rumors circulated that Cite Soleil was under 
water.  In reality the Town of Cite Soleil was undamaged. 
When a similar disaster occurred in 2007, 4,000 angry 
displaced people camped out around the Mayor,s office, who, 
in turn, shot his way out of the crowd.  This year, Cite 
Soleil suffered from the same amount of rain but no social 
unrest.  In the last month, there have been two shooting 
deaths at the gateway to Cite Soleil, one of a uniformed 
police officer, though it appears in that case the motives 
were purely personal.  While such violence is disturbing, the 
cases do provide some further evidence of improvement.  In 
2006 the killers would have been acting with complete 
impunity.  In the present day cases the HNP acted decisively, 
investigated the crimes, and in both cases now have suspects 
in custody.  They now have the support of the community in 
these investigations, highlighted by the fact that one 
suspect in the shooting of the policeman was turned in by his 
own father. 
 
 
---------- 
Governance 
---------- 
 
¶7.    (U)   In the last few months the ability of the Mayor, 
Wilson Louis (the first elected leader of this newly created 
commune) and his team to lead this community appears to be 
improving.  The elected leaders of Cite Soleil were held in 
extraordinarily low esteem in an HSI-funded survey in 
November 2007, with an approval rating of eight percent. 
Mayor Louis succeeded in moving a large, reluctant and vocal 
community of small merchants to a new HSI-funded market 
without the use of overwhelming force or provokinging unrest 
or violence.  In contrast, the mayor of upper class 
Petion-Ville had to use force to move street vendors into a 
new market.  This change may be assisted by the recent 
ramping up of HSI's strategic communications segment, where a 
great deal of effort has been put into the cultivation of 
Haitian journalists of all media (radio to explain HSI to 
Cite Soleil, print to explain HSI to the middle and upper 
classes of Haiti). 
 
---------------------- 
Conclusion and Comment 
---------------------- 
 
¶8.    (U)   Progress in Cite Soleil is palpable.  HSI and 
other efforts have gone a long way to making Cite Soleil a 
peaceful, albeit poor neighborhood.  It is no longer the 
destabilizing enclave that it was in 2006.  The reaction to 
social or natural disasters is no longer as bitter or 
violent.  There seems to be greater civility on all sides. 
 
PORT AU PR 00001439  003 OF 003 
 
 
Some indicators of conflict drivers collected by the 
Measuring Progress in Conflict Environments tool support this 
analysis.  However, the situation there remains fragile, and 
progress in this difficult and desperately poor zone could 
easily be overwhelmed by broader negative events in Haiti. 
Cite Soleil shared the increase in food and fuel prices with 
all parts of Haiti, and will share any further shocks and 
hardships with the rest of the country as it recovers from 
the blows of tropical storms Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike (Refs 
B and C).  Although we should not forget the success stories 
we have generated, continued involvement in Cite Soleil by 
international donors, national partners and GOH institutions 
will be key to maintaining and expanding the gains that HSI 
helped foster. 
TIGHE