Groups of men sit outside their houses playing cards and dominoes, and street vendors ply their trade late into the evening. We are on our way to most of the basic human rights. Merrill Smith, attorney with Church World Service in Miami issued a report on January 6 documenting more than 70 cases of politically motivated killings during just the first two months of the US occupation. A program for disarming the country was stopped short almost immediately following the US intervention. And many former paramilitaries who were known to have been involved in political killings over the past years are known to be hiding weapons.
Major concerns continue over the extent to which paramilitaries and others have been demobilized.
As a result, crime has been surging in Haiti's urban areas, as the former military use their weapons to steal and rob from businesses, the government, and the military. Unemployment among the military is a major concern, one reason the US has acted quickly to recruit members back into a training program for police service. Major concern also continues over the forcible repatriation of Haitian refugees in violation of International and US law. Some 5000 refugees remained at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, where US officials have begun to return refugees against their will without allowing for hearings or right to political asylum. Not only is the policy inhumane and a violation of international conventions, but it is also a visible double-standard.