December 6: Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in most of Haiti and rioters have been destroying and looting government buildings and burning them down. Reports are that rioters are wielding machetes, firearms and gun fire could be heard throughout the night and continues through today.
One NGO compound has been attacked and looted, written on the wall was NGO = MINUSTAH = Cholera. This is an obvious reaction to the allegation that cholera was brought to and spread in Haiti by the Nepalese UN Peace Keeping contingent.
In Port-au-Prince (PaP) many streets have been blocked with burning tires; it is possible that similar blockades are present on roads leading in an out of PaP, as well as on major streets in other Haitian cities. Vehicles, other than UN have been told to get off the roads
Flights in and out of Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP) have been suspended and the airport has been closed. American Airlines (other airlines to be confirmed) have announced a suspension of all flights to or from Haiti until further notice.
This outbreak started within minutes of the preliminary election results released yesterday. The anger was sparked by word that ruling Unity Party candidate Jude Celestin has advanced to a run-off vote with leading opposition candidate, former First Lady Mirlande Manigat. That election is set to take place Jan. 16. Many feel that third place candidate, Michel Martelly, who apparently trailed Celestin by less than one percent of the vote, was unfairly deprived of second place. Celestin was the candidate of choice of outgoing president Rene Preval. Protesters in Port-au-Prince can be heard chanting “Rene Preval stole the vote.”
The latest report is that Preval is about to give a speech, which could either escalate or calm the situation and we continue to monitor it closely.
I was just amazed , and wrote about it on Facebook, that we can put people on the moon but could not prevent or contain the cholera outbreak in Haiti due to unclean water.