We Must Kill The Bandits

[bcholmes]

Last night, THAC got together to view an advance screening of Kevin Pina's film, Haiti: We Must Kill the Bandits. We tried to compile some feedback for Kevin. Primarily, it's about the claim that the UN is in Haiti to fight "the chimeres"/the gang leaders who are causing violence. What the film shows is the indiscriminate violence of the Haitian National Police and the UN.

There's a powerful sequence involving Pina's interviews people of Site Soley just after MINUSTAH went after (and killed) Dred Wilme. The official US response is that there were no civilian casualties, and only 5 people were killed. Pina has interviews very shortly after the attack. One man, whose wife and two children lay dead beside him, described how they were attacked.

There're some interesting moments of conscience, too. There's footage of General Ribeiro Pereira talking about how the Haitian National Police (PNH) would attack rallies and protests and completely sour the relationship between MINUSTAH (who are there to support the police) and the population. The film, sadly, doesn't go on to mention that General Ribeiro eventually quit, after complaining about the international pressure on MINUSTAH to use violence to pacify Haiti.

The footage is just amazing, and there are parts where you're just completely sickened by what's going on, and by the duplicity of the official statements. But there isn't a tidy narrative holding it all together. There are a lot of players involved. If you're not somewhat familiar with some of the names, it can quickly seem overwhelming.

Anyway, we hope to send some feedback to Kevin Pina (he's still tweaking the editing), and hopefully host a public screening some time in the new year.