2:00

there were bodies strewn outside the Kenyan

2:02

Parliament in Nairobi and at least 20

2:05

protesters were killed. Haiti's Prime Minister

2:07

Gary Canil, who received the delegation,

2:09

said the Kenyans were there to

2:11

help stabilize the country enough so

2:13

that it can hold elections. We

2:15

will move slowly to retake the country without major

2:18

fights unless it is necessary.

2:30

Does doing this without major

2:32

fights actually seem realistic? I

3:00

was there in 2017 during the big post-election protests

3:02

and I saw that unit act in ways that

3:04

were both ruthless and inept. During

3:13

that period, security forces in Kenya killed

3:15

dozens of protesters. Haiti's Prime Minister did

3:17

leave room for a negotiation but he

3:20

also said that a prerequisite for that

3:22

would be that the gangs have to

3:24

lay down their arms and recognize the

3:27

authority of the Haitian state. So there's

3:29

worry about this confrontation. The country director

3:31

for Mercy Corps, one of

3:33

the big charity organizations in the country, issued

3:36

a statement today expressing his concern about the

3:38

deployment. He said Haiti is already at a

3:40

breaking point. Nearly 1.6 million

3:42

people are on the brink of starvation.

3:44

He said this deployment could, quote, escalate

3:47

violence and endanger civilians as gangs might

3:49

use them as human shields. Well, the

3:51

international mission is there in Haiti now.

3:53

Any sense of when they're likely to

3:55

begin their work? We don't know that.

3:58

Neither Haiti nor Kenya nor... the US which

4:00

is funding this mission have given much detail

4:03

and it's worth noting that there are a

4:05

lot of essential things we don't know. For

4:07

example, we don't know what the terms of

4:09

engagement are and we don't know who will

4:12

be in command of the mission. Do you

4:14

have any sense from your visit last month

4:16

of how Haitians are feeling about the mission?

4:19

I asked a lot of Haitians how they felt

4:21

about this deployment and what I got was a

4:23

lot of shrugs and the contact is important. Haiti

4:26

has lived through many international interventions.

4:28

In 1915 the US

4:31

occupied it for nearly 20 years and in

4:33

2004 the UN sent a mission

4:35

that sounds very familiar. It was supposed to stabilize

4:37

the country just enough to get it to elections.

4:39

Instead it lasted for 13 years.

4:41

It was dogged by allegations of sexual abuse

4:43

and its troops were responsible for a cholera

4:45

outbreak that killed some 10,000 Haitians.

4:48

So many of the Haitians I spoke

4:50

to have little trust in the international

4:52

community or their own government and a

4:54

lot of Haitians I spoke to told

4:56

me the same thing. The only one

4:58

who can get Haiti out of this

5:00

crisis is God. It's NPR's Adir Peralta

5:03

talking to Ari Shapiro. You can hear

5:05

more of Adir's reporting from Haiti on

5:07

this weekend's Sunday Story Podcast. You'll find

5:09

that in NPR's Up First Feed on

5:11

Sunday. That's

5:17

the State of the World from NPR. Thanks

5:19

for listening. I'm

5:23

Rachel Martin. After hosting Morning Edition for

5:25

years I know that the news

5:28

can wear you down. So we

5:30

made a new podcast called Wild Card

5:32

where a special deck of cards and

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a whole bunch of fascinating guests help

5:36

us sort out what makes life meaningful.

5:38

It's part game show, part existential

5:40

deep dive and it is seriously

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fun. Join me on Wild Card

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wherever you get your podcasts only

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from NPR. Hey it's Aisha Roscoe

5:49

from NPR's Up First podcast. I'm

5:51

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