Haiti Case Study - The Department of Global Health and Social ...

SECURITY COMMUNITY AND THE HEALTH SYSTEM
How did the security community participate in health system recovery and reconstruction when
responding to the disasters?
55. The Haitian government declared the emergency within several hours after the
earthquake and President René Préval immediately reached out to the international
community to request relief assistance. Nations responded, in large part by deploying
military assets. Nations turned to their militaries to provide response assets for a variety of
reasons including their ability to deploy immediately and in large numbers, their engineering
and logistics capabilities, and their trauma care resources. The Inter-Agency Standing
Committee (IASC) Report gives an overview of international military contributions offered by
single and ad-hoc groups of nations:
Twenty-six countries, including Argentina, Canada, France, Russia, the United Kingdom,
and the US, provided significant military assets in support of the earthquake response,
including field hospitals, troops, military aircraft, hospital ships, cargo ships, port handling
equipment, and helicopters. 51
56. The United States was the largest bilateral responder to Haiti’s earthquake given its
proximity and numerous historical and political ties to Haiti. More than a dozen US
government agencies participated in the response, which was led by the US government’s
development office, the USAID. The US Department of Defense under Operation UNIFIED
RESPONSE provided the overwhelming bulk of the United States’ relief contribution,
deploying 22,000 personnel, 17 ships—including a hospital ship and several large
amphibious ships equipped with tertiary care hospitals—and more than 100 aircraft to the
response effort. These forces were formed into Joint Task Force (JTF) Haiti under the
command of US Southern Command’s Deputy Commander, Lt General Ken Keen, who
happened to be present in Haiti at the time of the Earthquake on an official visit to the
country.
57. Most of the military assets deployed were under national or multinational civilian
leadership and control and were mandated to provide immediate relief. In so doing military
forces participated in a wide range of activities: search and rescue, running the airport,
reopening the port, clearing rubble, distributing aid, directly providing medical treatment,
participating in housing reconstruction plans, and providing security. 52 The US forces were
instructed to “save lives” and “mitigate human suffering” by the Joint Task Force Haiti
commander; the three priorities in this effort were to provide critical medical aid, distribute
food and water, and support search and rescue efforts 53 .
58. Besides providing relief, it was also assumed that security, both for one’s own
responders and for Haiti in general, would be a major concern in the disaster response since
security organizations themselves were severely impacted by the earthquake. 54 The Haitian
police headquarters and 54 Police stations were destroyed in the capital and about 6000
prisoners escaped from unattended or damaged prisons. 55 MINUSTAH itself had been badly
affected by the earthquake.
59. Given the uncertain security situation, Nations had different approaches regarding the
security requirements of their troops: some deployed combat ready security forces wearing
body armour; others arrived in fatigues with only light side arms; and still others adopted a
low military profile with focus on the medical and humanitarian relief 56 . The various postures
were reported to have had an impact on the public perception of their role, with some worried
that the influx of heavily armed troops denoted a military agenda. For example, one Haitian
official said, “they must have thought we were the worst people in the world to come so
heavily armed.”
60. One of the first priorities of the JTF Haiti commander was to coordinate with the
MINUSTAH Commander on the provision of security, for which MINUSTAH, despite its
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