Protecting the Fallen at Mass Graves in Haiti

Photo: Haiti-Truth.org

In August, while mapping out new GPS coordinates for unmarked mass graves in Haiti, I discovered that one of the main mass grave sites in Titanyen was once again being used as a landfill for garbage. Though filled with great rage and immense sadness at what I had uncovered, I resolved then and there that this affront to humanity was going to come to an end.

In the wake of these and continued acts of desecration, last week while in Haiti, I set into motion a host of activities with one immediate goal in mind: To provide the dead with the dignity they so rightly deserve by installing either an impenetrable trench around the entire perimeter of the grave site or some form of fencing.

While now is not the time to discuss the behind the scenes aspects of this operation, I’m proud to announce that yesterday morning a group of my Haitians colleagues arrived in Titanyen and began the process of installing a trench around the fallen. Ironically, after years of inactivity by the Haitian Government or the International community, a team of workers representing the government also arrived at the burial site with a mandate to dig trenches and to begin to installing fencing. Though cynics will view their arrival with contempt, I was, nonetheless, heartened by their appearance and the collaborative sense of duty displayed by all involved.

In 2010, I finished a editorial with these words: ‘In a field just north of Port Au Prince, friends, though absent, are still present. Amongst the rubble and debris, they call to us with pleas for respect and dignity. There is no question that their treatment in death is an affront to humanity. The real question is, who will heed their calls?’

Yesterday, the pleas of the dead and forsaken in Titanyen were finally embraced by the living, and the exhale from their anguished souls rose from the earth and washed over me like a whisper from God himself.

This is all I have to say for today…