Tense moments in the Haiti food line
Published: February 17, 2010
CARREFOUR, Haiti — The man bolted from the crowd and jumped onto the back of a moving taxi. A Marine yanked him to the ground, where he was swarmed by other Marines, subdued and flex-cuffed.
It was one a handful of incidents Tuesday in which Marines had to intervene as they worked to keep order at a food distribution point in southern Haiti, where they are supporting the United Nations.
In this case, the man’s wife allegedly stole a ticket for a 110-pound bag of rice, said Maj. James Birchfield, head of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines.
A United Nations peacekeeper from Sri Lanka later gave the bag of rice to the young girl from whom the woman allegedly took the ticket, but once the girl got into a tax with the rice, the woman unexpectedly hopped on, and her husband followed, Birchfield said.
The man was eventually released after he told Marines he thought the younger girl was stealing from his wife. The man’s wife was told to go home.
The food distribution here was less orderly than in the Port-au-Prince area. Most of the trouble occurred as people left the site where they picked up their rice. Once outside, they would stop in a dry open sewer to divide the rice into two or more bags.
Others would descend on them like piranhas to try to scoop out rice for themselves, prompting the Marines to move the crowd back.
Still, Marines say things have calmed considerably since the first day they provided security at the site, when 5,000 people showed up. Since the site opened, the Marines have had to turn over four people to the Haitian police, including one man who was wielding a knife, Birchfield said.
On Tuesday, Marines detained three Haitians who were scalping tickets for bags of rice. Two were handed over to the police and the third released. Another man was taken out of the crowd for allegedly trying to start a fight, Birchfield said. He too was later released.
Still, there is a limit to how much the Marines can do.
When Birchfield got a report of someone selling rice tickets nearby, he suggested calling the Haitian police.
The people selling the tickets were about 15 minutes away, and they would be long gone before a Marine patrol could get there, he explained.
[PHOTO: Jeff Schogol]
