Canada’s ambassador to Haiti, Claude Boucher, demonstrated a remarkable indifference to Haitian suffering two weeks ago.

In a January 15 interview with Haiti’s Radio Solidarité, Boucher offered unrestrained praise for the UN military forces currently occupying Haiti (identified by the French acronym MINUSTAH), and urged them to “increase their operations as they did last December.” These forces have operated in Haiti with Canadian backing since shortly after Haiti’s elected government was overthrown in a coup d’état in February 2004.

Ambassador Boucher’s reference to the operations of “last December” is an unmistakable reference to a December 22 MINUSTAH/Haitian National Police attack on the neighbourhood of Cité Soleil, marketed by its architects as an action against “armed gangs” that they blame for a recent spate of kidnappings. Launched at 4:30 a.m., this “operation” deployed some 400 heavily armed troops, carried in armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and backed by helicopter gunships, into two densely populated residential areas of Port-au-Prince.

Quite predictably, and in keeping with previous such operations, the raid left at least 12 innocent civilians dead and over 30 others wounded, including women and children. The report from Reuters filed late on December 22 showed photos of a row of dead bodies, as well as a wounded young boy being carried by two distraught women.

John Carroll, a U.S. doctor, spoke to eyewitnesses and victims of the attack in early January. They recounted to him that MINUSTAH helicopters had shot down onto residents throughout the operation. They told him that UN APCs had roared into the Bois Neuf and Drouillard districts before dawn and started shooting. The thin, corrugated tin walls of the housing there were no match for the troops’ heavy automatic weaponry. The bloody result has been dubbed the “Christmas Massacre” — between 12 and 20 killed, and over 30 others wounded including numerous women and children.

Even the acknowledged facts of this episode are deeply disturbing. This was a military assault carried out against a residential neighbourhood by the very military force — UN “peacekeepers” — that is charged with protecting that same population.

A media database search reveals that in the English-language Canadian media, neither of the two national dailies reported these civilian killings. The Toronto Star was the only newspaper to run segments of a Reuters report that gave a casualty figure of nine people killed. No English language newspapers in Canada published the report from the bilingual Agence France Presse (AFP) that indicated that at least 12 people had been killed and “several dozens” had been wounded — for a combined casualty figure over 40. The only major newspaper in Canada that ran this report was the relatively low-circulation Le Devoir.

Even the higher, unreported AFP figures may in fact under-report the casualties. One Haitian human rights organization, known by the acronym AUMOHD, has reported 20 killed — and even provided an initial set of victims’ names. The Haitian newsweekly Haïti Progres cited eyewitnesses who also stated that over 20 people were killed. This report included a front-page photo of five of those killed.

A December 22 report from Agence Haitienne de presse (AHP) cites residents who reported “very serious property damage” following the UN attack, and concerns that “a critical water shortage may now develop because water cisterns and pipes were punctured by the gunfire.” The same day, AHP published the comments of Cité Soleil Red Cross coordinator Pierre Alexis, who complained that UN soldiers had “blocked Red Cross vehicles from entering Cité Soleil” to help the wounded.

The MINUSTAH press office issued a statement on December 26 denying that they had interfered with the Red Cross and refusing to acknowledge any civilian casualties resulting from the operation.

The deployment of military force in districts where civilians are likely to be victimized is, in fact, a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This Convention, a cornerstone of international humanitarian law, obligates all parties to military engagements (or territorial occupation) to extend protection to civilians.

The same Convention also prohibits both collective punishment and military interference in the provision of medical assistance to the wounded. In other words, the “operations” that Ambassador Boucher unashamedly praised last week may constitute, in fact, serious war crimes.

Worst of all, this praise — and the continuing silence from other “relevant” diplomats in Haiti — has clearly been interpreted by the MINUSTAH leadership as a “green light” to continue launching reckless attacks in populated neighbourhoods where civilians are very likely to be killed. Before dawn on January 24, another identical assault — APCs, helicopters, heavy weapons — was launched by MINUSTAH troops against Cité Soleil. This time, both BBC and AFP reported five killed and 12 more wounded — including three women, one of whom died of her injuries.

Once again, MINUSTAH spokespersons refused to acknowledge that any civilians had been left killed and wounded by their operations, saying only that no MINUSTAH forces were injured, and “no definitive count could be made on the side of the criminals.”

As long as MINUSTAH is able to issue statements such as this, which criminalize the entire population of Cité Soleil and other poor neighbourhoods, and so long as the Canadian Ambassador issues praise for such lethal operations, we should expect to see the body count rise in the coming days and weeks. It will be well worth watching the reactions of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to see if they share Ambassador Boucher’s assessment.