More than a dozen progressive organizations in the US and Haiti have sent a letter to Sec. Clinton expressing concern that the US government may hired private security firms to work in Haiti. The letter details (citing news and analytical reports) a list of human rights scandals that these firms have been engaged in, including child trafficking and murder. It also notes that private security firms
…have routinely been implicated in accusations of financial mismanagement. The problem of poor oversight has directly led to what Congress’s own Commission on Wartime Contracting has called “fiscal hemorrhaging.” (p.2)
Reading some of the articles cited in the letter, it becomes clear that fighting corruption in the reconstruction efforts in Haiti will mean making sure that foreign contractors, donor nation employees, and NGOs act in a transparent fashion. To date, most press and pundit coverage of corruption in Haiti has focused on Haitians, not NGOs and private contractors. One of the earliest posts on the web site mentions a report on the impact of UN peacekeeping in many nations that mentions the frequent connection between peacekeeping forces and increases in prostitution and trafficking in women.
The letter closes with:
Finally, we request that you reiterate your support for the Stop Outsourcing Security Act that was reintroduced in February 2010 by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL) in the House and Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) in the Senate. The U.S. has only begun to rebuild its image in the world; we should not turn our backs on this progress now.
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