Displaced Haitians fear expulsion from makeshift camps

Source Inter Press Service

For decades, the Saint Louis de Gonzague school has groomed some of Haiti's most elite political players. Francois Duvalier, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled Haiti for 14 years, sent his son to the school. About 1,500 children of Haiti's wealthiest class attend each year. Within days of the January earthquake, the sparse concrete grounds of the Gonazague secondary school became home to nearly 11,000 Haitian families, driven out of destroyed neighborhoods in central Port-Au-Prince. Now the school's director wants to reopen the school. The government encouraged schools to resume classes on Monday, calling it another small step towards normalcy. The potential reopening of the school has inspired anything but calm among internally displaced people at Saint Louis de Gonzague. They have been threatened with expulsion by force. "Everyone is nervous right now. If they force us to leave it will be second catastrophe," said Elivre Constant, smoking a cigarette in the middle of the crowded camp. "A lot of people here don't have anywhere to go. They have kids. They won't be safe." Constant, a member of the camp's organizing committee, said she heard police would come within days to move people out. "The headmaster threatened us with tear gas," she said.