Haiti Voodoo Killings Rise As Cholera Epidemic Rages: Report

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — At least 45 people have been killed across Haiti due to accusations they are using "black magic" to spread cholera, the director of a Voodoo association said Friday.

Most of the killings are occurring in the coastal town of Jeremie, where people are being lynched, set on fire and attacked with machetes, said Max Beauvoir, a Voodoo priest. But he said killings also have been reported in Cap Haitien and the Central Plateau.

Local police did not return calls seeking comment on Beauvior's numbers on Christmas Eve, though The Associated Press reported in early December that national police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said machete-wielding mobs had killed a dozen people accused of practicing witchcraft to spread cholera.

Andre Leclerc, a U.N. police spokesman, said Friday he had received reports of only a couple of killings recently, but said that Beauvoir would have more exact figures.

Fear and confusion have surrounded the cholera epidemic, which has killed more than 2,400 people and could affect another 600,000 or more, experts say.

The United Nations recently created an international scientific panel to investigate the source of the deadly epidemic, which many Haitians suspect could be a U.N. base in Meille, outside the central plateau town of Mirebalais.

Beauvoir said he has contacted police to no avail, asking them to prevent further killings.

Roughly half of the 9.6 million people who live in Haiti practice Voodoo, also known as Vodou, a blend of West African and Christian religion.

The cholera outbreak hit Haiti as it struggles to recover from a devastating magnitude-7 earthquake that killed 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless.

Comments

[Steelsil]

08:04 PM on 12/28/2010

I don't know why Pat Robertson dislikes Haiti - It seems to me that the triumph of religion over science is common there, which is surely Pat Robertson's goal.

[BlackYowe]

01:47 AM on 12/28/2010

So why are we showing crosses in the picture they have nothing to do with voodoo!

[Pandoras Folly]

11:13 AM on 12/28/2010

actually voodoo is an amagulmation of many religions. quite a lot of practioners use crosses as holy foci while praying to Loa like St. John or Mary. also stars of david, the eye of Ra and other symbols all find their way into someones voodoo practices.

[Estevan Benson]

02:26 PM on 12/30/2010

Vodou has a very syncretic relationship to Catholicism. Catholic saints correspond with Vodou spirits.

[Sam Badger]

09:01 PM on 12/27/2010

Lets remember that voodooists are the victims here. This is the haitian equivalent of the salem witch trials ... basically, people with less-than-conventional spiritual practices get blamed by ignorant people who assume all pagan practices are witchcraft, and traditionalist abrahamic leaders like Mr Robertson are more than happy to fan the flames.

Of course, there are some "black magicians" in voodoo as in santeria and other african-diasporic faiths, but not all voodooists are "black magicians", and it would be better to have a traditional legal system go after those people while protecting the "good" voodooists.

[Pandoras Folly]

11:15 AM on 12/28/2010

and remember its anyone with Real magical powers would never get caught. only unpopular little old ladies, outcasts, and other such peoples are attacked as scapegoats for the communities problems.

[alahnar]

06:45 PM on 12/27/2010

I'm shocked that all these so-called civilized people on this thread have the audacity to say that this is all because Haiti is a playing field for the devil. Many people think that Haitians bring them on themselves...and we, as an educated society, are supposed to buy into that crap? Haitians practice voodoo, so they must have brought a curse on their country, and therefore, they deserve all these natural disasters? You know who you people sound like? Kings and queens of the dark ages, saying peasants get what they deserve because they're born into filth. That's who you sound like. It's disgusting and anyone who thinks like that should be ashamed of themselves.

[Steelsil]

08:05 PM on 12/28/2010

It seems to me that Pat Robertson has a great deal in common with the typical Haitian, actually.

[media4me]

03:58 PM on 12/27/2010

No wonder chicken prices are high.

[TXfemmom]

11:04 AM on 12/27/2010

How do we think that we can change and improve the lives of people who are so superstitious and behave and kill people in this manner?  My heart broke for the Haitians and their predicament after the earthquake, but how can any organization or any group help to improve the lives of people who cling to this sort of behavior? 
 
 

[tiger1980]

01:05 PM on 12/27/2010

It's complicated... and part of the problem is HuffPost (usually great) failing to do the necessary investigative reporting. I live in Jeremie and explained much of the underlying issue in a previous comment. Now I add... with no effective rule of law, vigilanteism (and this "sort of behavior") is not unexpected.

Get rid of the corrupt leaders, install a rule of law and this stuff may eventually end. But even when people try to vote, they got -- at best -- widely disenfranchised as many people were not given the proper ID before election day. And now civil war looms as a result.

[media4me]

03:59 PM on 12/27/2010

BHO has done such a great job down in little New Orleans.

[rougebaisers]

07:03 AM on 12/27/2010

There is absolutely no hope for the people on this island. No hope at all.

[media4me]

04:00 PM on 12/27/2010

I thought hope and change sent a lot of aid down there.

[PSolver]

02:06 AM on 12/27/2010

Haiti is Hell on Earth. Has been for a long time. There is no moral value, no rationale, no respect for people, place, or things. There are no homes, no jobs, no education, no qualification. There is no one to look up to, no leader, no guidance. No Hope. Evil has been Ruler for years. Long before the quake. Why are there no homes built, no schools, no solid ground. Where are all the monies collected from all over the world? Where are all those international Funds? Red Cross? the Bush and Clinton? (whom you haven't heard from since), Wyclef? what resort did the President run to with his family? hush, hush... there are few outsiders there who cannot do it all. The land is cursed, the people are smoking wacky weed, crazy, illiterate, dirty, red eyed out of their minds. Rape of young and old. Roaming like wild dogs. Realizing the world will talk about them and they'll be famous. This situation will only get worse ... there will be no recovery. How about an accounting though? The Red Cross has all that money, what did they build? a 5 star resort hotel? where's all that tsunami money? hush, hush ... new beach resorts and private homes in a country where it's ok to lay with children?

[Veroniqua]

02:27 AM on 12/27/2010

And you know all this because you are either Haitian or have visited Haiti at least once in your lifetime, right?

[novodia9]

01:57 PM on 12/27/2010

I know very educated haitians. Ones studying to be a nurse in the us, and the guy that worked for my uncle was a professor. The government is vile and corrupt. The people are very superstitious, and they've been suffering for a long time. In 2009 it was something like three back to back hurricans, 2010, mega earthquake, 2011 onwards cholera. Many people in the Caribbean believe that the Haitians are bringing it upon themselves because of their voodoo practices.

[alahnar]

06:42 PM on 12/27/2010

Oh. my. god. You sound like a crazy person.

[Butterfly M]

12:30 AM on 12/27/2010

“First, stop the evangelica­ls from denigratin­g their faith.. its usually, the christians who provoke the unbeliever­s...and then they cry uncle.”

[cliffhammond]

11:18 PM on 12/26/2010

If you recall, the Ugandan missionary who visited Wassila AofG for a prayer, healing and deliverance service, and who pronounced Sarah Palin free of demonic possession (at least at the time of the 2008 elections), was accused of fomenting panic just like the one described in the article above. He had "preached against" witches on several occasions because they were causing all sorts of bad luck to fall upon the villagers. My point is that this isn't all that far out of the mainstream for the American people.

[cliffhammond]

11:09 PM on 12/26/2010

We'd better get Pat Robertson and a team of exorcists down there right away.

[okami]

11:01 AM on 12/27/2010

Pat says it's due to their 'deal with the devil'.

[duuwanye]

09:49 PM on 12/26/2010

I hope Pat Robertson doesn't find this out.

[cliffhammond]

11:10 PM on 12/26/2010

I should have looked before I posted. You beat me to it and I didn't have a clue.

[TheLadyOphelia]

09:05 PM on 12/26/2010

During the times of the Black Plague in Europe, people did not understand where this death-dealing disease was coming from. They would pick out scapgoats - a handicapped person, an old lady, a unpopular resident, or a mentally handicapped person - and blame them for the disease; burning and hanging them. What is happening in Haiti is not at all different except that the resident religion of VooDoo (could be any religion for that matter) is the vehicle with which the population carriers out these atrocities. Fear - not VooDoo - is what is causing this.

[3daywkend]

11:36 PM on 12/26/2010

Why is Haiti still in the middle ages? That's the big question.

[blutigeroo]

11:45 PM on 12/26/2010

Blaming scapegoats was never limited to the middle ages.

[TheLadyOphelia]

12:05 AM on 12/27/2010

Probably because they live in extreme poverty.

[Quackers]

11:43 PM on 12/26/2010

"Fear - not VooDoo - is what is causing this."

Mostly correct, but the fear is present because of ignorance (lack of education).

[smi2le]

08:54 PM on 12/26/2010

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/cuban-medics-in-haiti-put-the-world-to-shame-2169415.html

They are the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America's doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate. Except these heroes are from America's arch-enemy Cuba, whose doctors and nurses have put US efforts to shame.

[tiger1980]

08:19 PM on 12/26/2010

Voodoo allows for some people to "trade" the souls of individuals for favors to certain gods. Those "favors" occur throughout the year, but the debts must be paid by the end of the calendar year.

With the end of the year approaching, debts are being paid.

These debts include souls that have been traded throughout the year. So it's been said that one or more people in Grand Anse have committed murder in a conclusion to favors made by the gods throughout 2010.

So initially those who were murdered had their deaths blamed on cholera.

But Grand Anse residents felt there was more to the story... including voodoo.

As such, they've taken matters into their own hands and necklaced people very publicly.

No doubt the story is much more complicated, but come on HuffPost! You guys are normally awesome... you can do better than this!