The end of humanity in Haiti's mass graves - Feature

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Death is so normal in a country numbed by disaster that craters gouged out by the earthquake in which putrid, decomposing bodies are dumped have become acceptable. The reality of death in Haiti cannot be described in words and pictures. And as the government closes its eyes to this horror, you wish that you could too. The mass dumping grounds for bodies provide a surreal snapshot of what the earthquake has done to people here - it has robbed them of their humanity.

So, this is what dying in Haiti means: At the National Cemetery, Port-au-Prince's largest, scores of bodies never made it to graves. They were brought here to be left amid the concrete crypts, mourners and rubble of grave stones.

As you enter the cemetery, stung by the stench of death from bodies exposed to the heat, humidity and dust, you can hear the strains of a woman's broken voice singing for the dead. She's surrounded by other women who are holding onto each other to prevent themselves from collapsing in grief. Their cries escalate into shrieks and then anger, and echo through the grounds.

But before you can approach them you have to negotiate your way through bloated bodies that have been discarded on the narrow path. Most of them are covered with flies. Some of them have their hands and legs tied with string. All of them are oozing with pus and faecal matter, the fluids streaming down a slope. Roosters and hens crow over them, pecking at the periphery.

A cemetery implies death with dignity, a calm passage into another world, a quiet end to a life well spent. But not in Haiti, where it seems that all sense of decency has been swallowed up by the earthquake.

Scores of bodies have also been dumped in a large crater in the cemetery. A security guard said that they were brought by locals and not through officials of the government, which has been largely absent in the crisis. They have been tossed like garbage - men, women and children - some with their coffins, others not even given that cover. They lay one on top of the other, even a pregnant woman, as if their lives didn't matter.

Beyond this mass grave and a broken wall is a main road on to which the bodies overflow. One male body was lying in the middle of the road, as cars drove past and people walked hurriedly to avoid the stench, his arms crossed above his head, almost in prayer.

"This is the end of the world," said the cemetery's security guard, Elmond Chere.

In Haiti, there's a rush to dispose of the dead - partly because there is no space to accommodate bodies that are being retrieved from the rubble each day. At one small hospital, Centre Hospitalier Eliazar Germain, there is no morgue and the sole doctor said the gynaecology department was being used to keep bodies.

But the main reason is the fear that decomposing bodies are dangerous. A persistent myth in Haiti is that the dead pose a serious health risk and bodies need to be disposed of quickly to prevent epidemics.

Health experts say that epidemics do not occur spontaneously after a natural disaster and cadavers do not lead to catastrophic outbreaks of disease.

Infectious agents do not survive long in dead bodies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In fact, cadavers pose less risk of contagion than a person who is alive and infected.

"The belief that bodies pose a serious health threat often leads authorities to take misguided action, such as mass burials, which can add to the burden of suffering already experienced by survivors," the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said.

"The worst part of this is that these actions are taken without respecting the processes of identifying and preserving bodies, something that not only goes against cultural norms and religious beliefs but also has social, psychological, emotional, economic and legal consequences that add to the suffering directly caused by the disaster," said PAHO.

People handling bodies do run a slight risk from tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, HIV and diarrhoeal diseases, but these don't last more than two days in a dead body, except for HIV, which may survive up to six days. But in the cemetery there are no such safeguards or the protection given by rubber gloves and boots.

While there is no public health risk associated with bodies, WHO and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the psychological impact could be intense. Overwhelmed doctors in Haiti say they haven't even thought of psychological counseling for survivors.

ICRC officials, who recommended only shallow ditches to cover the dead, said: "People need to be able to identify their relatives. It is important to at least take photographs of those being buried and to note any unique physical markings, like teeth and scars."

They cited the Asian tsunami of 2004 in which people were swiftly buried in mass graves or cremated. "We don't want to repeat those mistakes," the Red Cross said. But here in Port-au-Prince, fresh fatal errors are committed daily.

After any disaster the focus should naturally be on the living, but surely the dead deserve the right to finally rest in peace.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304144,the-end-of-humanity-in-haitis-mass-graves--feature.html.