A rise in gang violence and kidnappings in Haiti continues to worry the United Nations, whose top humanitarian official in Port-au-Prince has appealed to the international community to provide support for the country and its people.
Ulrika Richardson, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, said the global organization is beginning to see a timid resumption of fuel distribution in Port-au-Prince after a powerful gang alliance released its hold on the country’s key oil terminal earlier this month. But the daily reality of life in Haiti, she said, remains worrying.
Cholera is rapidly spreading and there is a severe food crisis. And gang violence and kidnappings continue to rise, said Richardson, speaking to journalists Wednesday, a day after the U.N. launched a $145.6 million humanitarian appeal, along with the government of Haiti, to help respond to the cholera and hunger crisis.
The violence, she said, “continues to show very concerning upward trends…. Armed gangs continue to hold more or less 60 percent of the capital in its grip.”
In October, the U.N. said there had been 195 homicides and 102 kidnappings.
Killings and kidnappings by gangs continue despite efforts by the Haiti National Police to clamp down. In recent weeks, police have killed a number of gang members and made numerous arrests.
One high-profile arrest involved a divisional police inspector, Pierre Wakin, who is assigned to the palace’s security detail. Waking was arrested Friday while aboard a Toyota Land Cruiser coming from Belladère, which borders the Dominican Republic, when he was stopped by police just east of the capital.
He was found with 4,000, 5.56 caliber cartridges; 41 9mm caliber cartridges, three Glock 9mm pistol magazines; a 9mm caliber pistol and $186,900 in U.S. dollars. He’s being accused of trafficking in ammunition and criminal association. In a video police put out touting the arrest, Wakin says he was delivering the illegal arms for the owner of a hotel to someone in Delmas 31. He acknowledged on video that he was aware of what he was transporting.
Wakin’s arrest came mere days after the Dominican newspaper Listín Diario reported that Dominican border guards had arrested Midrene Manessa Millien, the wife of the vice-delegate of Belladère, in Elias Pinas, with 22,160 cartridges — 12,000 of them 7.62 millimeter caliber and 10,160 of them 5.56 millimeter caliber— in a Lexus jeep headed for Haiti. Millien was traveling aboard a white Lexus jeep along with another woman, Fara Josef, and a minor child.
Despite such efforts to crack down on the illegal trafficking of weapons, Haiti police continue to face challenges in providing security as Haitians continually find themselves trying to stay safe from abductions.
Human rights groups have confirmed several gang-orchestrated killings since Nov. 1.
There was also a report of the killing of 17 street merchants on Nov. 6 in the hills above Port-au-Prince in the area controlled by the gang Ti Makak. The disturbing images of the victims’ bloodied corpses, which included four women, were shared widely on social media. The next day, another 10 people were reportedly killed in a community between Carrefour and Petionville.
The violence isn’t just isolated to Port-au-Prince. There have been deadly clashes in Petite Rivière in the Lower Artibonite region, north of the capital, as gangs set fire to homes and kill those in their path.
“The reality of the country has not changed,” said Gédéon Jean, a lawyer who runs the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, which monitors kidnappings.
Jean said while the resumption of fuel in many places is welcome, the gang blockade of the Varreux fuel terminal and the country’s seaports, which left Haitians without food, fuel or drinking water, was part of a larger, deepening crisis.
“The gangs are still here,” he said. “While we saw Varreux get unblocked, there was a massacre in Carerfour Feuilles and the gangs are still showing force. There is a still a necessity for an outside force to come to support the police.”
Haiti’s interim government recently asked for the rapid deployment of an armed force to help police create a humanitarian corridor to get aid to those who need it. The United States and Mexico have introduced a resolution in the U.N. Security Council supporting the deployment of a multinational force consisting of foreign police and military personnel. But the request has been met with resistance from China and Russia, which sit on the council and do not want Haiti placed back under U.N. Security Council oversight, and from reluctant nations not willing to field a force.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said last week that conversations are ongoing with partners from around the world about the potential for a mission endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
“We believe that such a mission would be important to be as an enabling element to what the Haitian national police and Haitian authorities are already doing,” he said. “There is still urgency. The status quo remains untenable. It remains untenable for the Haitian people. We hope to see continued improvement in the humanitarian situation. The actions of the Haitian national police may lead to further improvements. But there continue to be longer-term challenges that an enabling force authorized by the UN Security Council would be able to help address.”
Earlier this week, the U.S. led discussions in Jamaica with Caribbean Community representatives and Canada about the situation in Haiti and a potential mission to the country. The U.S. would like for Canada to take the lead, but the country has yet to say if it will.
In the meantime, the U.S. and Canada are relying on visa cancellations and sanctions. Among those who recently had their visas canceled were the ministers of justice and interior in the current interim government. The current president and former president of the Senate were sanctioned.
The State Department and the FBI are hoping that the recent indictment of several gang leaders, and a reward of $1 million per person for information leading to the arrest of the indicted gang chiefs, will help stem the flow of violence and send a message.
“It is a joint effort,” said a federal official. “We are looking to make sure that these individuals are brought to justice.”
The official said this is not the first time the U.S. has offered a reward to capture someone in a foreign territory responsible for the kidnapping of an American citizen or resident. The official said authorities are looking for concrete information leading to arrests.
“We always operate in full confidentiality; so we do take any information, but we don’t provide any information outside of that,” the official said.
The official acknowledged that kidnappings in Haiti have kept federal agencies busy, and today they are looking to “have an impact on the safety and security of American citizens traveling back and forth to Haiti.
“We want to make sure that the the Haitian population understands that we are indeed involved, although not a lot of the work that we do make the papers or make the social media networks. We are always working in the background.”
