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U.N. REPORT: HAITI SITUATION IS ‘CATACLYSMIC’

March 30, 2024 at 3:55 a.m.

by EDITH M. LEDERER The Associated Press

 * 
 * 
 * 


People look for salvageable pieces from burned cars at a mechanic shop that was
set on fire during violence by armed gangs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday,
March 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

UNITED NATIONS -- Haiti now needs between 4,000 and 5,000 international police
to help tackle "catastrophic" gang violence that is targeting key individuals
and hospitals, schools, banks and other critical institutions, the U.N. rights
expert for the conflict-wracked Caribbean nation said Thursday.

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Last July, William O'Neill said Haiti needed between 1,000 and 2,000
international police trained to deal with gangs. Today, he said the situation is
so much worse that double that number and more are needed to help the Haitian
National Police regain control of security and curb human rights abuses.

O'Neill spoke at a news conference launching a U.N. Human Rights Office report
he helped produce, which called for immediate action to tackle the "cataclysmic"
situation in Haiti where corruption, impunity and poor governance compounded by
increasing gang violence have eroded the rule of law and brought state
institutions "close to collapse."

The report, covering the five-month period ending in February, said gangs
continue to recruit and abuse boys and girls, with some children being killed
for trying to escape.

Gangs also continue to use sexual violence "to brutalize, punish and control
people," the report said, citing women raped during gang attacks in
neighborhoods, "in many cases after seeing their husbands killed in front of
them."

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In 2023, the number of people killed and injured as a result of gang violence
increased significantly -- with 4,451 killed and 1,668 injured, the report said.
And up to March 22 this year, the numbers skyrocketed to 1,554 killed and 826
injured.

As a result of the escalating gang violence, so-called "self-defense brigades"
have taken justice into their own hands, the report said, and "at least 528
cases of lynching were reported in 2023 and a further 59 in 2024."

The human rights report reiterated the need for urgent deployment of a
multinational security mission to help Haiti's police stop the violence and
restore the rule of law. And it urged tighter national and international
controls to stem the trafficking of weapons and ammunition to gangs and others
-- much of it from the United States.

O'Neill, who was appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. human rights chief, said the
"alarming" targeting of key institutions and individuals began in the last four
or five weeks -- with 18 attacks on hospitals documented, attacks on schools
including one set on fire three days ago, and one of Haiti's elite academic
institutions set ablaze on Wednesday night. Gangs have also stormed Haiti's two
biggest prisons.

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In addition, he said, gangs have made two attempts to take control of the
National Palace, and they are targeting human rights defenders, journalists and
people they see as threats to their continuing control of territory.

Another new element documented by the U.N. human rights team in Haiti, O'Neill
said, is the use of children not only as messengers, lookouts, sex slaves and
cooks, but young teenagers are now involved in front-line activities and attacks
in numbers not seen before.

The closure of the airport and roads has also left about 1.4 million Haitians on
the verge of famine. And, according to the U.N. International Organization for
Migration, the number of people fleeing their homes has increased from 50,000
last July to at least 362,000, "and I would say given the last three to four
weeks, we're probably close to 400,000 if not over that," the U.N. envoy said.

O'Neill said reestablishing security is key, and getting the international
security force on the ground in Haiti is critical and urgent.

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Getting the transitional presidential council officially installed and active is
also "crucial" and "absolutely vital," O'Neill said, expressing hope this could
happen next week. President William Ruto of Kenya has said he won't deploy
police to lead the multinational security operation until he has a Haitian
counterpart, the U.N. expert said.

O'Neill said the trust fund to finance the international police operation also
desperately needs funds.

Haiti asked for an international force to combat gangs in October 2022, and U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for a force last July, he said.

"We're still waiting and every day lost means more people die, and more women
and girls get raped, and more people flee their homes," O'Neill said. "So the
sooner the better."







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