Crisis in Haiti | Canada wants to avoid the mistakes of the past

(Ottawa) Equip national police forces, maintain sanctions against elites and gang leaders, encourage politicians who paint themselves in a corner to step on the paint. Because it does not want to fall into the traps of the past, Canada wants to bet on this rather than on a foreign military intervention in Haiti.

The Canadian government sent its ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, on a diplomatic mission last week. Returning from the Caribbean island, he argues that “impunity” and “corruption of a horrific scale” cannot last.

“We have to make sure, as we have done [en octobre dernier] by delivering armored vehicles, which the National Police of Haiti [PNH] have the necessary equipment and the necessary training. We will continue to do so,” said the former politician in an interview with The PressMonday.

In the same conversation on WhatsApp, Canada’s Ambassador to Haiti, Sébastien Carrière, agrees: “The solution to the long-term problem of security in Haiti is the PNH. The force is getting more and more tired and it has an attrition problem, because there are more people leaving than new ones graduating every year. »

In addition to this security crisis, there are humanitarian crises – 65% of the population is in a situation of high food insecurity, the UN warned in October – and health crises – cholera has made a resurgence in the country –, but also this which looks like a political stalemate.

But in a country where “all around Port-au-Prince, in lawless areas, people live mostly under the control of armed criminal gangs, where women and girls are repeatedly raped by several men in same time”, they must be few to get up in the morning thinking of the person who leads their country, suggests Mr. Carrière.

Haitian politicians to blame

“The entire Haitian political class failed them,” he laments. the politics as usual in Haiti, it has to stop. Everyone painted in a corner, and as Jean Chrétien said, we will have to walk on the paint. They’re all going to have to. And the current prime minister, Ariel Henry, can be part of the solution, the ambassador believes.

However, it is not up to Canada to “replace” the will of the Haitian people either, adds Bob Rae.

In the same vein, the former interim Liberal leader does not advocate foreign military intervention. “External forces have intervened in the recent past. Yes, they managed to bring some order back, but not in a lasting way. For me, the most important element is sustainability,” he explains.

In October 2017, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) left after more than a decade on the ground, not without having provoked a wave of cholera in the country, through Nepalese soldiers.

Since then, there has been no general election, and a president, Jovenel Moïse, has been assassinated.

The next general and presidential elections could take place in 2023.

Meeting of a group on Haiti

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened the Haiti Incident Response Group on Tuesday. Normally, Bob Rae and Sébastien Carrière are there.

The two heads of mission, who met Ariel Henry last Thursday, should make certain recommendations. Without wanting to reveal beforehand what they will propose, they display a bias for adding sanctions to elites and gang leaders.

So far, Canada has imposed sanctions on influential people helping to keep Haiti in chaos, including former President Michel Martelly, two former prime ministers, gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, aka “Barbecue”, and economic elites.

The government also granted last November 16.5 million in aid to stabilize Haiti.