Haiti’s beleaguered government accuses Canada of delaying its promised delivery of armored vehicles and argues the delay is hampering a plan to eliminate violent gangs from Port-au-Prince.
In an interview on Haitian radio, the acting Minister of Justice, Emmelie Prophète-Milcé, declared that the company which is to supply the armored vehicles “has not kept its word”.
For months, violent gangs have controlled much of the Haitian capital, leading to a shortage of basic necessities and medical care, as well as an increase in sexual assaults.
As part of Canada’s response, Ottawa says it has airlifted armored vehicles that the Haitian government has purchased, which could obviate the need for international military intervention.
But Minister Prophet-Milcé maintains that the majority of the 18 armored vehicles ordered by her country have not yet arrived, and she says that “the police could implement their strategy if all the armored vehicles were delivered on time”.
Global Affairs Canada has not responded to these allegations.
The Minister’s comments come as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to call on Europe and the United States to emulate Canada and sanction Haitian elites.
“For me, the best way to restore stability for Haiti is first to sanction the elites to tell them that they can no longer finance gangs (nor) political instability,” he said. indicated Monday during a public assembly in the Saint-Michel district, in Montreal, which has a large Haitian diaspora.
Canada has imposed sanctions on 17 members of Haiti’s political and economic elite for their alleged ties to gangs. Ottawa notably prohibits them from making financial transactions in Canada. Many of those targeted by the sanctions dispute these allegations and argue that Ottawa acted on shoddy information.
Last December, Mr. Trudeau urged Europe to follow suit. Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, said in January that France could make a difference by also imposing similar sanctions.
Trudeau said Monday he was not satisfied with the responses so far. “The United States started to impose more sanctions. We need them to do a lot more. We need the countries of Europe, France, to do more,” he said.
France said it was instead sticking to a United Nations process to sanction bad actors in Haiti, barring them from visiting most countries and banning them from making financial transactions with foreign entities. This slow UN process has only affected one person since last October.
During an interview in December, the French ambassador to Haiti, Fabrice Mauriès, had criticized Canada’s approach, preferring that of the UN. And “if the sanctions remain Canadian, they will fail,” he told Radio France Internationale.
Military intervention ?
Haiti’s unelected government has called for international military intervention to eliminate the gangs, but this scenario deeply divides Haitians.
The UN has already established that foreign military personnel it supervised during previous deployments to Haiti sexually assaulted residents and caused an outbreak of cholera.
Separately, Trudeau said Wednesday that Ottawa has helped Haiti in many ways since the end of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, but more lasting change is needed.
“We’ve delivered military missions, we’ve built hospitals, we’ve trained police, provided prison guards — we’ve done an enormous amount of response and yet the problems persist,” he said during a briefing. a press conference in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Trudeau also argued for a “new approach” where Haitians are in the driver’s seat. “External intervention as we have done in the past has not worked to create long-term stability for Haiti. »
In any case, the Chief of the Defense Staff doubts that Canada has the military “capacity” to carry out such an intervention in Haiti. “There are so many things to consider […] It would be difficult,” General Wayne Eyre admitted last week in an interview with Reuters.