(San Juan) The United Nations (UN) Security Council on Friday ordered its secretary-general to consider avenues to help combat Haiti’s armed gangs, including a possible peacekeeping force. UN peace and a multinational force.
A resolution passed unanimously by the council calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report on those options within 30 days.
The council also authorizes up to 70 UN police and corrections advisers to step up support and training for Haiti’s understaffed and underfunded national police forces. And he “encourages” countries, particularly in the Caribbean region, to respond to the calls of the Haitian Prime Minister and Mr. Guterres for the deployment of a specialized international force.
PHOTO JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry issued an urgent call last October for “the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the gangs, but more than eight months later, no country has taken the head of such strength.
Guterres, who visited Haiti earlier this month, called last week for a robust international force to help the Haitian National Police “defeat and dismantle the gangs”.
Between January and June, homicides increased by 67.5% compared to the second half of 2022 (2,094 homicides recorded against 1,250), according to the document which mentions certain beheaded victims.
He said the estimate by the UN Independent Expert for Haiti, William O’Neill, that up to 2,000 more anti-gang police are needed is not an exaggeration. Mr. O’Neill, who concluded a 10-day trip to Haiti this month, is an American lawyer who has worked on Haiti for more than 30 years and helped establish the Haitian National Police in 1995.
The gangs have grown in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021 and are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital of Port-au-Prince. The upsurge in murders, rapes and kidnappings led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilantes.
The country’s political crisis is compounded by gang warfare: Haiti was stripped of all its democratically elected institutions when the terms of the country’s 10 remaining senators expired in early January.
The Security Council resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Ecuador, “strongly urges” all countries to ban the supply, sale or transfer of weapons to anyone who supports gang violence and criminal activity. He reiterates the need for all Haitians, with the support of the UN political mission, to establish “a Haitian-led, Haitian-owned political process to enable the organization of free legislative and presidential elections, fair and credible”.