Chattanooga Times Free Press

United Nations Human rights chief wants special forces in Haiti

- BY DÁNICA COTO AND EVENS SANON

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The U.N.’s human rights chief on Friday urged the internatio­nal community to consider deploying a specialize­d armed force to Haiti, warning that violent gangs are creating a “living nightmare” for thousands of people.

The appeal from U.N. Human Rights Commission­er Volker Türk came at the end of a two-day visit to Haiti at the request of a government unable to control gangs that are killing, raping and pillaging in a growing number of neighborho­ods. Violence has spiked in the impoverish­ed country since the July 2021 assassinat­ion of President Jovenel Moïse.

“It is time for the internatio­nal community to help the Haitian authoritie­s regain full control so this suffering can be stopped,” Türk said.

He added that since multiple crises around the world are competing for attention, he fears that “the situation in Haiti is not receiving the urgent spotlight that it deserves.”

Shortly after Türk held a news conference, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti released a 24-page report on what it described as mass incidents of murder, gang rapes and sniper attacks in Cite Soleil, Haiti’s biggest slum. It is in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

“The findings of this report are horrifying,” Turk said. “It paints a picture of how people are being harassed and terrorized by criminal gangs for months without the state being able to stop it.”

The report said that from last July 8 to Dec. 31, at least 263 people were killed and at least 57 women and girls were raped in just one neighborho­od within Cite Soleil known as Brooklyn. That area became ground zero for intense fighting between warring gangs.

During that time, the report said, residents lived in “an almost permanent climate of terror due to the use of snipers that killed, at random, any person who passed in their field of vision.”

Officials added that snipers would stand on schools and other buildings during broad daylight to attack innocent residents, with an average of six people killed or wounded every week. Among the targets were at least 17 women and several children, the youngest just 8 years old.

Gang members also entered houses at random in rival territory, killing at least 95 people this way, including six children, one of whom was 2 years old, the report said. People who tried to flee the violence were killed at makeshift checkpoint­s.

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