The number of Haitians killed by criminal gangs in the first three months of this year have skyrocketed, and military group crime remains the key driver of individual- rights abuses in the volatile , Caribbean , country, a new , United Nations , animal rights report , said Thursday.
More than 1, 500 Settlers have died at the hands of trained groups, who continue to support a dangerous siege on Haiti’s funds. The alarming crime is exacerbating an now grave human rights situation, mainly on children, according to the , U. N. High Commission for Human Rights.
Children are increasingly being used by criminals as guards for kidnappings or carrying out military attacks, and are caught in the crossfire and killed during violent attacks.
” The situation of the crime on children is mainly worrying”, the statement said.
Volker Türk, the , U. N. high commissioner for human rights, said dealing with Haiti’s ongoing security issues “must be a major concern to protect the people and prevent further individual suffering”. He is scheduled to present the record on Tuesday in , Geneva.
The attacks on neighborhoods, the recruitment and abuse of children who ca n’t leave gangs ‘ ranks because they fear reprisals, “are outrageous and must stop at immediately,” according to the group’s use of sexual violence by gangs to brutalize, terrorize, and control the population.
The document covers the time between , Sept. 25, 2023, and , Feb. 29, the first day of the latest battle. Through a series of fatal, organized attacks, a united before of armed group leaders have targeted police stations, the major seaport and airports in , Port- au- Prince, and orchestrated the release of thousands of inmates from the country’s two largest prisons. They’ve even set fire to universities, hospitals and pharmacy while expanding the crime into affluent neighborhoods.
” Schools, hospitals, crucial state institutions, everything today is at risk”, William O’Neill, the U. N.’s designated separate expert on human rights, said from , New York. ” Port au Prince and the surrounding area are essentially an open prison. There’s no way out — air, land or sea. People are afraid to leave their homes, so it’s no longer even that way open air.
O’Neill said the reality today in , Haiti , is not only “frightening”, but the human rights situation is “apocalyptic” and” catastrophic”. It’s worse, he said, then in the early 1990s, when while working for the first , U. N. mission, he was tasked with documenting executions, disappearances and” a total crackdown on the media and civil society” following the military overthrow of the country’s first democratically elected president,  , Jean- Bertrand Aristide.
” I’ve talked to Haitians who remember the Duvalier dictatorship, both father and son, Francois and Jean- Claude. They say it’s much worse than under Duvalier. That really is saying something”, O’Neill said.
The new wave of violence has brought with it some worrying development, O’Neill said. They include the rising number of children being recruited, the government’s attacks- twice now, when armed groups have attempted to overtake the , National Palace, and on Wednesday evening, the attack on a top academic institution, and the targeting of human rights activists and journalists.
” This is extremely alarming. According to him, the gangs have used violence against people who they, for whatever reason, perceive as a threat to their continued rule of the areas they control.
Meanwhile, people are being forced to flee. The number of internally displaced persons, he said, have gone from 50, 000 when he visited in October, shortly after being named, to 200, 000 the following month to at least 362, 000 today. Women and girls are becoming more vulnerable because of the surge and increased vulnerability associated with being homeless, especially. It also risks an even greater , humanitarian disaster , as Haitians not only struggle to find healthcare but food: Hundreds of cargo containers at the seaport remain under gang control and the international and domestic airports in , Port- au- Prince , have been closed for four weeks.
” The key overriding issue is security. It needs to be established at a minimum. It is now almost non- existent in almost all of the capital and the surrounding area…]and]also in the , Lower Artibonite Valley, which is the breadbasket”, O’Neill said.
Gang violence has caused at least 10 hospitals and clinics to shut down, forced the closure of schools, and contributed to the escalating poverty in the rural area north of the capital.
According to the report, “gangs in the Artibonite department have taken hundreds of livestock belonging to residents, assets that frequently represent farmers ‘ life savings,” and have also attacked farm properties. ” Furthermore, along the northern coast of the Arcahaie and Léogâne communes, the Village de Dieu gang continues to use motorboats to … attack, loot, and steal from residents, local businesses, and humanitarian actors.
Many have been forced to sell their homes and take out loans, the report continued,” To pay the ransoms that gangs demanded, many have been forced to take out loans.” As gang members flee the upcoming attacks, some people have lost all of their wealth and savings.
Both O’Neill and Türk on Thursday reiterated the need for the urgent deployment of a , U. N. backed Multinational Security Support mission, with the former going a step further: O’Neill, who is American, said he wishes” the , Republicans , in my own country would stop playing games in , Congress , and release the money that the , U. S.  , has pledged.”
Republicans , have raised skepticism about the deployment of the mission that is supposed to be led by , Kenya, while foreign nations that recently pledged funding have also yet to send it to a , U. N. Trust , fund, which only has$ 10.8 million.  , Kenya, which has put the mission on hold, has said the cost needs to be incurred by others.
” When I was there in the fall, I would talk to people from the slum areas, the areas that are controlled by the gangs that are living through this every day,” O’Neill said. One of them asked,” Where are the Kenyans?,” almost every other question that they had for me. They use Kenyans as the force’s shorthand. Two, why is it taking so long — that was in November — and three, who was on the sanctions list.”
O’Neill called on the , U. N. Security Council , to get individuals financing the violence and with ties to the gangs on the sanctions list it approved for , Haiti. He also demanded a much more effective enforcement of the arms embargo, which the council had authorized to assist in halting the flow of ammunition and weapons.
The report noted that while the Multinational Security Support mission is necessary to assist the , Haiti National Police , in protecting the public and restoring the rule of law in the nation, it also stressed the importance of any mission taking into account the highly complex dynamics of gang violence in , Haiti, where many of the members are primarily young men and children.
In accordance with international human rights law and standards, special attention should be paid to children who are gang-related criminals and women who have experienced sexual violence. According to the report, victims should also be supported in seeking justice and filing complaints.
The report explains that despite the alarming current wave of violence, it had been growing for months. In August, the once peaceful neighborhood of Carrefour Feuilles, for example, came under attack and entire families were burned alive in their homes. Others were forced to flee.
In addition to being responsible for more than 4, 400 deaths last year, gang violence also has resulted in the looting and destruction of more than 1, 880 homes and businesses since , January 2023,  , U. N. investigators said.
” Corruption, impunity and poor governance, compounded by increasing levels of gang violence, have eroded the rule of law and brought State institutions … close to collapse,” the report said”. The population is severely deprived of its human rights and the effects of generalized insecurity are dire and deteriorating.
The report notes that self-defense brigades in the community have made an effort to defend themselves by bringing justice into their own hands while gang violence has increased. Last year, at least 528 cases of lynching were reported, and they are already at 59 this year.
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