UNITED NATIONS, CMC -The United Nations Security Council is due to meet later on Wednesday behind closed doors in Haiti as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for the “urgent deployment, with no further delay” of the planned security force the Council approved in October last year.
Türk urged the international community to act swiftly and decisively to prevent Haiti’s further descent into chaos.
He said Haitian officials have described last weekend’s mass prison breakout as a lethal threat to national security.
Haitian officials confirmed that more than 4,500 inmates are now known to have escaped, among them prominent gang members as well as those arrested in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021.
The break followed coordinated gang action against national institutions with the stated aim of bringing down the Haitian government.
“This situation is beyond untenable for the people of Haiti. Since the beginning of the year, a staggering 1,193 people have been killed, and 692 others injured by gang violence,” Türk said.
“The health system is on the brink of collapse. Hospitals often cannot treat those arriving with gunshot wounds. Schools and businesses are closed, and gangs increasingly use children. Economic activity is asphyxiated as gangs impose restrictions on people’s movements. Haiti’s biggest provider of drinking water has stopped deliveries. At least 313 000 people are currently internally displaced,” he added.
Ahead of the Security Council meeting, Türk called once again for the urgent deployment, with no further delay, of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti (MSS) to support the National Police and bring security to the Haitian people under conditions that comply with international human rights norms and standards.
“The reality is that, in the current context, no realistic alternative is available to protect lives. We are simply running out of time,” the High Commissioner said.
Haiti has imposed a seven-hour curfew as well as a state of emergency after criminal gangs last weekend stepped up their fight to remove Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry from office.
Henry is now stranded in Puerto Rico after having traveled to Kenya, where he signed an agreement allowing for the African country’s UN Security Council-sanctioned international force to restore peace and security in his troubled country.
But the criminal gangs that have all but taken over the capital, Port au Prince, said a new government would soon be installed. A judge, Durin Duret Jr., would be chairman, assisted by former rebel leader and former police commissioner Guy Philippe and Francoise Saint-Vil Villier, from the religious sector.
“PM Henry and all the other government members must resign, or they will face the consequences,” the outspoken leftist political leader Jean-Charles Moise told journalists on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, in a brief video statement, Guyana’s president, Dr. Irfaan Ali, also the CARICOM chairman, said the 15-member regional group is engaged in discussions with the various stakeholders in Haiti.
“CARICOM has been singularly focused on the events unfolding in Haiti over the last few days,” he said, adding, “the expanded Bureau (of Heads) has been meeting separately with Prime Minister Henry, the stakeholders in Haiti, and our international partners to resolve this highly complex matter where persons live and livelihoods are at stake.”
Meanwhile, the United States said on Wednesday it was pushing for progress on the deployment of the MSS.
“What we have asked the Haitian prime minister to do is move forward on a political process that will lead to the establishment of a presidential transitional council that will lead to elections, and we think that is urgent,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters.
She said Washington is working with Kenya on moving forward with force, composed of voluntary contributions that have fallen well beneath estimates, and she hoped “that action will take place quickly.”
But Jimmy Cherizier, alias Barbeque, who leads a broad alliance of criminal gangs in Port-au-Prince, has already warned that the group could fight the proposed mission and that the violence could escalate to a civil war if Henry does not step down.
“If Ariel Henry doesn’t step down, if the international community continues to support Ariel Henry, they will lead us directly into a civil war that will end in genocide,” Cherizier said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Henry established a transition council known as the HCT over a year ago, but opponents say they are being left out of the process.
According to the UN, at least 313,000 have fled their homes inside Haiti, while close to 1,200 have been killed and nearly 700 injured since the start of this year.
There are widespread reports of rape, torture, and ransom kidnappings in gang-controlled areas, while the conflict has cut off access routes for food, medical services, and humanitarian aid.
Following the CARICOM summit in Guyana last week, Bahamas Prime Minister Phillip Davis told reporters that the situation in Haiti “is truly a terrible” one, adding, “Haiti is hemorrhaging.
“When you look at the number of deaths in January, it is noted that there were more deaths in Haiti that occurred in the war between Ukraine and Russia. So that tells us of the depths of the suffering occurring among the people in Haiti,” Davis told reporters.
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