CAgainst criminal gangs that are sowing chaos in Haiti, the UN Security Council imposed a battery of sanctions on Friday, a first international re-involvement in this country in acute crisis before the possible dispatch of an armed force.
The Security Council had been debating for weeks two draft resolutions on Haiti, grappling with an “absolutely dramatic (…) and nightmarish situation” in the words of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday.
A first text, prepared by the United States and Mexico, was voted on Friday morning in New York unanimously by the 15 members of the Council, including China and Russia.
The resolution targets the gangs that are cutting this impoverished Caribbean country and “demands an immediate cessation of violence, criminal activity and human rights abuses”.
The text provides for the establishment of a sanctions regime (travel ban, asset freeze, targeted arms embargo) against these armed gangs and their leaders, accused of “undermining the peace, stability and security of Haiti and the region”.
Sexual violence and child recruitment
The resolution denounces “kidnappings, sexual violence, human trafficking, homicides, extrajudicial murders, enlistment of children in armed groups and criminal networks”.
Still, the only leader of a criminal gang mentioned is Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed “Barbecue”, “one of the most influential gang leaders, who leads an alliance of Haitian gangs nicknamed + the G9 family + and its allies”. Mr. Cherizier is blocking the Varreux oil terminal and his actions “have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and the humanitarian crisis in Haiti”, according to the UN.
Co-authors of the text, the United States, which has often been involved in historic crises in its small French-speaking neighbor in the Caribbean, welcomed this “important step to help the Haitian population at this critical moment” thanks to a ” rapid and unanimous vote” of the Security Council to “impose sanctions”.
Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, promised in a statement that Washington would “continue to engage the international community for the United Nations to take additional steps” to bring relief to Haiti.
For his part, Mexico’s UN ambassador Juan Ramon de la Fuente, whose country also sponsored the resolution, warned that “the Security Council will not sit idly by and act against those who generate violence in the streets and against those who support and finance them”.
Multidimensional crisis
Faced with the multidimensional crisis – security, socio-economic, political, humanitarian and health – which is devastating Haiti, the Security Council had discussed on Monday the possible dispatch of an international armed force to enable the population to emerge from the “nightmare” – but no decision has been made.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield reaffirmed that “the United States and Mexico were working on a resolution that would authorize (the sending) of a non-UN international security assistance mission”.
This idea of an armed force is supported by many members of the Security Council, but others are reserved, insisting on past demonstrations in Haiti against this possible foreign intervention and the failures of previous missions.
If such a force “were to be created, France would make a contribution to it by material support, probably”, declared Friday its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, on a visit to Washington.
Mr. Guterres had judged earlier “the absolutely dramatic situation”, in particular because of the “port blocked by gangs who do not let the fuel out”. And without fuel, there is no water. And there is cholera,” according to the UN chief.
According to the latest figures from the Haitian Ministry of Health, as of Wednesday, October 19, there were 964 suspected cases of cholera in the country.
Peacekeepers are blamed for having introduced cholera into the country in 2010, leading to an epidemic which has killed more than 10,000 people until 2019. And the return of the bacterium which benefits from drinking water shortages, causing some dozens of dead so far, awakens fears of a new disaster.
21/10/2022 21:41:55 – United Nations (United States) (AFP) – © 2022 AFP