Kenya's Ruto open to converting Haiti mission to U.N. peacekeeping operation
September 21, 20246:55 PM EDTUpdated 14 hours ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Kenyan President William Ruto, on a visit to Haiti, said on Saturday that he was open to Kenya's anti-gang mission in the country being converted to a full U.N. peacekeeping operation.
Ruto visited Haiti to assess the progress of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, where Kenya is playing a leading role to curb rampant gang violence that has ushered years or political chaos and mass displacement.
The mandate of the MSS mission - first approved by the United Nations Security Council for 12 months - is set to expire at the start of October.
Earlier this month Reuters reported that the Council has began considering a draft resolution to extend the MSS mandate and ask the U.N. to plan for it to become a formal peacekeeping mission.
"On the suggestion to transit this into a fully U.N. Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it, if that is the direction the U.N. security council wants to take," Ruto said on Saturday in Port-au-Prince.
The United States and Ecuador circulated a draft text that would renew the MSS mandate for another 12 months and ask the U.N. to begin planning to transition the MSS mission to a U.N. peacekeeping operation.
The 15-member council is due to vote on Sept. 30 on the mandate renewal.
After the Security Council approved the MSS mission, Kenya sent about 400 police officers to Port-au-Prince in June and July from an expected total of 1,000. A handful of other countries have together pledged at least 1,900 more troops.
However, the efficacy of the MSS mission has been criticized amid delays in deployments of manpower and vital equipment needed to fight powerful gangs.
On Friday, he United Nations' expert on human rights in Haiti said that the situation has worsened, with now about 700,000 people internally displaced.
UN human rights expert William O'Neill concludes mission in Haiti ...
Port-au-Prince (20 September 2024) – Approximately one year ago, I stood before you and painted a bleak picture of the human rights situation in Haiti. Today, I am sad to say, that all indicators remain extremely worrying. The first, and most concerning of them, insecurity.
Despite an international embargo, arms and ammunition continue to be smuggled into the country, enabling gangs to carry out large-scale attacks and extend their control and influence over new territories.
During my visits to the south of the country, in Les Cayes and Jérémie, I saw that areas previously not impacted by gang violence are now directly impacted, with galloping inflation, lack of basic goods, and flows of internally displaced people further increasing the vulnerability of the population, particularly children and women. The human rights and humanitarian consequences are dramatic.
The police lack the logistical and technical capacity to counter the gangs. “The situation borders on the impossible. We have to learn to walk on water,” said a policeman at the Jérémie police station.
The Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), authorized by the UN Security Council in October 2023, has so far deployed less than a quarter of its planned contingent. The equipment it has received is inadequate, and its resources are insufficient.
Meanwhile, the population continues to suffer from its human rights being violated. Sexual violence, used as a weapon by gangs to control the population, has drastically increased in recent months. Gangs have increasingly trafficked children, forcibly recruited them into gangs, and often used them to carry out attacks against public institutions and police operations. Youth are losing hope of a better future.
During my visit, I met young Haitians, former gang members, who told me they felt they were being held hostage. One said that “When hunger takes hold of you, you can't think of anything else, not even fear.”
When asked them what they aspired to, they referred to a normal life, a job, for children to go to school, and enough to support themselves and their family. Thanks to the support of a civil society organization, they managed to leave the gang and now have a job.
Civil society organizations often take on the State’s role in providing basic needs to the population, which lacks everything. This is particularly the case in gang-controlled neighborhoods, but also in displaced persons' camps, and in prisons, precisely where the State should be making every effort to protect the most vulnerable. To date, only 28% of health services are functioning normally in Haiti, and almost five million people are suffering from acute food insecurity.
At the camp for displaced persons, Mission Église de Dieu la Conquête, we spoke to an anaemic little girl who had not eaten in two days. She spent her days sitting on the ground in the stifling heat, waiting to go home. She had not been to school in over a year. Like hers, the testimonies of the internally displaced indicate that their only wish is to return to their homes, “at least to live as they did before.” There are currently at least 700,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Haiti. More than half are children.
What can I tell you about the prisons? Outside Port au Prince, the situation is even worse than it was a year ago. In the south of the country, at the prison in Les Cayes, there are 853 detainees for a total capacity of 200; at the prison in Jérémie, there are 470 detainees for a capacity of 50. They sleep on floors flooded with rainwater and littered with filth. Sometimes they go without eating for several days. Several dozen inmates have died in these conditions this year. At least 84% are in prolonged pre-trial detention.
I welcome the Prime Minister's efforts to make the fight against corruption a priority. Corruption corrodes the system at every level of the hierarchical chain, and in every sector, first and foremost the justice system. The means exist, but they are often misused, a practice encouraged by almost complete impunity. Out of 94 investigations carried out by the Anti-Corruption Unit over the last 20 years, only one has led so far to a conviction. The authorities' commitment to set up “pôles judiciaires spécialisés” or judicial units, to combat corruption and mass crimes, including sexual violence, will be crucial to effectively remedy this situation.
The solutions are there, and they already exist. But efforts must be redoubled immediately. On the one hand, we need to make the State accountable to fight corruption and bad governance, which continues to plunge the country into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. On the other hand, it is crucial to stifle the gangs by giving the MSS Mission the means to be effective in supporting the operations of the Haitian National Police, as well as to implement the other measures provided for by the United Nations Security Council, including the sanctions regime and the targeted arms embargo.
This enduring agony must stop. It is a race against time.
“You are not alone,” leaders from across U.S. tell Haitians in Springfield | VIDEO
Leaders pledge support, education about anti-Haitian racism during Haitian Times community conversation in Ohio town under right-wing attack
by The Haitian Times Sep. 16, 2024
Overview:
Leaders pledged support and education resources to combat anti-Haitian racism during a Haitian Times community conversation in Springfield, Ohio, the town under attack by white extremists.
Springfield, Ohio — Leaders with the NAACP, representatives of Haitian American groups from across the U.S. and local Ohio activists vowed during a community Saturday to organize and support Haitians in rejecting baskets and racist claims about Haitians harming animals.
“We stand together, not divided,” Denise Williams, president of the NAACP said.
“There is work that is in place right now,” she said, listing several actions around housing, language and health needs underway to help the city resolve the strain of accommodating new immigrants. “You are not alone. You are our people, and we protect each other. This is a community of love.”
The pledges and words of solidarity came during a community conversation held in the days after former President Donald Trump made racist comments about Haitians, then pledged mass deportations if re-elected. Originally planned as an in-person community town hall, the meeting, part of an ongoing series organized by The Haitian Times, was moved to Zoom after the city received bomb threats tied to white extremists.
Some Haitian residents in the meeting shared their experiences in recent weeks and months as the fake news went viral. Participants also shared their fears, concerns and hope for the growing community. Even as they spoke, a ruckus broke out outside the community center from which a few participants logged into the Zoom when a strange truck appeared in the parking lot carrying white occupants acting cagey.
Such ongoing tensions and fear are the reason to take the matter seriously and force Trump and Vance to retract their viral statements, just as the woman who first posted about the animals did over the weekend. The gravity of the claims led one political scientist to compare the attack on Haitians in the Midwest town with the precursor to Nazi-era Jewish pogroms, where both people are associated with animals.
“What Trump is doing now is preparing the terrain,” said Dr. François Pierre-Louis, a political science professor at CUNY- Queens College who studied transnationalism and migration. “It’s not about just picking people up for deportation and sending them back to Haiti. It’s about mass killing that about to happen, it’s about genocide.”
“People don’t understand the danger,” Pierre-Louis continued. “These days with social media, people can post something [and] make things funny. But when they come for you, it’s not going to be funny.”
Watch the full video of the conversation here.
This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.
U.S. Attorney Handling Would-Be Trump Assassin’s Case Is a Haitian Immigrant
CHANDAN KHANNA
Days after Donald Trump spewed conspiracies targeting Haitian migrants on the presidential debate stage, a Haitian-American immigrant has taken charge of the prosecution of an alleged assassin whose plot against the former president was foiled by Secret Service agents at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Markenzy Lapointe, the Justice Department’s top prosecutor for South Florida, was born in Port-au-Prince and immigrated to the U.S. with his mother at age 16, the Miami Herald reported. His family settled in the Miami neighborhood of Liberty City, and Lapointe worked his way through school as a cab driver and server alongside his mother at an upscale restaurant in Key Biscayne. Lapointe was also a U.S. Marine reservist and was called up to serve during the Gulf War. “It mattered to me as an immigrant who came here and could contribute to this country in a special way,” he told the Herald. Lapointe was nominated for the post by President Biden in September 2022 and confirmed by the Senate in December of that year with bipartisan support, including vocal support from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Lapointe has since led the case against the alleged assassins of Haitian President President Jovenel Moïse, which led to a grand jury indictment against 11 people and the arrest of four Florida residents allegedly involved in the scheme last year.
Healthcare Crisis in Fort Liberté: specialist’s death exposes once again critical equipment shortage at hospital
Fort-Liberté residents reiterate call for modern equipment after one of the two obstetric gynecologists died
by Edxon Francisque Sep. 16, 2024
THE HAITIAN TIMES
Overview:
Despite ongoing pleas for better resources, Fort-Liberté Hospital remains critically under-equipped, endangering both patients and doctors. On August 30, 2024, an obstetrician-gynecologist who had served the hospital for over 20 years died due to the facility's lack of proper equipment to address his respiratory illness.
FORT-LIBERTÉ — Once again, the people of Fort-Liberté are raising alarming concerns about the dire state of their hospitals, demanding better equipment to prevent further loss of life. This new call follows the death of Dr. Paul Roussel Casséus, one of the two obstetrician-gynecologists at the Fort-Liberté Hospital.
“We can’t continue to lose our loved ones like this,” said Roudeline Adrien, who joined a march organized after the death of her brother-in-law, Dr. Casséus.
On Sept. 11, the community gathered to lay Dr. Casséus to rest, mourning not just a physician but the failures of a healthcare system in crisis. In response to his death, residents organized a peaceful march, a reiteration of previous pleas last July for improvement that have long gone unanswered.
Citizens marched through the town, demanding justice for the deceased and calling on the authorities to take immediate action to address the ongoing crisis at Fort-Liberté Hospital.
“Several people have died at the hospital due to oxygen problems, like my brother-in-law just died,” said Adrien, at the peaceful march in the town.
Protests erupted before, on Sept. 2, with residents accusing the hospital’s director, Dr. Isnelle Decome, of neglecting her duties for nearly two decades.
“Dr. Isnelle Decome has been running the Fort-Liberté hospital for 17 years without improvements,” claimed one protester, voicing the community’s anger and frustration.
Doctor’s death exposes deepening crisis at Fort-Liberté Hospital
Dr. Casséus died from respiratory problems that some attribute to the hospital’s lack of functional equipment. On the day of his death, he arrived at the hospital struggling to breathe. Despite his wife and a young man trying to care for him, little could be done.
“Doctor Casséus arrived at the hospital at 8:40 a.m. and was being cared for by his wife and a young man. He was tachypneic (rapid breathing), sweating profusely, and could not even speak,” the management of the Fort-Liberté Hospital indicated in a statement to clarify the circumstances around his death.
The death of the doctor has pressured government authorities to respond to the family and residents’ urgent calls for answers about the events leading up to his passing. The Departmental Health Directorate issued a press release, insisting they have an oxygen manufacturing system to supply all regional hospitals. However, these assurances fall flat for many residents, as experiences like Dr. Casseus’s suggest otherwise.
Dr. Casséus had been battling health issues for weeks. According to medical reports, he was previously saved “in the nick of time” when he spent a night on oxygen. His family rushed him back to the hospital as his condition deteriorated, but the facility lacked the modern equipment necessary for his care.
“Eight days ago, the doctor spent the night on oxygen and he was saved in the nick of time, his doctor even advised him to consult an internist because his case was serious,” reported Isnel Decom.
Although the Departmental Directorate of Health claims the hospital’s oxygen production system was operational, locals believe systemic incompetence and lack of proper equipment led to Dr. Casseus’s death. Legal action is now underway. The government commissioner at the Fort-Liberté court summoned the medical staff on duty the night of Dr. Casseus’s death to clarify the circumstances.
“You are asked to be accompanied by your doctors and nurses on duty who were on duty that night,” read the official summons issued on September 6.
This is not the first time the Fort-Liberté hospital has faced scandal. With a history of patients dying due to a lack of staff and equipment, the hospital’s woes are well-known in the region. The main regional medical center, Saint Joseph Hospital, struggles with similar issues, operating only four out of thirteen essential departments due to resource shortages.
Residents alarmed by lack of action After repeated calls for change
Residents have long voiced their frustrations, seeing little to no change despite repeated calls for action. In a recent interview, Pierre Ange-Marie, a 72-year-old diabetic from Vallières, shared her experience of waiting more than five hours for care.
“I was abandoned because I am poor,” she said.
“I lost my uncle because they didn’t have the necessary equipment,” said Viviane Bélizaire, a resident of Fort-Liberté.
The hospital’s difficulties are exacerbated by an exodus of health specialists to neighboring countries like the Dominican Republic, where they receive better treatment and resources.
“Many specialists left because the salaries could not meet their needs,” acknowledged Dr. Jean Denis Pierre, the departmental director of the Ministry of Public Health and Population.
For the Fort-Liberté hospital to meet the needs of its population effectively, it requires a complete overhaul, from infrastructure to staffing and equipment.
“We need qualified staff, adequate infrastructure, and the availability of medicines and supplies,” emphasized Lyneda Joseph, Secretary General of the Union of Young Leaders for Social Action in the North-East.
The population’s determination to obtain justice for Dr. Casseus and others like him has led to multiple peaceful marches. During the doctor’s vigil, citizens expressed their gratitude for a man who was always ready to serve despite the hospital’s limitations.
“He was a good person concerning the services he provided,” said Father Leonex Almonor.
Dr. Casséus, who passed away on August 30 at the age of 58, was laid to rest on September 11, leaving behind a community grappling with grief and demanding change.