|
 About two months after the big
earthquake, crime is on the rise
in and around the capital, Port-au-
Prince. Bandits calmly walk through
busy downtown markets. They pull
guns or knives on people who have
just bought or sold in the Croix de
Bossales market, for example, fearlessly
robbing them.
On Thursday, March 11,
around 1:30 p.m., near the ruins of
the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, armed
bandits fatally shot a lawyer named
Rosny Dieudonné behind the steering
wheel of his car. The lawyer had
just fi nished supervising the pasting
up of posters for a private communications
company. As a lawyer, he
was part of the staff of Edwin Paraison,
the Minister of Haitians Living
Overseas. He was also a former staff
member of the Haitian Savings and
Loan Company (SHEC) and a former
consultant to the General Direction
of the Haitian National Police
(PNH).
One day later, on March 12,
armed bandits killed Pastor Doris
Jean-Louis, who directs the evangelical
church “« Luthérienne de
Concordia » on Delmas 89, north of
the capital. They ambushed the pastor
as he was entering the gate to
his house at Duplan II in Fermathe.
The gunmen robbed both the pastor
and his wife of all they had on them,
then they shot the pastor several
times, killing him.
On March 14 in Croix des
Bouquets, two bandits killed three
people: two money changers and
someone who had come to sell them
money. According to some witnesses,
this crime happened right
in front of the town’s police station.
The police arrested the bandits,
named Wilfrid and Payette, seizing
their motorcycle, guns and the stolen
money. They are part of a gang
whose base is in the area of Ganthier,
near Croix des Bouquets.
On March 15, several bandits
who had just robbed a fi reman in the
upper reaches of Lalue, fi red on Madame
Yassainthe, who was passing
through the area. Yassainthe, who
worked in the Rectorat of Haiti’s
State University, was hit by several
bullets and died in the hospital. The
police announced that they have already
arrested two of those bandits.
In addition to these cases,
there have been many other killings
and serious crimes around
the country. In the northern cityof Cap Haïtien, there have been
several kidnappings. Among
those kidnapped were two
employees of Doctors Without
Borders, who were later freed
after negotiations.
Many speculate that this
crime wave is linked to the escape
of many convicted criminals
from the National Penitentiary
immediately following the
Jan. 12 earthquake. Some of
the escapees are said to have
reconstituted their gangs in
several corners of the country.
Meanwhile the police are looking
to recapture escaped convicts,
with some success.
But the government seems
to expend more resources making
declarations on the radio
and television rather than relocating
people who have to live
in the street and in public spaces,
thus exposed to all kinds of
bandits and the storms that are
coming. |
