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As political unrest grows and ex-soldiers
openly remobilize with the tacit complicity of President Joseph
Michel Martelly, insecurity is skyrocketing in recent days
around Haiti, particularly in the capital.
A political activist, a
former Central Bank official, a media director, a bus-driver,
and a policemen are among the citizens who have lost their lives
to the bullets of murderous thugs.
On Monday, Mar. 5, gunmen shot
to death Eliphète Nelson, the director of Radio Boukman, and
several other victims. Radio Boukman is the community radio of
Cité Soleil, the country's largest slum, in Port-au-Prince.
Nelson was shot after a gang stopped his car near the “Hands
Together” school in the Bois Neuf neighborhood of Cité Soleil.
The next day, Tuesday, Mar. 6,
bandits riding on a motorcycle killed two other people: Venel
Joseph, 80, the former Governor of the Bank of the Republic of
Haiti (BRH) under Jean-Bertrand Aristide (2001-2004), and Wilner
Cazeau. Joseph was shot in Musseau, a residential area located
in the heights of the capital’s Bourdon neighborhood. Cazeau was
gunned down on Rue Christophe, in downtown Port-au-Prince. Both
men were entering their homes.
On Friday, Mar. 9, Jean-Baptiste
Jean Philippe, alias Samba Boukman, was shot to death behind the
wheel of his car in capital’s Delmas 95 neighborhood. Samba
Boukman was a former spokesman for the resistance movement in
Bel-Air after the coup-kidnapping of Feb. 29, 2004, and later a
member of the National Commission for Disarmament, Dismantlement
and Reintegration (CNDDR). Gunmen on a motorcycle attacked him
as he was waiting in his car to pick up his child from school.
Hit by seven bullets in the face, Samba Boukman died at the
scene.
Samba Boukman’s assassination
came a day after two senators said on the radio that there will
be upheavals in the country. The statements created a panic in
the capital last Thursday, Mar. 8 in the afternoon.
On the morning of Monday, Mar.
12, nine gunmen on three motorcycles attacked police officers in
their post located at the bus station for Port-de-Paix near the
entrance to the Jérémie Wharf, near the border of the capital’s
La Saline neighborhood. They killed one policeman named Serge
Casséus.
The gunmen also killed the
driver of a Port-au-Prince-to-Port-de-Paix bus, who died at the
wheel of the vehicle after being shot several times at close
range.
Several other murders have been
reported in the past week in metropolitan Port-au-Prince,
particularly in the capital’s center.
In the midst of this crime
wave, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH)
released a report on Mar. 8. The report states that in 2012, 103
people have been killed, mostly by guns. From January to
February 2012, 84 people were killed, and 19 others were killed
at the beginning of March, said RNDDH director Pierre Esperance.
Meanwhile, researchers Athena
Kolbe and Robert Muggah, with the support of Canadian and
Brazilian organizations, issued a report that said “the
number of crimes committed in major cities of Haiti has
increased dramatically over the last six months.”
But the Haitian government and
the U.N. Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) downplay talk of
a rise in crime.
“There is nothing alarming,
there is nothing at the level that might suggest there is a
crisis,” said Michael Martin, the new spokesman for the UN
police in Haiti (UNPOL). “We want to reassure the public
there is no crisis currently underway at the level of the
criminality.”
Some lawmakers are very worried
about the escalating insecurity. Senator of the West Department,
Steven Benoit, identified several sources contributing to the
upsurge, including turf wars and the settling of scores related
to drug trafficking, armed men in military fatigues training in
many parts of the country, diversionary tactics to draw
attention from urgent problems, and general banditry.
"One need only see the
streets emptied after dark at night to get a sense of the
insecurity and fear that reigns over the city,” said Sen.
Benoit.
Garry Desrosiers, the deputy
spokesman for the Haitian National Police (PNH) said the force
was working to combat insecurity in Port-au-Prince and
surrounding areas. He announced new measures as part of the
second phase of the PNH’s Operation Dragon.
Meanwhile, MINUSTAH’s civilian
chief Mariano Fernandez Amunategue was defensive, saying "no
one can speak of increased insecurity without having first
carried out an annual comparative assessment of the cases
reported."
But the assurances of Haitian
and MINUSTAH authorities provide little comfort to Haitians who
are deeply fearful about the clear rise of murder, robbery and
other crimes around Haiti and its capital. |
