“The situation is absolutely dramatic. The port is blocked by gangs who do not let the fuel out (…) Without fuel, there is no water. And there is cholera”, whose treatment requires good hydration, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters.
“It’s an absolutely nightmarish situation for the people of Haiti,” he added, repeating his call to send an international armed force to free the oil terminal of Varreux, the most important in the country, blocked by gangs. since mid-September.
A force with a “humanitarian” vocation, responding to the call for help from the Haitian government itself.
“I have the delicate mission of bringing before the Security Council the cry of distress of an entire people who are suffering and to say out loud and intelligible that the Haitians do not live, they survive”, launched the Haitian minister. of Foreign Affairs Jean Victor Généus.
To deal with the violence and the paralysis of the country, the United States and Mexico are working on two resolutions.
One “would authorize a non-UN international security assistance mission to improve the security situation and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid”, explained the American ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield during the Security Council, advanced several days.
“This resolution will propose a limited, carefully framed, non-UN mission led by a partner country with the significant and necessary experience for such an effort to be effective,” she added, noting that the United States would “consider how best to directly support, enable, and resource” such a mission.
This idea was supported by many Council members, but several expressed reservations, pointing to the protests that had taken place in the country against this possible foreign intervention and the liabilities of previous ones.
– “Resistance” of the Haitians –
Peacekeepers are notably responsible for having introduced cholera into the country in 2010, leading to an epidemic which killed more than 10,000 people until 2019. And the return of the bacterium which benefits from shortages of drinking water, causing some dozens of dead so far, awakens fears of a new disaster.
“While the government lacks legitimacy and is incapable of governing, will sending such a rapid action force have the support of the various parties in Haiti or will it face resistance or even will it provoke violent confrontations with the population?”, launched the Chinese representative Geng Shuang, calling for “caution”.
However, China has signaled its support in principle — with some “adjustments” requested — for a second resolution in preparation which provides for the establishment of a sanctions regime (travel ban, asset freeze, targeted embargo on weapons) against gangs and their leaders.
At this stage, the only one mentioned by the text obtained by AFP is Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed “Barbecue”, “one of the most influential gang leaders” who blocks the Varreux terminal and whose actions “have directly contributed economic paralysis and the humanitarian crisis in Haiti”.
Sanctions, on the other hand, were rejected by Russia, which denounced a process done “hastily”. Russian representative Dmitry Polyanskiy also called for “weighing all the consequences of sending” foreign contingents, deeming “unacceptable” the “interference in the Haitian political process” from “known regional actors who consider the American continent as their backyard.
If the Security Council voted – on a date not yet specified – for the dispatch of such a force, it would remain to be seen which country would lead it.
“All indications show that the United States will take the lead,” said Richard Gowan, analyst at the International Crisis Group, referring to possible support from Canada and Latin American countries.
So far, Americans and Canadians have delivered law enforcement equipment to the Haitian police.
