The joint report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), which has just been published examines in detail the gangs violence in the Bel Air neighborhood from November 4 to 6, 2019, which caused many victims and left 30 families homeless after the fire in their house.

The report finds that the Haitian authorities have failed in their obligation to adequately protect the inhabitants of a poor neighborhood of the capital, recalling that the attacks in the Bel-Air neighborhood took place during three days without the National Police of Haiti (PNH) intervening, in an area surrounded by police stations: the sub-police stations of Fort National, La Saline, Portail Saint Joseph and Cafeteria, as well as the Port-au-Prince police station, the headquarters of an operational unit of the Departmental Operation and Intervention Brigade (BOID), the Headquarters of the Intervention and Law Enforcement Corps (CIMO), and that of the Central Direction of the Road Police (DCPR) are all located less than two kilometers from the neighborhood. Although the police were alerted by the BOID patrol on the morning of November 4, no response action was taken.

The report also reveals that one of the country's most notorious gang leaders, former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, against whom an arrest warrant was issued in February 2019, was the main player in the attacks.

The report recalls the obligations of the Haitian State with regard to human rights and their obligation to end impunity and the cycle of violence by arresting, prosecuting and investigating the alleged perpetrators and making recommendations to the Government of Haiti, to the Directorate General and to the General Inspectorate of the National Police of Haiti, to the Government Commissioner and to the investigative office concerned and to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

Stressing that without an appropriate process to hold those responsible for these crimes fully accountable to the justice system, the cycle of violence is likely to claim even more victims.

Download the full report of the BINUH (PDF in French) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/20200217-Haiti-Rapport%20Bel-Air-final-master-version.pdf

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29592-haiti-flash-new-assessment-all-the-details-on-the-massacre-of-bel-air.html

HL/ HaitiLibre