Haiti - FLASH : The neighborhood self-defense brigades are multiplying and worrying

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Haiti - FLASH : The neighborhood self-defense brigades are multiplying and worrying
03/04/2023 09:15:10

"A worrying fact is the emergence of self-defense groups in several districts of the capital and in Artibonite, with the population feeling little or no protection or security. Several incidents have already been reported where the population set up self-defense patrols and/or engaged in acts of violence to protect themselves." This is revealed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a document dated March 31, 2023 "There have already been several incidents during which the population has established self-defense patrols and /or participated in acts of violence to protect themselves," quotes the document in which the UN estimates that around 80% of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince is now under the control or influence of armed groups.

Since the worsening of the security crisis in Haiti, surveillance brigades have appeared in various neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince and certain provinces to deal with armed attacks which have multiplied in the absence of police protection.

With illegal weapons, machetes, Molotov cocktails, bottles, stones and sticks, Haitians, mostly men between 15 and 40 years old, dressed in dark clothes, go out at night in brigades to try to defend their neighborhood in which they grew up, from gang attacks.

In some neighborhoods, people unknown to the area are not welcome. In others, an ID is required.

"We think it can lead to anything. History has already shown that at one time we had a lot of self-defense brigades. And these surveillance brigades, little by little, turned into armed gangs," declared the lawyer Marie Rosy Auguste Ducéna, of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights of Haiti (RNDDH) adding "In any case, it is dangerous [...] Because we are talking about people, some of whom can obtain legal weapons to confront armed gangs [...] Another danger is people who engage in a form of summary justice. People who arrogate to themselves the right to judge those who frequent their neighborhood."

A practice of self-defense already denounced in the past for abuses against civilians reminds the RNDDH.

S/ HaitiLibre