UN chief condemns massacre in Haiti

By Jacqueline Charles
Miami Herald

(Miami Herald) United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is condemning the latest gang attack in Haiti, a brutal massacre in a fishing village north of Port-au-Prince that resulted in the deaths of at least 40 people, including a 4-year-old child and their grandmother.

The killings happened Thursday afternoon in Labordrie, a village located 20 miles north of Haiti’s capital, between the cities of Cabaret and Arcahaïe. Gunmen with the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, who have been fighting for control of Arcahaïe, reportedly stormed the village and opened fire on the population, killing women, children and elderly.

“The Secretary-General is alarmed by the levels of violence rocking Haiti and urges the Haitian authorities to ensure that perpetrators of these and all other human rights abuses and violations are brought to justice,” Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement on Saturday strongly condemning the massacre.

Guterres, he said, expresses his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, the people and the government of Haiti. He is also calling on the U.N. Security Council member states “to expedite efforts” toward strengthening the Multinational Security Support mission with the required logistics, personnel and funding to effectively assist the Haitian national police in addressing gang violence in Haiti in full respect of international human rights law, Dujarric said.

Joseph Louis Baptiste, a local government official in Labordrie, told Port-au-Prince based Radio Caraïbes that the killings preceded days of gun battles that started last weekend. Viv Ansanm, he said, has been trying to take control of Arcahaïe but were being pushed back by police and a local defense brigade.

“Every time they advanced, the brigade and police attacked them, and they could not penetrate,” Baptiste said. But on Wednesday, the armed men entered the town. After killing two people near the ocean, and sending people fleeing in panic, they proceeded to storm the village, he said.

More than 42 residents were executed, Baptiste said, breaking down in tears as he explained a family of four, which included a 4-year-old child, their parents and grandmother, was killed.

“An entire family has been wiped out,” he said. “They’re people I personally know.”

Baptiste said gunmen broke down the doors of houses and opened fire on “young boys, girls, the elderly, babies.” Corpses, he said, were being eaten by dogs.

“There are people hiding, there are people we are looking for and still haven’t yet found,” he said.

Both Arcahaïe and Cabaret are not far from Canaan, the sprawling post-earthquake settlement on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince that is under the control of a gang named the Taliban under the leadership of Jeff Larose.

During the radio interview, Baptiste pleaded for the central government to deploy armored vehicles to “clean out Canaan.”

“Otherwise, they are going to finish off everyone in the community,” he said.