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The UN high commissioner for human rights says international support forces are needed in Haiti to help end gang violence and restore order in the country.
“I believe that it is important to support the national police, but this can only be done through an international support force that is in time … that provides intelligence, that provides the support that the national police needs,” Volker Türk said in an interview broadcast on Sunday Rosemary Barton Live.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that sending military troops to Haiti “is out of the question at this time.”
But also not “off the table,” he said during a trip to Ottawa.
Joe Biden’s first official visit to Canada as US president ended with a new agreement announced on migration and Haiti after he addressed Parliament, saying that Canada and America are two people with one heart.
The Canadian government has announced it will provide $100 million in aid to the Haitian National Police to help the country restore law and order.
“Canada will keep Haiti at the heart of the solution to solve this crisis …. We are determined to increase international support for Haiti, including through humanitarian aid,” said Trudeau during a press conference by the two leaders on Friday.
Türk told CBC political correspondent Rosemary Barton he has spoken to Haitian police about the help they need.
“I have been able to talk to the chiefs, many of them actually want to do something, but they need better equipment, they need training, they need the support of the international community to do it. job vacancies.”
MSF hospitals are temporarily closed
Türk visited Haiti in February this year and witnessed the violence. He described the situation as a “terrible situation”.
“There are snipers, people are shooting children, there is sexual violence, there are murders, kidnappings and unfortunately since I left, the situation has gotten worse,” he said.
In less than three months, 627 people were killed by gangs and 365 people were kidnapped in Haiti, according to Türk. About half of the country’s population is currently in need of humanitarian assistance.
The violence is so intense in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, that the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières has had to temporarily close its hospital in the Cité Soleil neighborhood.
Benoit Vasseur, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti, said he often saw dead bodies on the streets of Port-au-Prince.
“One patient was shot in the back, a 70-year-old man trying to get to our facility,” he said. According to Vasseur, the MSF hospital in the suburb of Turgeau in Port-au-Prince suffered more than 100 bullet injuries in a week.
When explaining what the international community can do now to stop the violence, Türk said it was critical to immediately implement an arms embargo.
“Not one arm is produced in Haiti, but there are still arms flowing into the country,” he said.
“I think there is enough information about where these weapons came from and who transported them. So I have to stop them.”
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