Avellon Williams
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI- The ‘Kraze Baryè’ gang destroyed the Pernier sub-police station in Haiti using heavy machinery after it had been abandoned since last Thursday after police officers protested the killing of six of their colleagues at Liancourt Police Station by another criminal gang.
As a result of the gang’s destruction over the weekend, the police station is now a pile of rubble.
Unidentified individuals looted and partly burned down the police station last Thursday, according to media reports.
It was reported that the ‘Kraze Baryè’ gang’s showing of force coincided with the National Police of Haiti (PNH) launching Operation “Tornado 1”.
Ariel Henry, the Haitian Prime Minister, has called for the international community to form a specialized multinational force to assist the Haitian security forces in fighting organised crime, the illicit trade in arms and ammunition, and eradicating the gangs that hold the country, hostage.
At last Tuesday’s UN Security Council meeting, Helen La Lime, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Haiti, said the country’s protracted political and humanitarian crises, characterized by spikes in gang violence and a struggling national police force, were reversing crucial development and security gains since the devastating 2010 earthquake.
According to La Lime, over 2,100 murders and 1,300 kidnappings occurred last year, and gang violence reached a level not seen since the 1970s.
In several neighborhoods of Cité Soleil, turf wars between two gang coalitions, the G9 coalition and G-Pep, reached unprecedented levels she said.
Meanwhile, Colombia and El Salvador have both expressed a willingness to reopen diplomatic missions in French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries.
Last week, Haiti’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Jean Victor Geneus, met with Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Lvaro Leyva, at the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Leyva announced at the end of this bilateral meeting that Colombia will reopen its Consulate in Haiti after 20 years. It will take a few days for a consul to be appointed in Haiti, he said.
Félix Ulloa, Vice-President of El Salvador, has since announced that “El Salvador will help Haiti by setting up a cooperation office in Port-au-Prince with the goal of reducing high crime rates”.
In turn, El Salvador will share its experience in reducing crime due to its territorial control plan and its emergency regime, implemented to combat gangs.
