UN urges measures to stop arms trafficking fueling Haiti's gang wars
25/01/2024 19:48
By Sarah Morland
Jan 25 (Reuters) - The head of the United Nation's drugs
and crime office on Thursday warned of a "vicious cycle" of arms
trafficking to increasingly powerful Haitian gangs, fueling an
internal conflict and worsening violence across the Caribbean.
"It's more important than ever to take every measure
possible to prevent illicit flows," the UNODC's executive
director, Ghada Waly, told a U.N. Security Council meeting,
saying arms trafficking and gang activity were feeding off each
other.
A recent UNODC report found that most illegal firearms
seized in Haiti came from the United States, notably Florida,
Arizona, Georgia, Texas and California.
The report found a prevalence of handguns manufactured by
Taurus TASA3.SA , Glock, Beretta, and Smith & Wesson SWBI.O ;
the latter three are defendants in a Caribbean-backed Mexican
landmark lawsuit seeking to hold gun makers accountable for
trafficking outside U.S. borders.
None of the gun manufacturers immediately responded to a
request for comment.
The report said traffickers likely worked with sanctioned
Haitians to smuggle weapons to gangs, particularly 400 Mawozo
and 5 Segond, which the report said were acting as brokers using
firearms distribution to further cement their power.
After the Dominican Republic shut its border with Haiti,
smugglers were turning to more remote routes including
clandestine airstrips, the report said.
U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood said "more must be
done" to hold gangs and their backers accountable. He did not
specifically mention the U.S. connection.
The meeting comes a day ahead of a Kenyan hearing set to
determine whether Kenya's proposed leadership of a U.N.-ratified
force to help outgunned Haitian police fight gangs is legal. No
date has been set for deployment, which Haiti requested in
October 2022.
Countries have been wary of volunteering troops after
previous U.N. missions left behind a cholera epidemic that
killed close to 10,000 people and widespread allegations of
sexual abuse by peacekeepers.
"The U.N. has made mistakes in Haiti. This is an opportunity
to get it right," Human Rights Watch Executive Director Tirana
Hassan told the meeting, adding that Haitians the organization
interviewed said they were wary but needed urgent support.
Hassan said some 300,000 people were now internally
displaced, many whose homes were burned down, and called on
neighboring nations to stop deporting hundreds of thousands of
migrants back to Haiti.
Jose de la Gasca, the U.N.'s ambassador from Ecuador, which
is facing its own internal conflict against armed gangs, called
for justice and reparations regarding the allegations against
peacekeepers of the U.N.'s 2004-2017 mission to Haiti.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland; Additional reporting by Michelle
Nichols; Editing by Leslie Adler)
((sarah.morland@thomsonreuters.com;))