Security Crime Law and Order

A secret US Embassy cable has reported that members of the Haitian elite used the Haitian National Police as private army to drive the 2004 coup d'etat.

Business organizations and the few elite group purchased arms and ammunitions and gave them to police forces, equipping them for the February 29, 2004 coup that removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.

The overthrowing of Artiste was accompanied by several other changes. The ruling party, Fanmi Lavalas was repressed and a US-supported governance was installed. A 9000 UN militia known as UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was put in place.

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Haiti has always been projected as a country with a high crime rate. Because of media reports on crimes happening in the country, the public thinks that it is unsafe and dangerous to live in Haiti. However, there are reports suggesting that Haiti is safer than what the media shows. According to some reports, homicide rates in Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital, has decreased to 3 per 100,000 people. The rate is better than that of neighboring country Jamaica, where the homicide rate is at 52 per 100,000 people. Costa Rica also recorded a higher homicide rate than Haiti, with 11 per 100,000 people.

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The ongoing social-economic challenges facing Haiti has led to search of alternative sources of income by citizens. High level of unemployment has found many people indulging themselves in illegitimate ways of raising a living.

Due to these challenges the crime rate in Haiti is high. The most rampant crime in the recent past has been kidnapping and the threat is more likely to increase due to inability of the security forces to curb the situation. The Haitian National Police have experienced significant strain in bringing kidnappers to custody. Since the 2006 kidnapping peak period security has been reinforced by the presence of UN-formed police and the UN stabilization forces (MINUSTAH).

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WikiLeaks has revealed the collusion of the U.S., UN, and Haiti's richest business leaders in a plot to buy weaponry and bullets from arms dealers on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Informant and businessman Fritz Mevs implicated Reginald Boulos, Haitian Chamber of Commerce president, in the secret deal to buy and distribute weapons to the Haitian National Police (HNP).

The private sector has been frustrated and anxious about the port and other industrial sites in Port-au-Prince being unprotected from criminal activity. Mevs, concerned about the illegal purchase of arms, contacted James Foley, former U.S. Ambassador to Haiti to alert him to the situation. Mevs also asked the U.S. Embassy to develop a program for the legal sale of arms to the HNP.

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Clifford Brandt, son to a prominent Haitian businessman, was locked up on Monday following allegations of kidnapping.

The matter is being investigated by Haitian police. Authorities on Wednesday said Clifford Brandt played a central role in the kidnapping of two children.

Frantz Lerebours, the police spokesman said the arrest of Clifford Brandt was because he was a suspect for having been involved in the kidnapping of two children of a family in Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Brandt led the investigating policemen to the place where the two children were held. The police freed the children and arrested Brandt.

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A secret US Embassy cable has reported that members of the Haitian elite used the Haitian National Police as private army to drive the 2004 coup d'etat.

Business organizations and the few elite group purchased arms and ammunitions and gave them to police forces, equipping them for the February 29, 2004 coup that removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.

The overthrowing of Artiste was accompanied by several other changes. The ruling party, Fanmi Lavalas was repressed and a US-supported governance was installed. A 9000 UN militia known as UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was put in place.

Read more →  

The ongoing social-economic challenges facing Haiti has led to search of alternative sources of income by citizens. High level of unemployment has found many people indulging themselves in illegitimate ways of raising a living.

Due to these challenges the crime rate in Haiti is high. The most rampant crime in the recent past has been kidnapping and the threat is more likely to increase due to inability of the security forces to curb the situation. The Haitian National Police have experienced significant strain in bringing kidnappers to custody. Since the 2006 kidnapping peak period security has been reinforced by the presence of UN-formed police and the UN stabilization forces (MINUSTAH).

Read more →  

April 26th is an infamous day in Haiti's history. Two events of senseless violence, 23 years apart, occurred on that date. In 1963, mass killings of soldiers and their loved ones by Haitian National Police (HNP) were ordered by François Duvalier, in advance of son Jean-Claude's planned abduction. In 1986 at a commemoration to honor victims and families' murders and maiming, another mass killing occurred.

The father-son Duvalier regime was one of the cruelest in Haiti's history. Blood-thirsty monster François dispatched death squads, the Ton-Ton Macoutes, to kill any citizen suspected of being opposed to his government. People would sometimes disappear at night, never to be seen again. Others were murdered in plain sight of a terrified public. When François received word oppositional factions of the HNP were planning to kidnap son, Jean-Claude, he took swift and retaliatory action. His police torched occupied family homes. In other instances, they separated children from families, imprisoning relatives, tormenting and murdering them.

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On Friday, September 21, 2012, thousands of people took to streets in the second city of Haiti, Cap-Haitian, to demonstrate against Martelly - Lamothe government. Barricades made of tires, stones and garbage were erected in several areas of the city. Traffic was difficult in many areas and in the neighborhood of La Fossettete and Cite Lescot where the tires were burning, impossible.

The people demonstrating were throwing slogans to show their dissatisfaction with the current policy of the government. They chanted against recent increase in food price and government corruption. Some of the people in the crowd were asking for Martelly to leave the government.

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Ivan Simonovic of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights informed The Associated Press recently that he had learned from Haitian officials that the latest wave of insecurity, specially in Port-au-Prince, has been a result of gang warfare. The information was provided to him by Haitian police officials as well as Mr. Jean Renel Sanon, Justice Minister in Haiti.

Also record from United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti indicated that last July was the most violent Month for the past two years. However, something very interesting happened at the same time. The level of kidnapping decreased remarkably during that same Month.

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