United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has once more made a forceful demand for a powerful international police force to root out criminal gangs in Haiti while complimenting Jamaica for taking a step forward and taking the initiative to bring about a political solution to the current crisis in Haiti since past president Jovenel Moise assassination back in 2021.
The CARICOM state is ripped apart by gang violence and political instability, and Guterres, who was on a two-day visit to the island, admitted that Jamaica was the first government to show a desire to join an international police force to stop the heinous crimes of the gang members.
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Guterres states, “Jamaica, in the context of CARICOM, is involved in a very important political process trying to bring together the different stakeholders to find a way out of this political crisis.”
The UN chief stated there has been hesitancy on the side of the other nations that have a greater amount of resources to be able to lead this sort of operation when recently speaking to journalists at the media center at Jamaica House in St Andrew.
The head of the UN asked the advanced countries that have the ability to take the reins of the security operation to do so.
He said that Haiti is an issue for everyone, not just the people who live there. It affects the entire area and, to a considerable extent, all of us.
He did point out that establishing a viable political process is the best way to resolve the international community’s hesitation to intervene. The Jamaican initiative is crucial because of this, he claimed.
A group of CARICOM leaders had high-level discussions with Haitian government representatives and members of civil society at the end of February under the leadership of Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
The group had discussions with diverse stakeholders in an effort to find a way to forge a consensus and bring peace and stability back to Haiti.
News that Haiti was about to enter a civil war first surfaced earlier this month. A local humanitarian organization issued a warning that criminal gang violence against people was on the rise.
Guterres recently described the situation in Haiti as “tragic”.
He noted, “You have dramatic humanitarian needs; you have a political system that is paralyzed and you have levels of violence by gangs that are absolutely appalling. The number of people killed, the number of people unable to live their lives, the dramatic food insecurity problems are indeed something that needs a stronger commitment by the international community.”
In his speech, Prime Minister Holness said that the world community had “listened to” the appeals for assistance and that they may not have gone unanswered. The slowness of any deliberate action worried the prime minister, though.
According to him, nations who wish to offer assistance would also like to be confident that a political mechanism was in place that could produce a solution in a fair amount of time.
According to Holness, CARICOM and Jamaica have begun a process aimed at fostering political unanimity in Haiti.
“We are making some progress in that regard, but there still should be more tangible effort into what we are doing in terms of supporting Haiti,” Holness remarked.
