Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness. Photo / AP
Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness. Photo / AP
Jamaica’s prime minister said his government is willing to send soldiers and police officers to Haiti as part of a proposed multinational security assistance deployment.
The announcement comes a week after UN special envoy for Haiti Helen La Lime said she hoped that the UN Security Council would deal “positively”with the pending request from Haiti’s government for international armed forces despite the US and Canada showing no interest.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the island’s House of Representatives on Tuesday that he wants to help Haiti and “support a return to a reasonable level of stability and peace, which would be necessary for any inclusive, democratic process to take root.”
The announcement appears to mark the first time that a nation in the Western Hemisphere publicly offers boots on the ground after Haiti’s prime minister and other top officials requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops in early October amid a crippling fuel siege blamed on the country’s most powerful gang.
A photo of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty stands on display during a memorial in memory of officers killed during an anti-gang operation, at a police station in Petion-Ville, Haiti. Photo / AP/Odelyn Joseph
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and La Lime have backed Haiti’s plea to no avail.
The UN Security Council has mulled the request but taken no action, opting instead to issue sanctions on people including Jimmy Chérizier, a dominant gang leader and former police officer blamed for masterminding multiple massacres.
“It is our impression that the international community has not yet taken stock of the urgency of the situation that the Haitian people are facing,” Léon Charles, former chief of Haiti’s National Police, said Wednesday during an Organisation of American States meeting.
“My country is experiencing one of the most difficult moments in its history,” said Charles, who is Haiti’s permanent representative to the OAS.
He likened the aid that Haiti has received so far from the international community to buckets of water to help put out a raging fire when what the country needs is fire trucks equipped with heavy-duty hoses.
Meanwhile, Holness said Jamaica is ready to offer bilateral support if needed.
“It is our real hope that Haiti will soon overcome her challenges and embark on a path toward restoration of stability, long-lasting peace and sustainable development for her land and people with the full backing of the international community,” he said.
Vanessa Frazier, Malta’s ambassador to the United Nations who is the current president of the Security Council, said at a council meeting on Tuesday that they welcomed Jamaica’s declaration and added that it had yet to receive notifications from other countries.
“Hopefully we will, because we understand that this … multinational security force is very important and is required on the ground in order to stabilise the situation in Haiti,” she said.
Jimmy Cherizier, the leader of the "G9 et Famille" gang, talks with members of his gang while taking a ride on the back of a motorcycle in his district of Delmas 6 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Photo / AP/Odelyn Joseph
Jamaica is a member of a regional trade bloc known as Caricom, which last week issued a statement urging “all stakeholders to come together in their search for a consensus agreement” to resolve what it called a protracted political stalemate in Haiti, adding that it was prepared to hold a meeting in the Caribbean to talk about the issue.
Haiti was stripped of all democratically elected institutions when the terms of the remaining 10 senators expired in early January. Prime Minister Ariel Henry has promised to hold general elections for more than a year, but a provisional electoral council has yet to be chosen, which some critics say has led to a de facto dictatorship.
Haiti also has been struggling with levels of violence not seen in decades ever since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse at his private home, with gangs now believed to control 60 per cent of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
The number of reported kidnappings soared to 1359 last year, double compared with the previous year, and reported killings have spiked by a third to 2183, according to the UN.
“These are truly chilling figures,” Charles said. “The situation in Haiti is extremely urgent.”
Haiti’s National Police has fewer than 9000 active police officers for a country of more than 11 million people who not only face a spike in violence but also deepening poverty, widespread hunger and a deadly cholera outbreak.
