Haiti earthquake: police admit gangs have taken over Port-au-Prince
Pastor Dale Morgan
Haiti earthquake: police admit gangs have taken over Port-au-Prince*
Haitian authorities conceded they had lost their battle to maintain
order in Port-au-Prince after the leaders of the city's crime gangs
reclaimed their old turf since being freed when the national prison
collapsed last week.
By Bruno Waterfield
Published: 8:54PM GMT 19 Jan 2010
Haiti earthquake: police admit gangs have taken over Port-au-Prince
The gangsters have stepped into the law and order vacuum, notably in the
sprawling shanty town of Cite Soleil which they dominated before being
locked up following police operations supported by United Nations troops
over the last three years.
"Even as we are digging bodies out of buildings, they are trying to
attack our officers," said Aristide Rosemond a Cite Soleil police inspector.
The Haitian authorities, already weak and reliant on UN forces, are now
crippled by heavy casualties and widespread destruction of
infrastructure while international peacekeepers are focused on disaster
relief.
Jean-Max Bellerive, Haiti's prime minister, has despaired of the state's
ability to tackle a new post-earthquake crime wave sweeping his
country's devastated capital.
"The problem is they have weapons so we cannot send the population or
just any policemen to capture them," he said.
The morale and strength of Haiti's police has been severely reduced by
the loss of experienced officers, killed or injured, leaving recently
trained recruits to hold the line.
"We do not have the capacity to fix this situation. Haiti needs help.
The Americans are welcome here. But where are they? We need them here on
the street with us," said Dorsainvil Robenson, a police officer.
Police officers, whose limited success against slum gang lords has been
based on the support of armoured UN troops, have now effectively given
up by appealing to local vigilantes to take the law into their own hands.
"If you don't kill the criminals, they will all come back," Haitian
police officers announce over loudspeakers from heavily armed
checkpoints in the slum area.
Residents say that people have been killed and several women raped in a
turf war between gangsters nicknamed "Belony" and "Bled" in the six days
following the earthquake which destroyed the prison.
"The trouble is starting," said Jean-Semaine Delice, a 51-year-old father.
Ten Brazilian peacekeepers were killed when a key local UN checkpoint at
the entrance to Cite Soleil, known as the "Blue House", collapsed. The
UN also lost its chief, deputy chief and acting police commander in
earthquake, creating a dangerous power vacuum at a time when
international peacekeepers have committed their diminished forces to
aiding survivors.