Geneva.- The head of the UN for human rights, Volker Türk, made public today a series of criminal events that are registered in Haiti and that make it very urgent the deployment of an international force to help stop the wave of extreme violence that has led to the murder of nearly 2,500 people since the beginning of the year.
He revealed that in addition to them, another 902 people have been injured and 951 kidnapped in criminal actions that take place mainly in Port-au-Prince, where several neighborhoods are practically under siege.
The violence has reached such a level that “popular justice” or self-defense movements have multiplied and grown rapidly, which Türk noted has also led to serious excesses, such as the lynching of 350 people.
Of these, 310 were members of criminal gangs, one a police officer and the rest people whose affiliation has not been determined.
Among the events denounced by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is the murder of entire families -in one case their members were burned alive when their house was premeditated set on fire- who supported the local self-defense forces with the purpose of to confront the gangs.
UN observers have verified an increase in violence in the last week, in which 28 people have been killed and injured, in addition to looting against homes and businesses.
The deployment of the security forces calmed things down, but as soon as the agents withdrew, the gang members began to act again.
More than 50,000 people have had to leave the most problematic neighborhoods in recent days and are now in temporary shelters or in communities that have received them.
Türk pointed out that in view of all this, the dispatch of an international force to help the police in this unprecedented security challenge should be accelerated as much as possible.
“The human rights of the Haitian people must be protected and their suffering must be alleviated,” he stressed.
