Global Policy Forum

Haiti Threatened by Spread of Small Arms

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AlertNet
April 4, 2005

Tens of thousands of illegal firearms held by civilians and political and criminal gangs in Haiti pose a major threat to efforts to restore peace in the Caribbean country, a U.N.-backed study said on Monday. The study by the Geneva-based Small Arms Group said the proliferation of weapons -- whose numbers were being swollen by smuggling -- had led to hundreds of deaths, and violations of human rights and crimes affecting tens of thousands of Haitians.


"Without effective intervention, the situation could deteriorate further still," said a summary of the report in an implicit appeal to a Brazilian-led peacekeeping force in the country. The report, to be issued in full on Thursday, appeared two weeks after the international human rights group Global Justice accused the force, known by its initials as MINUSTAH, of complacency in the face of the violence.

Officials of the 7,400-strong force -- on Haiti since last June -- say they have stepped up efforts to disarm gangs of former soldiers of the dissolved army of ex-president Jean-Bernard Aristide who was ousted in February 2004. Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, is due to hold elections in November.

The report's authors said the efforts of the peacekeeping force, which includes Asian and Latin American units, were being compromised by the easy availability of small arms and light weapons. It said "predatory armed gangs and non-state opposition groups" alone held up to 13,000 automatic, semi-automatic and manufactured weapons.

Gunmen have killed at least two members of the U.N. Security Council authorised force -- a Sri Lankan and a Nepalese. Last weekend a Filipino soldier survived an attack outside a peacekeeper's hotel.


More Information on the Security Council
More Information on Haiti
More Articles on Small Arms and Light Weapons

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.