On the rare days when the heights surrounding Port-au-Prince are silent, people notice it.
“If you don’t hear shots somewhere, the gangs are probably out of ammunition,” a police source in the Haitian capital told CNN. “But when there are a lot of shootings, they certainly have received a new shipment.”
For more than two months, Port-au-Prince has been cut off from the world, its international seaport and airport closed following an explosion of gang attacks at the end of February. All main roads are blocked by gang roadblocks. For most residents, there is no way out, no way to get the food and medicine they desperately need.
The Caribbean nation is surrounded by another closed perimeter, this time created by Haiti’s neighbors. The Dominican Republic has sealed the island’s common border and airspace. The Bahamas implemented a naval blockade to prevent Haitians from fleeing the crisis by boat; the United Kingdom sent a warship to repel anyone seeking refuge in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British overseas territory; and the US state of Florida has strengthened its maritime and air patrols.
Yet the guns, bullets and drugs continue to flow, crossing international waters and airspace to reach the troubled country – most of these weapons come from the United States.
“Haiti does not produce weapons or ammunition, but gang members do not seem to have difficulty accessing them,” explains Pierre Esperance, executive director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights of Haiti.
Since the start of the year, thousands of people have been killed in gang-related violence and hundreds have been kidnapped, including at least 21 children, according to UN figures. Police and human rights experts say stopping the flow of weapons to Haiti would have an immediate impact on the bloodshed.
“We need to cut off the gangs’ gun supply lines. This is absolutely the most important thing today,” the police source told CNN. “Because when they run out of bullets, their machine guns become nothing more than clubs.
As a Kenyan-led multinational security support force (MSS) prepares to deploy to Haiti, depriving gangs of ammunition should be a top priority for the United States, according to William O’Neill, the expert appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner on the human rights situation in Haiti.
source: Haiti: Port-au-Prince is cut off from the world, but guns and drugs keep flowing | CNN
