In a joint letter addressed to Prime Minister Garry Conille on July 4, 2024, five (5) organizations, including the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), demand justice and reparations for victims of armed violence in Haiti.
These organizations, concerned about the expansion of gang violence in the country, highlight several important points that the transitional government authorities should address to restore security and lasting constitutional order.
During a press conference this Thursday, July 11, 2024, Rosy Auguste Ducéna, RNDDH program manager, insisted on the need for justice and reparation for victims of armed violence dating back to 2018.
“Since 2018, armed individuals, grouped into criminal associations, have been robbing, killing, and collectively raping women and girls, setting fire to houses and squatting in others after looting them, kidnapping and holding women, men and children for ransom, demanding huge sums of money to release them,” the organizations recall in the letter.
In the face of growing gang terror, these five organizations are urging the transitional government to take measures to relieve the victims and are making recommendations to this effect.
“[…] The organizations that signed this communication recommend that you ask the Minister of Justice and Public Security to instruct the government commissioners of the various courts of first instance of the Republic, in particular those of Croix-des-Bouquets, Port-au-Prince, Petit-Goave ce, Gonaïves and Saint-Marc, to initiate public action against the armed bandits who have murdered, raped, sequestered members of the population; set fire to, looted and squatted in the homes of citizens, forcing them to move, with a view to judging them and leading to their conviction,” the letter reads.
Furthermore, these civil society organisations consider any possible dialogue between the authorities and armed groups unacceptable, stressing that the latter, responsible for great suffering for the Haitian population, must under no circumstances be granted amnesty.
“No amnesty can be granted to the bandits who terrorize the Haitian population,” the signatory organizations continue in the letter.
The signatories of the open letter also call on government authorities to provide psychological and financial assistance to the victims of the bandits’ atrocities, who number several thousand, particularly in the metropolitan region of Port-au-Prince.
The five organizations that signed this letter addressed to Prime Minister Garry Conille are: the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH), the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace (CE-JILAP), the Reflection Circle and Nègès Mawon.
