Ayibopost: No real progress toward peace, security in Port-au-Prince, main roads controlled by gangs

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00:00Welcome. Today, a small group of Jamaican soldiers are arriving in Haiti to support

00:09an international mission to combat gang violence in the country. They will join some 400 Kenyan

00:16troops whose job is a hugely challenging one, to try and wrest control of the capital Port-au-Prince

00:23from the gangs who currently occupy about 80% of the city. Since March, they've been enforcing

00:31their brutal control there with torture, rape and murder. Well, we're going to cross live on

00:37the programme now to Port-au-Prince and speak to the journalist Widlaw Merakor. He is the editor

00:43of AIIB Post, which is an independent Haitian news outlet. He's also a contributor to The

00:49Washington Post. Hello, and thank you for talking to us today. Thanks for having me.

00:54Look, first of all, these Jamaican troops, it's worth emphasising there are only 20 of them are

01:00arriving today. And the Kenyan contingent has been there for about three months now.

01:08Are they managing to make Haiti any safer? Well, at first when the Kenyan arrived,

01:15the population was extremely helpful that they would help fight back against the gangs. But

01:23months after their arrival, we are not seeing a lot of progress toward peace and security

01:31in Port-au-Prince. The main roads leading to the capital are still controlled by gangs, although

01:38you have some relative peace in some neighbourhoods. But the main task, which would

01:44be to take back the places, the neighbourhoods that were under the control of gangs in the north

01:51of the capital, in the south of the capital, but also outside of Port-au-Prince are still under

01:58the strong hands of brutal, murderous gangs that are sowing chaos all over Haiti today.

02:07And look, this mission, which is supported by the United Nations, is supposed to mean that around

02:142,500 personnel would be in Haiti to try and bring this crisis under control. But as I say,

02:22there are 400 Kenyans and only 20 Jamaicans arriving today. Can you explain to us why

02:28there are so few international troops? Why isn't more effort being done to help Haiti right now?

02:36Well, we have to go back as to how we got here. The United States was trying to find all sorts of

02:45countries to lead this mission. Nobody kind of volunteered to lead it. And still, Kenya kind of

02:53accepted and said, well, if we have the UN approval, we will lead it. But it was the idea that

03:03we would have a multinational force, which we don't have. We still don't have it. Many countries,

03:11they pledged to send personnel in Haiti. They have yet to follow through on these promises.

03:18And this is also why the US and their Haiti partners are now thinking about changing this

03:27mission from a multinational kind of mission led by Kenya to a UN peacekeeping force. But it's

03:35unclear, actually, if the Haiti population will accept such change because of the brutal

03:44legacy of the UN peacekeeping force that was in Haiti from 2004 to 2017.

03:51Absolutely. And it is worth telling our viewers in case they're not aware,

03:55previous UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti, there was evidence that UN staff raped women

04:02and girls. Cholera was introduced to Haiti as the result of a UN peacekeeping mission. So,

04:09is it fair to say that there are lots of Haitians now, given that legacy, who don't really want more

04:15UN support, that they don't trust the international community, frankly, to help them at this time?

04:21Well, I do think that the skepticism with regard to the international community is real here in

04:27Haiti. I would not go so far as to say that they would outright reject a UN peacekeeping force.

04:34But I do think that people are skeptical. People were already skeptical when it comes to the

04:40Kenyan mission. And more and more, we are seeing criticisms level at them, like they are tourists

04:48people, like they are not doing enough. But to the defense of the Kenyans, they say when we

04:56interview them that they lack equipments, they lack personnel, and the force is not properly

05:05funded. A couple of weeks ago, they were complaining, their families were complaining

05:11that they were not receiving their pay. And special interventions had to be made for them

05:17to receive the money. So, it's not because they don't want to do it. It's because the

05:22the situation is extremely difficult. And they are not receiving the funding and the

05:30equipments necessary to tackle this game problem. And look, Widlaw, it is rare to hear voices like

05:36yours coming out of Port-au-Prince this year, given the scale of the unrest and the violence.

05:41So, I just kind of want to ask you, look, what is life like now in the capital for ordinary

05:48Haitians? We know gangs control some 80% of the city. Paint a picture for us. I mean,

05:54what are you seeing there day to day? Well, on one side, you have a capital where

06:00kidnapping is still a reality. You have a capital where more than 500,000 people had to be displaced

06:09because of gang violence. You have a capital where since last February, in so many neighborhoods,

06:15gangs attack people, burn down houses and cause people to flee and not, you know,

06:25losing basically the little things that they possess to kind of find life and buy food.

06:33For themselves, we have a brutal and dire humanitarian situation with half of the country

06:40actually not eating properly. This is on one side. On the other side, you also have,

06:47in a couple of neighborhoods, some relative peace. In the place where I am, for instance,

06:52I'm kind of eight to 10 minutes from the National Palace. It's, you know, it's relatively peaceful.

06:58We have less gunshots if I'm comparing today to, let's say, back in February. But it's still a very

07:07difficult, difficult situation. If I had to add one last thing, that would be my main concern,

07:13actually, as the editor-in-chief of a local news organization is for my team, for my personnel.

07:21In last years and going through this, we had to relocate about half a dozen, I think,

07:30people from our own organization because the story that they are telling is also their own story.

07:36They are living the gang violence. They are living in the spaces where the gangs are

07:43attacking. So it's extremely hard.

07:47With Lord Miracor, there are so many more questions I'd like to ask you, but unfortunately,

07:51we are out of time. Thank you very much indeed for talking to us today live from Port-au-Prince in

07:57Haiti.

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