HAITI MUST BE AIDED

Caribbean governments have not as yet announced a new date for the latest round of mediation talks with varied political and civil society stakeholders in strife-torn Haiti, but Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis says the region has no choice but to help its poorest member nation.

Speaking at a summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) in Uganda this week, Davis said the CARICOM bloc must be committed to assisting Haiti as daily life has been paralyzed by marauding gangs, muggings, the pillaging of homes and sexaul assaults of women.

The Bahamas is one of Haiti’s closest neighbors and the preferred choice of boat people and economic migrants fleeing the misery of life in the capital and other cities. Official estimates indicate that around 25 percent of the Bahamian population is Haitian or people of Haitian extraction. Authorities recently demolished several shanty areas which were constructed by poor, struggling Haitian arrivals in various Bahamian islands.

“The Bahamas remains committed to helping the people of Haiti find peace and stability. Along with other members of CARICOM, we remain committed to help the Haitian people find a Haitian solution, led by the people of Haiti,” he told delegates from 121-member countries.” In the face of humanitarian and other disasters, we consider that there is a moral imperative to help. But we also do so, in the knowledge that our own national interest is well-served by having peace and security in Haiti. Their misery translates into surges in irregular migration, resulting in security issues at and within our borders.”

Since the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise the country has been in a state of chaos with gang members killing dozens of police officers, burning down their homes and taking control of parts of the capital. There are no elected officials in Haiti and efforts to organize fresh elections have run into major road blocks with disagreements among politically warring factions as to a date among other issues.

Caribbean governments stepped up to help Haiti in the past year, appointing three former prime ministers to an eminent persons group in an effort to bring the various parties together. They have held several rounds of talks with the groups both in Haiti and in Jamaica. Some of the groups have stalled progress by demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry but the former leaders say they remain hopeful nevertheless as the key agenda item is to organize fresh elections and get elected officials in place.

Caricom has been hoping that a Kenya-led multinational peacekeeping force would have been in place by now but this has been stymied by opposition lawmakers in Kenya to the deployment of local troops. Despite this, The Bahamas, Jamaica and several other nations have pledged to contribute troops or police officers to any force when agreement about a deployment date is reached. Only four CARICOM nations, Guyana, The Bahamas, St. Vincent and St. Lucia are attending the summit with The Bahamas playing a prominent role.

“I well remember the observation made over a year ago at the United Nations, when Kenya cautioned that Haiti’s history demonstrated that foreign intervention has been profoundly damaging and that any action must take past failures into account and be accompanied by transparency and respect, rooted in frameworks led and designed by Haitians with the leadership of trusted partners such as the CARICOM and the African Union,” PM Phillips told the conference.