Haiti Network Blames UN Mission for Rape, Killings, Cholera
Social rights organization blames U.N. missions for the nation's current crisis and devastating cholera outbreak.
The executive director of the Haitian Dominican Redemption Network Jacques Viau said the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, “has left many girls raped, children without parents, women and children with machine guns, others killed, with the only answer that they were rebellious people.”
In light of this fact, Haitian activists have said the nation should consider consequences prior to agreeing to collaborate with United Nations along the Dominican-Haitian border.
According to the REDHJV, Haiti is still trying to remove the U.N. missions from the Caribbean country with the organization blaming the country’s current crisis and cholera epidemic on the mission.
“It is necessary to see if we — as a country — want to sign so that the United Nations, the entity that regulates the Minustah, is on the border,” the REDHJV chief, Altagracia Jean Joseph said, referring to the number of crimes committed by U.N. mission members against Haitians.
Prior to signing any agreement to collaborate with U.N. forces and opening its doors to further violations, Joseph urged the Haitian government to consider the toll it will take on society.
For years, the United Nations refused to accept full responsibility for causing a deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti which has killed up to 30, 000 people since 2010. Finally, in 2016, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered what he suggested was an official apology.
Additionally, in 2015, some 225 Haitian women stated they had been sexually exploited in exchange for necessities such as food, water and medication by foreign mission workers.
The exact number of cases remains unknown with a report drafted by the Office of Internal Oversight Services saying that U.N. peacekeepers, a group of around 125,000 individuals, showed that one-third of allegations of sexual abuse were against children under the age of 18.