Haiti violence: Gangs gain the upper hand in war with police – CNN
Les balles ont rebondi sur le véhicule blindé, tandis que la police transportait un civil boiteux sur le trottoir – une autre victime des fusillades brutales et quotidiennes qui sévissent dans la capitale haïtienne Port-au-Prince et ses environs. Ici, à l’intérieur du territoire de Croix-des-Bouquets tenu par les gangs, l’équipe SWAT d’Haïti s’est lancée dans une fusillade qui a déjà déchiré un bus civil.
« Pouvez-vous voir d’où ça vient ? » se demandent à bout de souffle les membres du SWAT à l’intérieur du véhicule blindé. Il n’offre qu’une minuscule fenêtre sur les rues extérieures, qui semblent tantôt désertes, tantôt grouillantes de civils tentant de se mettre à l’abri. Au cours des 72 dernières heures, la police a tué un chef du gang des 400 Mawozo et en a sauvé six otages, disent-ils. Mais le gang – l’un des dizaines qui terrorisent la capitale – n’a pas été délogé de ces rues.
The rounds bounced off the armored vehicle, as police carried a limp civilian to the sidewalk — another victim of the brutal, daily shootings that plague the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area. Here, inside the gang-held territory of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti’s SWAT team has driven into a gunfight that has already torn up a civilian bus. »Can you see where it came from? » the SWAT members breathlessly asked each other inside the armored vehicle. It provides only a tiny sliver of a window onto the streets outside, which at one moment appear deserted, the next teeming with civilians trying to flee to safety.In the past 72 hours, police have killed a leader of the 400 Mawozo gang and rescued six hostages from them, they say. But the gang – one of dozens terrorizing the capital – have not been dislodged from these streets. »Can you see that red sign ‘SMS’? That’s them, » said a SWAT officer, indicating the gunmen’s position. Like his team, he did not want to be named, citing their safety. He pointed down the road towards a small shack, as dozens of people flooded from a side-alley into the street. »Get away, » he said to the crowd, over the armored car’s loudspeaker. « You’re too exposed. It’s dangerous. »The officer ordered the vehicle to move into a new position. « When we get to the spot, open up on anything that moves, » he said. Heavy gunfire between police and gang members followed.It is a common scene of injury, gunfire and panic in one of the dozens of neighborhoods controlled by gangs as Port-au-Prince appears to descend into a full-blown war between police and increasingly well-equipped and organized criminal groups.And this is a familiar routine: Police probe into gang areas to show their reach, and gangs respond with intense volleys of bullets.
Police SWAT stand watch following an anti-gang operation in Croix-des-Bouquets.In the area of Cité Soleil, ten days of violence in July left more than 470 people dead, injured or missing, according to the UN, after the G9 gang tried to expand its reach in the area, taking territory from rival gangs.Social media video from inside the area shows gangs using a bulldozer covered with steel plates to act as armor demolishing homes, presumably those of rivals. Other houses had been burned, with other video showing dozens of locals fleeing the area on foot at night, during the peak of the fighting.Civilians who fled Cité Soleil found little respite, with dozens receiving food handouts from the World Food Programme and sheltering in the open air of the Hugo Chavez recreational park.Flies blanket the rain-sodden concrete floor of the sporting amphitheater stage, where children as young as four months struggle to sleep, exposed to the elements. One has bruises from a fall, another a painful and ugly rash, but they are alive.Here, Natalie Aristel angrily shows us her new, unpalatable home. »Here’s where I sleep in a puddle, » she said, pointing at the water. « They burned my house and shot my husband seven times, » she says, referring to gang members. »I can’t even afford to go see him [in hospital]. In this park, even if they brought some food, there’s never enough for everyone. The kids are dying. »Others are missing. « I have four kids, but my first is missing and I can’t find him, » another woman said. « We’ve been totally abandoned by the state and have to pay to even use a toilet, » another added.A young boy added: « My mother and father have died. My aunt saved me. I want to go to school but it was torn down. »Locals speak of a perfect storm of calamities — and warn the country increasingly feels on the verge of societal collapse.
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