Haiti Massacre Includes Women and Children: Dominican Republic Seeks Mass Deportations
Haiti Massacre Includes Women and Children: Dominican Republic Seeks Mass Deportations
Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The latest massacre in Haiti of at least 70 people gives further credence to the fears of the Dominican Republic. It comes at a time when the Dominican Republic announced the ramping up of deporting roughly 10,000 illegal Haitians every week.
The massacre in Haiti includes the deaths of at least ten women and three children. Hence, the town of Pont-Sondé (Artibonite region) is in shock after members of the Gran Grif killed so many.
Prime Minister Garry Conille of Haiti said, “The criminals responsible for these abominable acts will be hunted down and brought to justice, without respite.”
Conille continued, “This odious crime against defenseless women, men and children is not only an attack against victims but against the entire Haitian nation.”
Local people in Pont-Sondé had refused to pay extortion money to the Gran Grif gang. Accordingly, they massacred innocent people – including women and children.
A spokesperson for Antonio Guterres (Secretary-General of the United Nations) said, “As gang violence continues to spread from the capital to other departments of Haiti, the secretary-general stresses the importance of the joint efforts undertaken by the Haitian National Police and the multinational security support mission.”
The BBC reports, “Gran Grif is said to be one of the most violent of Haiti’s gangs. In January 2023 its members were accused of attacking a police station near Pont-Sondé and killing six officers. It is also blamed for forcing the closure of a hospital serving more than 700,000 people.”
The massacre is also a sign that in areas outside of Port-au-Prince (the capital city), the authorities and international component are overstretched.
Reuters reports, “The killings are the latest sign of a worsening conflict in Haiti, where armed gangs control most of the capital Port-au-Prince and are expanding to nearby regions, fuelling hunger and making hundreds of thousands homeless. Promised international support continues to lag and nearby nations have deported migrants back to the country.”
The Dominican Republic fears the negative convulsions of Haiti and the role of mass Haitian immigration on society. Accordingly, this nation announced the ramping up of deportating 10,000 illegal Haitians a week.
Luis Abinader, the President of the Dominican Republic, earlier this year, uttered, “Let’s prevent Haiti from ending up devastated by chaos and anarchy. We will not allow the crisis it is experiencing to spread throughout the entire region.”
Abinader continued – if no international network emerges to help Haiti – “Our slogan from now on will be: either we fight together to save Haiti, or we will fight alone to protect the Dominican Republic!”
Voice of America reports, “The Dominican Republic on Wednesday announced an ‘immediate’ plan to deport up to 10,000 migrants per week, as it ramps up enforcement along its border with Haiti despite U.N. pleas for it not to expel people to its conflict-hit neighbor.”
The United Nations asked nations with illegal Haitian migrants to halt deportations. This notably is aimed at the Dominican Republic and America. However, for the Dominican Republic, it is a national security issue.
Approximately 700,000 internally displaced Haitians have fled areas blighted by high crime and gang killings. At the same time, roughly 50% of the population of Haiti faces food insecurity.
CNN reports, “Last year, the Dominican Republic deported more than 174,000 people it says are Haitians, and in the first half of the year, it has expelled at least 67,000 more.”
Nations must understand the predicament that the Dominican Republic faces. This concerns national security – and the fear of Haitian gang-related violence spreading to this country.
Haiti is in an endless spiral of gang-related violence, political cronyism, poverty, and a limited infrastructure. Also, the United Nations created the horrendous cholera outbreak that killed many Haitians – and this organization was responsible for countless sex scandals.
President Joe Biden of America (before becoming the leader of America) said, “If Haiti, a God awful thing to say, if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interest.”
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