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U.N. Security Council open to sanctioning Haiti gangs and those who arm, finance them

Members of the United Nations Security Council appear poised to support a U.S.-backed resolution to sanction Haiti’s gang leaders and those arming and financing them, but warned that such measures must not have adverse humanitarian consequences on the population, which is already facing “an alarming situation.”

“Parameters such as listening criteria, conditions for lifting the sanctions, humanitarian exemptions, and carve-outs are essential for applying these measures in a responsible and effective manner,” said Ronaldo Costa Filho, Brazil’s permanent representative to the U.N.

On Monday, Security Council members were told that while recent violent protests have quieted down, Haiti still faces a challenging situation. Hunger is expected to worsen, companies are looking at leaving and life-saving health services risk coming to a “standstill.”

The U.N. warned that a shortage of fuel, due to a blockade by gangs of the country’s main fuel terminal, Varreux in Port-au-Prince, means that pregnant women, newborns, children and people suffering trauma and other life-threatening conditions cannot not get medical care at many hospitals. The country’s fuel supplies are dwindling and many healthcare staffers are unable to report to work, according to several local associations and organizations. The ongoing situation is also affecting the restocking of medicine and medical supplies, the U.N. said.

“Lives are being lost in Haiti because hospitals are unable to access fuel,” said Ulrika Richardson, the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti.

Richardson’s concerns were among several echoed Monday in New York as members of the Security Council met at the request of China to discuss the situation in Haiti two weeks after a fuel hike ignited widespread violent protests and calls for the resignation of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Costa said the episodes of violence “are unfortunately becoming more frequent and more dangerous.”

“It seems critical that we discuss ways to help identify and hold accountable whoever promotes and benefits from the current bleak state of affairs in Haiti,” he said.

In July, Brazil held the presidency of the Security Council when members opted against tougher language on a gang arms embargo, requested by China. Instead they voted to extend the mandate of the U.N. political mission in Haiti by a year and expand its staff. Since then, the United States, along with Mexico, has been working on a resolution to create a U.N. framework to place sanctions on gang leaders as well as on those who support and fund their activities. On Friday, the U.N. also announced that it was evacuating non-essential staff in Haiti due to the security situation.

France’s ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, asked that the U.N. consider an international independent inquiry to go after those behind the violence. Such an inquiry, which was adopted in the past in Guatemala, has so far been rejected for Haiti.

China requested that the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti, known as BINUH, provide a list of criminal gangs in the country and their leaders, while the Russian Federation warned that any measures must be targeted to be effective.

“The ringleaders of the criminal groups undoubtedly need their access to financing to be cut off, and they need to not be allowed to travel,” said Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative, warning that the sanctions are only effective to the extent that those targeted use foreign bank accounts, travel and are really the ones in charge. “Significant attention needs to be paid to the illegal supply of arms and the movement of finances. Until we stop the smuggling of weapons, this will continue to exacerbate the spiral of violence in the country.”

Russia’s representative also took issue with those who have blamed the protests on individuals with economic interests, saying they were a logical response to the ongoing gang warfare.

“By all accounts the country is one step away from disaster,” Polyanskiy said.

Haiti’s foreign minister, Jean Victor Généus, said that while the recent price increases for fuel were painful, they were necessary to reduce $400 million in fuel subsidies.

The measure, he said, was part of an effort to clean up public financing through economic reform. It’s also part of a larger reform effort that includes combating smuggling in the customs administration to increase revenues and halt the entry of weapons and ammunition into the country.

But while the effort led to a 40% increase in customs revenue in August, Généus said the reforms and the fuel hike were also used “by traditional troublemakers from the political sector and in the private business sector” to sow chaos in the country.

“They have used heavily armed gangs to paralyze all regions of the country by blocking the main arteries in the capital and in provincial towns, by looting and burning public buildings, such as court buildings, prisons, businesses in the private sector, the premises of certain commercial banks and the warehouses of international organizations such as the World Food Program, UNOPS, UNICEF and Caritas,” he said. “Over 20 schools have been ransacked and pillaged in the region of the Artibonite.”

Haiti, he said, supports the resolution.

“In order to tackle these terrorist acts, the government is banking very much on the cooperation from the international community. We must block the way to these troublemakers who promote violence, who profit from chronic instability in Haiti to grow rich through smuggling, drug trafficking, and trafficking in weapons and ammunition,” Généus said.

Helen La Lime, who heads the U.N. office in Haiti, and Valerie Guarnieri, the U.N.’s World Food Program executive deputy director, warned that the attacks, which led to the looting of more than $6 million in food, will worsen the situation in Haiti, where more than 4 million people were facing food scarcity before the latest round of violence.

La Lime said Haitians in the past weeks saw three separate crisis — gang violence, economic crisis and the ongoing political stalemate that all “converged into a humanitarian catastrophe.”

The Dominican Republic’s foreign minister, Roberto Alvarez Gil, told the council that “the human suffering in Haiti is indescribable.” The country has been pushing the international community to do more in Haiti, and has publicly called for a return of U.N. troops, which was not discussed Monday before the representatives went into a closed-door session to deliberate in private about the deteriorating situation in the country.

Alvarez noted that in addition to the ongoing suffering, Haitians face yet another coming crisis with the gangs blocking fuel deliveries. He said Haitians have not been able to solve the multidimensional crisis on their own through political dialogue to confront the violence and chaos, and chart a course to elections.

The powerful gang federation, G-9, was continuing to block access in and out of the country’s main fuel terminal after 10 days, Alvarez said, preventing more than 180,000 barrels of diesel, gas and kerosene from getting to fuel stations. .

“Around 400,000 people live around this terminal,” Alvarez said, echoing fears that gang members may try to attack the terminal itself. “We must avoid this tragedy at all costs.”