Page 6 - aruba-today-20230815

A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 15 augusT 2023

Rights group urges rapid intervention to end gang violence in Haiti

By DÁNICA COTO President Jovenel Moïse.
Associated Press The group also recom-
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) mended that the U.S. and
— A human rights group France recognize their re-
urged the international sponsibility “for their historic
community on Monday to harms and abuses with on-
intervene quickly to end going impacts and work to-
spiraling violence by gangs wards the development of
in Haiti as it detailed the an effective and genuine
brutal rapes and killings reparations process led by
committed in the troubled Haitian people.”
nation’s capital. Haiti became the world’s
The call by Human Rights first Black republic in 1804,
Watch comes as Haiti with France demanding
awaits a response from the a 150 million gold franc
U.N. Security Council to its “independence debt” to
request in October for the compensate for lost slaves
immediate deployment and land. The debt crip-
of an international armed pled the country, which
force to fight the surge in finished paying a reduced
violence. debt of 90 million gold
“The longer that we wait coins to French and Ameri-
and don’t have this re- can banks in 1947.
sponse, we’re going to see Demonstrators run past tires set on fire during a protest against insecurity in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, The report details abuse
more Haitians being killed, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. and violence that occurred
raped and kidnapped, and Associated Press in four communities in met-
more people suffering with- worse now in Haiti than it’s of humanitarian assistance, you’re going to get robbed ropolitan Port-au-Prince
out enough to eat,” said been at any time people a 20% increase from last or shot for bubble gum from January to April of this
Ida Sawyer, the group’s can remember.” year. money that you made that year, based on interviews
crisis and conflict director, Gangs have overpowered Sawyer also called for strict day,” she said and ac- with dozens of victims and
who visited Haiti to compile police, with experts esti- oversight of Kenyan police cused the government of witnesses.
a report on the violence. mating they now control if they are deployed. making empty promises to A 33-year-old mother of
The United States said ear- some 80% of the capital, In Port-au-Prince on Mon- improve people’s lives. four said she was beaten
lier this month that it would Port-au-Prince. There are day, several thousand pro- She added that she rarely and raped when she left
introduce a U.N. Security only about 10,000 police testers marched to decry sees police patrolling the early one morning in April
Council resolution authoriz- officers for the country’s the rise in violence and de- streets and hopes an inter- to sell goods at the market.
ing Kenya to lead a multi- more than 11 million peo- mand government action. national police force will She said her sister, a mother
national police force to ple. More than 30 officers Police later fired tear gas to arrive soon so “I’ll be able of three children, was with
fight gangs in Haiti. Howev- were killed from January to disperse the crowd. There to breathe for a little while.” her and was killed because
er, no timetable for such a June, and more than 400 were no immediate reports Human Rights Watch also she resisted an attempt to
resolution was given. police facilities are inop- of any injuries. urged the U.S., Canada, rape her.
“The main message we erative because of criminal Among those planning to France and other govern- “They burned her in my
want to get across is that attacks, according to Hu- march was Cassandre Pe- ments to support the cre- presence, and her corpse
Haitian people need sup- man Rights Watch. tit, a 35-year-old mother ation of a transitional gov- was placed in a pile with
port now,” Sawyer said. In addition to the ongoing who owns a small conve- ernment, with Ariel Henry other corpses,” the woman
“We heard again and violence, an estimated 5.2 nience store. holding power since the said.q
again that the situation is million Haitians are in need “You don’t know when July 2021 assassination of

Railway bridge collapses in southeastern Norway after last week’s

torrential rain

COPENHAGEN, Denmark lapse because of the large health, which I am very
(AP) — A railway bridge in volume of water. happy about.”
southeastern Norway that “Bane NOR had just begun The rain led to the evacua-
ran across a river swollen by investigating the extent of tion of thousands in south-
torrential rain collapsed on the damage to the bridge eastern Norway, where a
Monday, authorities said. on Monday morning when huge amount of water, lit-
BaneNOR, a government the middle part slid into the tered with broken trees, de-
agency in charge of the river,” the agency said in a bris and trash, thundered
Norwegian rail infrastruc- statement. down the usually serene
ture, said the central sec- The bridge is 172.5 meters rivers after days of torrential
tion of the steel truss bridge (189 yards) long with three rain.
over the Laagen River slid spans. It has a direct foun- Storm Hans battered north-
into the water “due to dation on the riverbed, and ern Europe, leading to
damage to the central was built in 1957. transportation disruption,
bridge foundation.” Eivind Bjurstrøm at Bane flooding and power cuts
All traffic across the bridge NOR said that the collapse across the Nordic and Bal-
A section of a railway bridge collapsed into the water over the was halted a week ago out of the bridge “never in- tic region. At least three
Laagen River in Ringebu, Norway, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. of fear that it would col-
Associated Press volved a danger to life and people were killed.q