Global Policy Forum

By Nick Wadhams

Haitian gangs should accept a U.N. offer to disarm and return to civilian life or else peacekeepers will deal with them ``with firmness,'' the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean nation said Tuesday. Juan Gabriel Valdes said the mission, known as MINUSTAH, was stepping up action to ensure that militias and gangs do not disrupt elections set for October and November. On Sunday, two U.N. soldiers were killed in Haiti, one of them as peacekeepers raided a police station occupied by gunmen.

While many former soldiers had agreed to disarm, the big problem was militias affiliated with them or armed gangs in shantytowns, Valdes said. The United Nations is giving those groups the chance to turn over their weapons and return to civilian life. ``If these offers are not received, if it is not possible to continue to follow a peaceful rendering of these weapons and the disarmament of these groups, we will follow the same line of firmness that we have followed in the last week vis-a-vis the former military,'' Valdes said.

He said there would be no deadline for the armed groups but that the peacekeepers would plan carefully to protect civilians - particularly in the Port-au-Prince slum of Bel Air and the shantytown of Cite Soleil outside the capital. ``What we cannot accept is the level of control that these gangs have over these people and we are preparing action against them,'' Valdes said.

A U.S.-led peacekeeping force was deployed to Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile in February 2004. This force was replaced by U.N. peacekeepers in June. Despite their presence, armed rebels and former soldiers still control much of the countryside. Aristide disbanded the army in 1995, four years after he was ousted.

For months, the peacekeepers have been criticized for being too passive toward armed groups, including ex-soldiers and street gangs. The groups are blamed for more than 400 killings since September and some fear they could disrupt fall elections. Valdes, Chile's former U.N. ambassador, said the mission had stayed in the background while the transitional government tried to persuade armed groups to end the violence. But the gangs have continued to resist, and now peacekeepers have begun to take action.

There are four or five more police stations around Haiti in the hands of former military forces or other gunmen, but none where large numbers of civilians are threatened, Valdes said. The next step, Valdes said, is giving Haitian police ``the backing and also the means'' to fight the armed gangs effectively.

Col. El Ouafi Boulbars, a U.N. military spokesman, said the ex-soldiers who killed a Nepalese peacekeeper may be hiding around the central town of Hinche ``or maybe moved east to cross the border into the Dominican Republic.'' ``We are hunting them. There is no operation yet but when we have all the information we will track them down,'' he said. ``It is our duty to capture them and hand them over to Haitian police.''

A Dominican army spokesman said he has no information on ex-soldiers trying to cross the border. ``But if they do attempt, we'll be ready,'' said Army Col. Francisco Fernandez.

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