Haitian police break their silence about the mass killing of churchgoers

Haiti’s national police said on Monday it will soon begin an operation to recover the bodies of several church members who were shot dead over the weekend when a powerful armed gang opened fire on worshipers as they marched to the gang’s territory on the outskirts of Port-aux. -prince.

The worshipers were among hundreds of believers who took part in a rally led by Reverend Marcurel “Marco” Zedor of Bethesda Church on Saturday. Armed with machetes and sticks and believing they would not be shot, they marched from the Karadiox neighborhood, where their church is located, towards Canaan, on the outskirts of the capital.

Instead of expelling the gang, they are met with machine gun fire.

Several church members have been killed, others wounded and others taken hostage, and the gang captured video evidence of their capture.

On Monday, police did not provide a casualty toll. Two days after the tragedy, they have not yet been able to recover the bodies.

Haitian Police Chief Frantz Elbe announced the upcoming operation during a press conference. He added that an investigation is underway to determine who was responsible for the accident. Haiti’s National Police has been widely criticized for not stopping churchgoers from walking to their death.

“The police did everything they could to prevent the crowd from reaching its destination,” he added.

Elbe said he had sent police officials ahead of the rally to meet the organizers, hoping to show “it’s not a good idea for them to go to Canaan” given the presence of the armed gang.

He added that when the march started, the police set up a security pyramid to prevent the demonstrators from reaching Kanaan, but they were divided into several groups.

“They were determined because the priest told them, ‘They are not going to be shot,'” he said. “There was faith in this crowd; There was determination.”

Elbe said the shooting of the churchgoers occurred after a confrontation. He said that the demonstrators were accompanied by armed men in olive green uniforms. He did not provide any additional details.

Today, armed groups control at least 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, which has seen an increase in violence in recent weeks as neighborhoods fall under the control of gangs, forcing thousands of people to seek shelter in the open. Since January, gangs have killed more than 2,400 people and kidnapped more than 950, according to the United Nations.

Elbi said that while two decades ago, gangs in Haiti were armed with pistols, they are now armed with automatic rifles, wreaking much greater havoc across the capital and beyond. He said that the Haitian National Police had to adapt to the new reality and change the way it carried out anti-gang operations.

However, this transformation is not happening fast enough for some and the challenges have been daunting. Two years ago, a police attempt to mount an anti-gang operation in a slum in Port-au-Prince turned tragic when police officers were ambushed and their armored vehicles seized. A video circulating on social media shows armed gang leaders desecrating the corpses of slain special forces officers, whose bodies were never found.

Despite that history, Elbe said officers are determined to take neighborhoods back from gangs, and operations are underway in communities like Tabari, where the US embassy is located, and residents were woken up Monday at 3 a.m. by gunshots.

One resident described the area around the US embassy as a “war”, as residents in the nearby Roseau area left their homes due to the violence.

There is also an ongoing police operation at Carrefour Feuille in Port-au-Prince, where a gang attack on August 17 sent panic and forced more than 5,000 people from their homes.

Elbe said that the recent operations carried out by the specialized police units at Carrefour Foy led to the confiscation of many weapons. A number of gang members were also killed, without providing details.

“We have mobilized different units within the police,” he said, refusing to provide figures on the number of officers involved in the anti-gang effort. Operations will continue.

The United Nations said Haiti has just 3,300 police officers on public safety missions on any given day, protecting a country of 12 million people. Not everyone participates in anti-gang operations. The United Nations and the United States, which funds the police, have noted that although the police are sometimes successful in taking back neighborhoods from gangs, the force struggles to maintain control.

In October, the Haitian government requested assistance from the international community by deploying a security mission in Haiti to assist the police. Last week, a 10-member delegation from Kenya, which is considering leadership of a multinational force, visited Haiti to meet with members of the government, foreign diplomatic corps, and police leadership.

Kenyan officials have discussed their plan to create a standing force that will provide security for strategic facilities such as the airport, seaport, police academy and main roads. However, this idea has been heavily criticized by Haitians, who say what they need are foreign personnel willing to help the Haitian police fight the gangs.

Elbe said that during the meeting the Haitian National Police leadership discussed with the Kenyans the professional assistance the force was looking for. Police officials told the Kenyans: “This is the reality of the security situation in the country; “That’s the kind of support we hope to get,” Elbe added.

The rest is yet to be decided, Elbe said, meaning Kenya must decide if it wants to lead a multinational force into Haiti, and the United Nations Security Council must authorize the mission. The United States has said that if Kenya agrees to help Haiti with its security crisis, the United States will submit a resolution to the Security Council to provide the East African country with the assistance it needs.

This story was originally published August 28, 2023, 6:03 p.m.