Haiti’s President assassinated: “Victim of his own course”

The murder of Haiti’s President Moise is the result of a violent course that he helped instigate, says Katja Maurer from medico international. Haiti is deeper than ever in the chaos, and international engagement has also hurt.

tagesschau24: What does the assassination of the president mean for the country?

Katja Maurer: The situation is certainly exciting – but I would be very careful only to conjure up the current chaos, because the chaos has long been there in Haiti. We have been receiving reports from our partners, the human rights organization RNDDH, since 2018 about massacres, some of which have been proven to have taken place under the aegis of the President. We’re talking about twelve massacres in different neighborhoods. Two journalists were just murdered on the street at the beginning of last week. The attack against Moïse is also a result of this wave of violence, which I believe was largely staged by Moïse himself.

“Happy if you survive the purchase”

tagesschau24: What is the general situation like in Haiti?

Bricklayer: The situation is dramatic because people have not been able to take to the streets for many weeks. They are happy if they survive every purchase. The gangs that have been shown to have been unleashed by the government to enforce a constitutional amendment and Moïse re-elected have dictated life in the city. That has never happened before. They usually stayed in their neighborhoods, and now they’ve invaded the middle-class neighborhoods and committed murders like no other.

At the same time, there has been a fight against corruption among Haitians from around the world for many years. There was just news that the Tribunal has decided not to pursue these cases any further. When it comes to the future of Haiti, the impunity that has plagued Haiti for the past few years must simply end. And then maybe there can be elections.

“Failed to rebuild Haiti better”

tagesschau24: Where do you see reasons for the unrest?

Bricklayer: Haiti is the poorest country in the American hemisphere. There has been enormous funding for Haiti after the earthquake. We all promised to rebuild Haiti better. But we didn’t succeed. Instead, Haiti has sunk deeper into chaos than ever before. I just have to say: The work of the International has done more harm than good.

The international “Core Group”, which also includes the USA, Germany, the EU and the UN, supported Moïse right up to the end, which was a big mistake, and not only in my opinion. We have tried to make it clear from various aid organizations that this man cannot continue to be supported and that a transition must be made. That it is happening now in such a dramatic way is, of course, appalling.

Work under the most difficult conditions

tagesschau24: How can you work as an aid organization in Haiti at all?

Bricklayer: We almost all work with partners who have their own people on site. Doctors Without Borders, for example, had to close their hospital for a certain time during the Corona crisis, because gang violence on the street made work impossible. But our partner networks try to continue working under these conditions. Human rights work in particular is of extreme importance. But we also have people, thousands of whom are in temporary camps because they have left their homes. Our local partners try to take care of these people.

Hope for an end to the violence

tagesschau24: Does the country have political support from outside to cope with the difficult situation?

Bricklayer: We were all very involved in Haiti, and I would like to see support now for a democratic transition process that we will give time to. It will not work without foreign financial support. But we cannot patronize this process. Therefore it will be necessary to support the Haitians. There is a broad movement, but it has simply been put to a standstill over the past two years by the enormous violence on the street, which Moïse also demonstrably instigated in a targeted manner. Now, of course, one can hope that there is some way to get these gangs back under control.

tagesschau24: Can you imagine who might be interested in Moïse’s murder?

Bricklayer: To be honest, we wondered why it hadn’t happened long ago. Moïse was just the one who blocked any other possibility. My feeling is that he was on the way to establishing some kind of Duvalier dictatorship – that was the old, great well-known dictator of Haiti. And that was up again now – with the support of gang violence. There is little doubt that it was. And I’m afraid he has now fallen victim to this course.

The interview was conducted by Kirsten Gerhardt for tagesschau24. The interview was slightly adapted for the written form.