Interview on Haiti: “Gang violence is a symptom, not a cause”

No government, gang violence: Haiti is in danger of drowning in chaos. The aim now is to find a quick solution from outside. Katja Maurer from medico international points out a path that has so often proven to be the wrong one.

tagesschau24: From the outside, Haiti seems to be sinking into chaos. What is the situation in the country currently?

Katja Maurer: Yes, it’s true, complete chaos has really broken out in Haiti. The country has collapsed. The problem, however, is that we focus very much on the gangs and gangs. But they are the symptoms of the problems and not the cause of the current situation.

The reason lies rather in the fact that Haiti is neither an economically nor democratically functioning state. In addition, this state is essentially governed from outside.

“The essential problem”: interference

tagesschau24: Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned a few days ago. He was a politician installed from outside and not a representative elected by the people. How has this possibly contributed to the current situation?

Bricklayer: Haiti has actually been governed since 2004 by UN military missions, by the USA or by the international community. So it was decided from outside who became president there.

That is the essential problem. We have also now seen the pictures from the Caribbean community of states Caricom. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and representatives of France and Canada were also at the table.

All of them are now again determining what happens in Haiti. And they also dictate how Haitian politics should respond. This is a fundamental error.

“Rely on a military solution”

tagesschau24: The neighboring states and the USA as a major regional power are currently negotiating new solutions for Haiti. Elections should now be prepared. What would that actually achieve?

Bricklayer: There is no point in us believing that we can act with a military solution. A Kenyan police mission is now to come to Haiti as part of a planned multinational security mission.

Once again, a military solution will be preferred. And: Elections that are announced quickly – this also means that low voter turnout is to be expected, simply because there is little credibility or little can be built up.

Actually, the democratic institutions would first have to be rebuilt, the justice system would have to function, crimes of corruption and gang crimes would have to end up in court. In short, the rule of law must be restored.

All of these would be prerequisites for truly democratic elections. At the moment, however, attempts are being made to force a quick solution from outside.

Choice without voter turnout

tagesschau24: What support would an elected government have among the population?

Bricklayer: A government would only have support if it is not a government installed from outside that is even formally legitimized by an election. So only if it is really legitimized by a high voter turnout.

The last governments have had a voter turnout of 25 percent and the president had 13 percent of that. One could not speak of legitimacy there.

“Replace one evil with another”

tagesschau24: There are reports that the political elite in Haiti has only been able to stay in power through gang violence. Who are the people with whom Haiti could now emerge from the crisis?

Bricklayer: These people exist. We have many writers or intellectuals as well as a lively civil society in Haiti that is fighting for survival.

We have a Haitian diaspora in the US who is politically vocal and who is not involved in gang violence. You would have to work with these people.

But at the moment there is an ideal, so to speak, that all Haitians should work together. You want to drive out the devil with Beelzebub, i.e. replace one evil with the other: you can’t work with the people who profit from violence in order to fight the gangs. This is an insoluble paradox.

Kirsten Gerhard conducted the interview for tagesschau24. The interview has been slightly adapted for the written version.