Fed up with gang violence, Haitians take the law into their own hands

First modification: 05/21/2023 – 01:49

On April 24, the Haitian authorities stopped a small bus carrying 14 men with weapons and ammunition in the Canapé Vert neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, while an attack was taking place nearby.

News of their arrest spread quickly, and some residents of this town suspected that the detainees were going to help a gang involved in the attack. The neighbors lynched and burned them in front of the police.

This event marks the point of creation of the Bwa Kale movement, a Haitian Creole expression meaning “uprising.” In the current context, it refers to locals who hunt down and kill people they suspect are part of gangs, often with machetes and sticks.

Currently, there are more than 150 active armed groups in the country. In the Haitian capital, they control most of the city.

“We saw a crowd, with knives and firearms”

James (pseudonym) lives near Canapé Vert, town in the west of Port-au-Prince; he recounts that he has had to stay locked up in his house for several days. For security, he wishes to remain anonymous.

On April 26 I went out on a motorcycle with my brother. On Caravelle street, we saw a crowd with guns and weapons. People were going to hunt down a suspected bandit. They seemed very aggressive. I asked my brother to take me home because I was very worried. Then, on the road, we saw a person burning. I closed my eyes because it was very impressive. The violence reached its peak.

The Bwa Kale movement has spread to different neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince and then to other cities in the country.

Between April 24 and May 4, the Los Observadores newsroom identified 18 incidents in which people suspected of being linked to gangs died. For this, images and information published on social networks and by local media were collated. The result: several dozen people were killed by the civilian population.

Rosy Auguste Ducéna, program manager at the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) in Haiti, explains that gang members are not the only ones who are targeted:

Anyone suspected of having links to these armed bandits may be prosecuted. For example, women allegedly having romantic relationships with them have been lynched.

The rise of the Bwa Kale movement is explained by Haitians being fed up with the violence of gangs, responsible for massacres, armed attacks and kidnappings, whose first victims are civilians. In addition, they are angry with the authorities, which they accuse of remaining passive in the face of these armed groups.

However, according to our observers, the Bwa Kale movement cannot be the solution to the country’s problems, and could even make the situation worse. Rosy Auguste Ducéna underlines the risks involved:

In general, people are subjected to very summary interrogations, before being killed. This means that the rights to judicial guarantees are not respected. In addition, there is a huge risk of mistakes, of innocent people being killed.

2:50 p.m.

“He is an innocent man who has been murdered under the accusation of being a bandit”

It seems that on April 29 a mistake was made in the north of the country. That day, Malorbe Saintil, a resident of Gonaïves, took a motorcycle taxi to do a service for his father in Gros Morne. But he was stopped on the way by the local population, along with a friend. They were sent to the Gros Morne police station, according to his father, Matthieu Saintil. These are his statements:

In Gros Morne, in the north of the country, we checked their mobile phones and what they had in their bags: all we found was a candle and a lighter, nothing suspicious.

They were told they would appear before the judge on Monday. [1 de mayo].

The police then let two people into the police station, who grabbed Malorbe and his friend Gilbert and led them away. Then they killed them, decapitated them and burned the corpses.

Malorbe was my fourth child. He was 28 years old. He was an electronic engineer. He was very smart and resourceful. He was born in Gros Morne, but he went very little.

He was an innocent man who was killed accused of being a bandit. He and his friend were killed because of his hairstyle. [Malorbe Saintil llevaba rastas, como muchas víctimas del movimiento Bwa Kale: según los haitianos con los que hablamos, algunas personas parecen considerar “sospechoso” este estilo]. Because the Haitian judicial system fails, I cannot prosecute the perpetrators, but one day justice will prevail.

Gang threats against the civilian population:

In early May, gang leaders threatened the population with reprisals in response to the Bwa Kale movement. in videos posted on social media. Izo, leader of the gang 5 seconds, affirmed that he was going to launch the Zam Pale movement (weapons speak, in Spanish). In Fort Jacques, south of Port-au-Prince, gangs have also executed people in revenge.

For his part, Prime Minister Ariel Henry it was pronounced about the Bwa Kale movement May 1st. The political leader asked the population “not to take justice into their own hands” and “cooperate with the police.”

Investigation of Chloe Lauvergnier adapted from its original version in French.