Highlights: Marie Rosy Kesner Auguste Ducéna is a program manager at the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) In the past two weeks, some Haitians have been taking the law into their own hands and lynching suspected gang members. RNDDH: This is a situation that is very worrying because we are squarely in a spiral of violence. In addition to that, there is also this inertia of the state authorities, which unfortunately, in their statements, have exacerbated the anger of the population.

For months, Haiti has been prey to armed gangs, which kill, rape, kidnap and loot, and now control 80% of the capital. But on Monday, April 24, in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, people are...

"bwa kalé" movement in Haiti: "The authorities have exacerbated the anger of the population"

A man pushes a wheelbarrow in front of a corpse amid gang-related violence in downtown Port-au-Prince, April 25, 2023. AFP - RICHARD PIERRIN

Text by: RFI Follow

6 min

For months, Haiti has been prey to armed gangs, which kill, rape, kidnap and loot, and now control 80% of the capital. But on Monday, April 24, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, exasperated residents intercepted fourteen suspected bandits and lynched them. Since then, the movement, called "bwa kalé", has spread throughout the country, with Haitians seizing suspected bandits and executing them. Marie Rosy Kesner Auguste Ducéna is a program manager at the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), located in Haiti, interviewed by Christophe Paget.

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RFI: For a little less than two weeks, some Haitians have been taking the law into their own hands and lynching suspected gang members. What is your reaction, and that of RNDDH?

Marie Rosy Kesner Auguste Ducena: This is a situation that is very worrying because we are squarely in a spiral of violence. At one point, it was violence that was carried out by armed bandits, whereas today it is members of the population who take the place of judges: for several cases of lynchings, we were informed of hasty judgments, really summary questions that were asked to the victims, and subsequently, They were lynched by the population.

Why is this happening now?

This first lynching of 14 individuals at the Green Sofa is certainly the trigger. However, it must be recognized that already, on the one hand, the population was fed up with this situation of generalized insecurity, and therefore with this tension that already existed in the country. But in addition to that, there is also this inertia of the state authorities, which unfortunately, in their statements, have exacerbated the anger of the population.

For example, not long ago, the Minister of Justice and Public Safety said that, in fact, territories ruled by armed bandits are considered lost. Whereas for us, at the level of RNDDH, it has never been a question of lost territories, but rather of territories handed over by the state authorities to armed bandits - in the sense that these armed bandits have never been worried, they have never been prosecuted, they have never been arrested, they have never been tried and convicted for the reprehensible acts they have committed.

On the other hand, on March 6, 2023, the Minister of Justice had circulated a note in which she said that the population had the right, and even the duty, to defend itself against banditry. To do so, she had used articles 272, 273 and 274 of the Haitian Penal Code, which in reality speak of self-defence. We know, when we talk about self-defence, what we are talking about, and it is clear that there is no link between self-defence and what is happening in Haiti today. However, unfortunately, the public took her at her word.

What must also be added to all this is that in fact the Haitian judiciary is responsible for these cases of lynching. The few times the armed bandits were arrested, it was these government commissioners, their deputies, the judges who accepted bribes to free them.

► READ ALSO: Haiti: in the face of gangs, the movement "Bwa kale" is gaining momentum

You quoted ministers, Prime Minister Ariel Henry spoke on Monday, May 1, he said: "Let's not let bad plans make us play sordid games". They condemn these lynchings?

Prime Minister Ariel Henry paid lip service to the lynchings: he waited several days before making the statement, and not because it was a statement about the current situation, but in a speech he was making on the occasion of Labour and Agriculture Day.

The second thing is that, in reality, the sordid game that is being played is that the population is being used to cut ties between armed bandits and state authorities. Because today, without trial, without conviction, without judicial investigation, the protective ties of armed bandits, the links they had with the state authorities will no longer be visible. These armed bandits that they had used to maintain power, these armed bandits to whom they gave money (large sums of money by the way) as well as men and ammunition, they are now lynched or routed: several have left their fiefdoms, tried to flee. In any case, they are still in danger because the discontent of the population is still there. And so, it is a game that the population plays, without knowing it, for these state authorities.

► READ ALSO: Haiti: in Gonaïves, an anti-crime demonstration to denounce the complicity of the State

What is the country risking with these lynchings, these extrajudicial executions? Is there a risk of going to a civil war?

We are afraid to put words on what lies ahead. But in total, it certainly is. Because today, the country is tipping over. We are falling into this chaos because there is this spiral of violence, and that, going back only to 2018, we have always been experiencing violence: gun violence from armed gangs, or today, this new form of violence.

Because when people are lynched, there are terrible scenes, of people being beheaded, of people being chopped into tiny pieces with machetes, of people being burned alive. This spiral of violence makes us understand that, in reality, we do not know where we are going. And that more than ever, this is the time to make the Haitian population understand that we cannot build society, a democratic society called by all, on this spiral of violence.

So how can you make Haitian society understand this? Last week, the chief of police had called on the population not to take the law into their own hands, Ariel Henry himself spoke on Monday. And the lynchings continue.

We must continue, continue to make them understand this. For example, at the level of RNDDH, it is a question of participating in broadcasts and launching, for example, an appeal to the population, inviting them to at least hand over people to the police when the population thinks they are armed bandits, but not to take justice.

Because in fact, what is very worrying is that, in this crowd that is doing justice to itself, there are many young people. There are also men who are being recovered and who have not, it seems, been handed over to the police authorities so far. And so so, as I said, we really don't know where we're going, because this possibility of creating new armed gangs, it exists. And this spiral of violence to which Haitian youth is exposed, it is downright counterproductive.

► Also listen: Haitian uprising against gangs: "It's an aspiration for order, for the state"

"bwa kalé" movement in Haiti: "The authorities have exacerbated the anger of the population"

"bwa kalé" movement in Haiti: "The authorities have exacerbated the anger of the population"

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