Haiti calls for urgent regional gang-fighting support as US shies off funding

By Sarah Morland

Top Haitian ministers called for urgent security support from neighbors at a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Thursday, while the U.S. signaled it would not continue current funding aimed at holding back the nation's armed gangs.

Powerful gangs, armed with guns the U.N. believes are trafficked largely from the United States and across the land border with the Dominican Republic, have taken control of most of the capital and expanded to the central plateau and agricultural heartlands, displacing over 1 million people.

"While we remain determined to assist the Haitian people achieve the peace, security and prosperity they deserve, the United States cannot continue shouldering such a significant financial burden," U.S. Caribbean Affairs deputy assistant secretary Barbara Feinstein said at the meeting.

The U.S. has cut much overseas aid and frozen some funding it earlier pledged to support a U.N.-backed mission in Haiti, and earlier this week Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that OAS should play a greater role in supporting Haiti's security, such as mobilizing a force.

"The OAS is uniquely positioned not only as a forum for diplomacy, but as a vehicle for coordinated, concrete action," Feinstein added.

A handful of countries have pledged troops to the mission, but only a fraction of these have deployed. The Kenyan-led force remains under-resourced and has had little success in helping police hold off gangs' advances in and beyond the capital.

OAS special advisor Jared Genser recommended that unless the mission is proven capable of providing security for Haitians, the U.N. Security Council should vote to convert it to a formal peacekeeping mission - a measure repeatedly requested by Haitian leaders but opposed by veto members China and Russia.

Haitian Defense Minister Jean-Michel Moise said the situation was being fueled by gangs profiting off cocaine trafficking from Colombia to buyer nations and arms trafficking from the United States by sea and across the Dominican border.

"This criminal economy fuels a local war machine," he said. "Haiti is on the brink of being fully controlled by criminal gangs and we cannot allow that to happen. We desperately need the help of the international community."

Haiti counts about 12,000 police and 1,000 military officers for a population of nearly 12 million, officials said.

Moise also called for restrictions - including some based on implications in human rights abuses - on selling arms to Haiti's government to be eased, citing gangs' easy access to militarized weapons.