Haiti's government and UN peacekeepers will launch a major
campaign seeking to persuade hundreds of gangsters to disarm with
promises of money, food and job training, but top gang leaders will
not be eligible, the UN envoy said Monday.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, special UN
envoy Edmond Mulet said officials will begin airing radio and
television ads in coming days to inform the public about the
disarmament plan.
The move represents the most sweeping effort to persuade
well-armed gangsters to lay down their weapons and rejoin society
since UN troops arrived in the troubled Caribbean nation two years
ago to restore order following a February 2004 revolt.
"We are ready to receive 1,000 armed people who would willingly
give up their weapons and arms," Mulet said. "We have kits to
provide for their families, food and economic assistance. The whole
package is ready and we're going to bring that in place in the
following days."
Last month, President Rene Preval warned gangs based in the
sprawling slums of Port-au-Prince to disarm or face death.
The gangs, some of which are loyal to ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, are blamed for a recent surge of
kidnappings and shootings that officials say are partly aimed at
pressuring Preval to make concessions.
The initiative targets only rank-and-file gang members, Mulet
said. Top gang leaders in the capital's volatile Cite Soleil slum
have indicated a willingness to disarm, and the decision to leave
them out sets up a potential showdown with the government.
"This is not for the big people responsible for human rights
violence or criminal activities or killings or kidnappings. That we
have to deal with in a different way," Mulet said in his office
inside the fortified UN compound.
Top gang leaders in the capital's volatile Cite Soleil slum have
indicated a willingness to disarm, but Mulet said the initiative
will target low-ranking gang members.
"This is not for the big people responsible for human rights
violence or criminal activities or killings or kidnappings. That we
have to deal with in a different way," he said.
It will be up to a new, seven-member commission to decide who is
eligible, Mulet said. Preval will appoint the commission this week
in a presidential decree, Mulet said, adding that he expected its
membership to include people "from all different sectors" of
Haitian society.
Preval's office declined to comment.
Gang members participating in the program will receive ID cards
entitling them to money, medical assistance, food for their
families and training for manual-labor jobs such as construction
workers, garbage collectors and farm workers, Mulet said.
Jobs are not plentiful in this Caribbean nation, which is the
Western Hemisphere's poorest.
Mulet, a Guatemalan diplomat who took over leadership of the
8,800-soldier UN peacekeeping force three months ago, called the
disarmament campaign a "long-term" plan and said it would provide a
"big improvement" to Haiti's security if successful.
"We believe 500, 600, maybe 700 people are involved in this kind
of illegal activities ... so I think if we're able to disarm most
of them and include them into society and give them some training
and assistance in this transition, that's going to be very
positive."
The international community is desperate to stabilize Haiti
after a decade of failed peacekeeping missions and fruitless
efforts to disarm militants. A bid to take weapons off the streets
after the 2004 revolt that toppled Aristide yielded mostly
dilapidated guns held together by tape, not the high-powered AK-47s
and M-16 routinely used by gangs.
Mulet acknowledged the challenge but said "we have to try
this."
"This is not a traditional disarmament that you would see
anywhere else in the world where you have a clear leadership or a
subversive group or a military insurgency that you can make deals
with. This is more like a one-on-one approach. Each (gang member)
has different motivations," he said.
One challenge will be gaining the support of Haiti's business
community, which has taken a hard line on the gangs that it blames
for driving foreign investment away from the deeply impoverished
nation.
Mulet predicted business leaders would back the plan, saying
they recognize the problem of gang activity. "Any measure to
incorporate these people into society is more than welcome to
them," he said.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies September 5, 2006)
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