The Tribune

FORMER Prime Minister Perry Christie – part of the Eminent Persons Group despatched to Haiti in search of a solution for the ongoing crisis there – had little in the way of positive news to report yesterday.

He said that the search for a solution was a “work in progress” – though quite how much progress there has actually been is hard to discern.

A statement from that group – which includes Mr Christie alongside former St Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony and former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding – offered little further sign of a solution being in sight.

The statement spoke of the group having put an emphasis on “discussing process in order to put in place a mechanism that would facilitate progress taking into account the inherent difficulties of negotiations involving a large number of protagonists. The objective was attained to some extent”.

What appears to have been successful is, in principle, reducing the size of the group of representatives to a more manageable size – rather than trying to negotiate with a crowd.

Other positives apparently included broad agreement on enlarging the High Transition Council committed to by Haitian Prime Minister Dr Ariel Henry, and “greater cohesion on security, the issue being not the need for security assistance but what form it would take”.

This comes as the National Human Rights Defence Network warned last week about an upsurge in killings and kidnappings in Haiti – while bodies have been openly burned in the streets as part of vigilante actions in the nation.

Journalists have been kidnapped, killings have been rampant, and gangs are accused of breaking into a hospital in Port-au-Prince to steal medical supplies and abducting at least six security guards.

Last month, criminals set fire to the building which housed the Jamaican consulate in Haiti.

Doctors Without Borders suspended treatment at one of their hospitals after 20 armed men burst into an operating room and took a patient.

Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an international force to help combat Haiti’s gangs and to restore security. One UN expert estimates up to 2,000 extra anti-gang police officers are needed.

Haiti’s Prime Minister has been calling for such a force since last October – but there seems little sign of boots on the ground in the nation any time soon.

Instead, another visit is planned by the Eminent Persons Group, and more talks to go with it.

The repeated mantra we hear is that it must be a Haitian-led solution – but Haiti is short of elected leaders, and quite where the solution will come from is a challenge, to say the least.

Last week, the UN Security Council gave Mr Guterres 30 days to come up with options to tackle the situation – while giving authority for extra training for Haitian police and up to 70 UN advisers to scale up support and training for those officers.

Meanwhile, the UN’s World Food Programme has announced it is facing a shortage of funds – and won’t be able to help 100,000 people in Haiti who urgently need help.

It is little surprise that Mr Christie and his colleagues have not yet found a solution for a crisis of this magnitude – because what solution is there to be had?

Haiti is facing one of its most challenging moments – in a history that has been filled with them.

Failing to find a solution is not an option for Haiti itself – or for the countries in the region who will be affected too if the state collapses any further.

If we fear there is high migration now, that will be a fraction of the exodus that will take place if Haiti has no stable future as a state.

So back for more discussions – but there must be positive action too.

People are starving. People are being murdered. People are suffering.

We talk of being a Christian nation. Our neighbour needs help.