The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH United States Vice President Kamala Harris renewed the Biden administration’s push for a multi-national security force in Haiti during her visit to The Bahamas last week, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said there is still no appetite among CARICOM countries for sending forces to the country.

“Boots on the ground is not the question right now,” Mr Davis said, noting that Haiti’s defence force disbanded years ago. “The question is, how do we, as a community, assist the Haitian national police to restore law and order in the country and the mechanism for that.”

“At the moment, we are suggesting that the mechanism will be providing the resources, assisting in recruitment, assisting them in training and ensuring that they’re able to execute their jobs. And so that is the first line of initiative that has been discussed. We’re hoping that boots on the ground will not be necessary, and I don’t know that there’s any appetite for any of the superpowers or anyone to put boots on the ground at this time.”

“We think it should be a Haitian solution, that the Haitian people and those who are the leaders in the Haitian community ought to get together to determine their solution to the Haitian situation.”

Gangs have terrorised Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, paralysing that country’s economy.

Few countries have expressed interest in sending armed forces to Haiti.

Although The Bahamas could be affected by the ongoing crisis there, the Davis administration is concerned about the potential political fallout of sending Bahamians in harm’s way and is reluctant to do so, The Tribune understands.

Mr Davis, the chair of CARICOM, hosted regional leaders in Jamaica to address Haiti’s political, security, and economic challenges.

He said he aimed to identify influential leaders in Haiti and bring them together to talk.

“And so that’s what was taking place in Jamaica, there were about 50 leaders of political parties from the business community, discussing the way forward for Haiti,” he said, adding there was a lot of tension among the group, “a lot of issues and many of them are very far apart.”

He added: “As I mentioned to them, I said, ‘look, the North Pole and the South Pole – they’re very far apart. But despite the distance, they have common features, so let’s identify the common features that exist between distances and let’s build upon those to bring harmony and the only way they could is to talk which they have not been doing.”

Mr Davis said Haiti’s stakeholders are all receptive to some form of assistance to the Haitian national police.

“There has to be a space of peace created for there to be free and fair elections,” he said. “And the only way that can be done is by beating back the gangs, making sure people can move about freely without fear of the body being attacked violently in any way or form, and without fear of violence, and until that is there, there’ll be no free and fair elections. So that is a key step initiative that we are working on.”

Mr Davis said former Prime Minister Perry Christie, former St Lucia Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony and former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding are arbiters among the Haitian stakeholders.

“They chaired all the sessions up until 10 o’clock last night and they intend to make a trip to Haiti in due course as soon as we get together,” he said.