24652: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti threatened by spread of small arms-report

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>


    GENEVA, April 4 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of illegal firearms held
by civilians and political and criminal gangs in Haiti pose a major threat
to efforts to restore peace in the Caribbean country, a U.N.-backed study
said on Monday.
    The study by the Geneva-based Small Arms Group said the proliferation
of weapons -- whose numbers were being swollen by smuggling -- had led to
hundreds of deaths, and violations of human rights and crimes affecting
tens of thousands of Haitians.
    "Without effective intervention, the situation could deteriorate
further still," said a summary of the report in an implicit appeal to a
Brazilian-led peacekeeping force in the country.
    The report, to be issued in full on Thursday, appeared two weeks after
the international human rights group Global Justice accused the force,
known by its initials as MINUSTAH, of complacency in the face of the
violence.
    Officials of the 7,400-strong force -- on Haiti since last June -- say
they have stepped up efforts to disarm gangs of former soldiers of the
dissolved army of ex-president Jean-Bernard Aristide who was ousted in
February 2004.
    Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican
Republic, is due to hold elections in November.
    The report's authors said the efforts of the peacekeeping force, which
includes Asian and Latin American units, were being compromised by the easy
availability of small arms and light weapons.
    It said "predatory armed gangs and non-state opposition groups" alone
held up to 13,000 automatic, semi-automatic and manufactured weapons.
    Gunmen have killed at least two members of the U.N. Security Council
authorised force -- a Sri Lankan and a Nepalese. Last weekend a Filipino
soldier survived an attack outside a peacekeeper's hotel.