By NAN Staff Writer
AMERICA NEWS, NEW YORK, NY, married. October 19, 2022: “On the afternoon of July 7, 2022, Rose, a four- and five-month-old pregnant mother, was severely beaten and raped, in the presence of her children, by three heavily masked individuals. The latter had forcibly entered her home during an attack launched against residents of Brooklyn, in Cité Soleil. Earlier that day, Roza’s husband had been shot dead by members of the same gang. Before leaving, the gunmen set fire to her house, forcing Rose and her children to sleep outside in a public space for many nights.”
Rose’s story is just one of at least 52 women and girls who the UN Integrated Office in Haiti and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights say have been gang-raped by armed elements over the course of a week intense violence pitting two coalitions of rival gangs against each other. in Cité Soleil, Haiti
A new report, titled: “Sexual violence in Port-Au-Prince: A weapon used by gangs to instill fear”, and published jointly by the two organizations, claims that armed gangs in the CARICOM country have used rapes, including gang rapes. and other forms of sexual violence to instill fear, punish, subjugate and inflict pain on the local population with the ultimate goal of expanding their areas of influence throughout the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
The cases are terrible.
“On May 22, Anne, a 14-year-old girl, was raped by a gang member on a street in Fontamara when she was fetching water for her family. The victim, who became pregnant after the rape, stated that not only did she live in constant fear of being sexually assaulted again, but that after the assault, she had to deal with stigma within her community.”
“On July 8, 2022, heavily armed gang members forced their way into Marie’s home in Cité Soleil. After her husband was executed with a gunshot to the head, the gunmen forced her to lie on his dead body and then raped her one after the other in front of her children. After the attack, the attackers set fire to her house. She and her children had time to get out of the house before it burned to the ground, along with her husband’s body.”
“Louise, a young woman, testified that, in early April 2022, she and two other female neighbors, including a 10-year-old girl, were gang-raped by a group of heavily armed men during confrontations with gangs in Croixdes- Bouquets. That day, gang members entered her home and forced her to walk, along with the other two victims, to a secluded, abandoned area, where they raped her several times. The experience had been so traumatic that she couldn’t remember how many men raped them.”
“On March 13, 2022, Cathia, the girlfriend of a gang leader and some
months pregnant, was first raped and then shot and killed in her home in Martissant by members of a rival gang. After the attack, the body of the 30-year-old victim was stripped half-naked and his image was posted on social networks.”
Women, girls and boys of all ages, and to a lesser extent men, have been victims of brutal sex crimes, the report said. This includes children as young as 10 who were gang-raped for hours in front of their parents by more than half a dozen gunmen during raids on their neighborhoods.
Viewed as enemies for their real or perceived support of rival gangs, or for the simple fact of living in the same areas as those rival gangs, some of these victims were mutilated and executed after being raped.
According to reports, gangs have also used sexual violence as a weapon to disrupt the social fabric by targeting women and girls who cross the “front lines” or move through neighborhoods on foot or by public transportation to go about their daily activities of living, such as going to work, markets or school.
Sexual violence is also used by armed elements to strengthen their position of power. Rape or the threat of it is often used against abducted women and girls to pressure their families into paying ransom. Although gangs usually present themselves as protectors of the communities under their control, their elements often force young women, girls and sometimes men, seen as sexual objects, to become their sexual “partners”.
Some victims reported that they also preferred to return to work and try to resume a “normal life” as a self-defense mechanism for their relatives and themselves, rather than to initiate any legal action.
Gangs are able to commit acts of sexual violence and other human rights abuses largely because of widespread impunity and easy access to high-caliber weapons and ammunition trafficked from abroad.
Victims, who suffer trauma and stigma from their communities, are often forced to stay in the area where they were attacked due to lack of financial means to move elsewhere. Shelter programs that provide safe habitable housing, as well as support for the reintegration and rehabilitation of victims, outside of gang-controlled areas are very rare. As a result, there is very limited data on the extent and impact of sexual violence involving armed gang elements.
As of August 2022, large areas of the capital, comprising at least 1.5 million people, were reported to be under the control or influence of gang elements.
