By Emma Farge
GENEVA (Reuters) -The U.N. Human Rights chief said on Thursday that Haiti’s use of lethal force against gangs was disproportionate and likely unlawful, saying its actions, including drone strikes accounted for more than half of this year’s killings and injuries.
“I am concerned that State law enforcement have used unnecessary and disproportionate lethal force in their operations against the gangs,” Volker Turk told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He said that police units had summarily executed 174 people for alleged gang affiliation this year while government drone strikes against alleged gang members in the capital Port-au-Prince had killed at least 559 people to date, including 11 children.
“Most of these drone strikes are likely unlawful under international human rights law,” Turk added.
In a recent attack on an alleged gang leader’s birthday party, where he was handing out presents to local children, at least eight children were killed, according to local media reports.
Armed groups have for years expanded their influence to almost all of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince and more recently other parts of the country in a conflict that has forced some 1.3 million people from their homes, and fuelled famine-level hunger.
The U.N. Security Council in 2023 agreed to mandate a Kenyan-led security force as reinforcements for Haitian police, but a lack of contributions from member states resulted in just a fraction of the expected deployment.
Haiti’s transitional government turned in March to Vectus Global, a private security firm led by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, to deploy explosive-packed drones against alleged gang members.
Vectus Global did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Haiti’s police or transitional government.
This week, the Security Council voted to widen the potential scope of the force, though this would still rely on substantial voluntary contributions that have yet to materialize.
Haiti’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Ann-Kathryne Lassègue, did not directly address the drone strikes in a speech to the council.
“We have tried to stem violence,” she said. “Nothing is perfect but nothing is standing still. Our government is doing what it can with the means it has.”
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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