Gangs rampaging across Haiti ransacked the National Library in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Wednesday. Library director D’Angelo Niard said the library houses some valuable documents and that Haiti’s history is at risk due to gang attacks.
“Our documentary collection is at risk. We have valuable documents that are more than 200 years old, important to our heritage, and have been burned or damaged by bandits. There is a risk of doing so,” Niard said. Said Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Thursday.
“We heard that the thugs were trying to take away the facility’s furniture. They also looted the building’s generator,” he added.
Founded in 1939, the National Library of Haiti is Haiti’s largest library and its official bibliographic institution. As Niard pointed out, its collection includes approximately 60,000 works, including irreplaceable historical documents and books.
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Since the current riots began in March, the library has implored gangs, looters and rioters to refrain from using the library.
“We are currently living in difficult and uncertain times in this country, but as a people we must never forget to preserve the essence of the humanities and carefully protect our ability to create meaning.”Library says. Said in a March 26 social media post.
Last week, two Haitian universities, the École Normale Superieure and the National School of Fine Arts, were attacked by gangs, prompting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to express concern.
“The vandalism, looting and arson of the country’s educational institutions will have devastating consequences for the future of Haitian society,” UNESCO warned.
Haiti descended into bloody chaos in early March after Prime Minister Ariel Henry was unpopularly elected. traveled Asking for Kenya’s cooperation in maintaining order. The gang seizes the opportunity to overthrow the government and successfully prevents Henry from returning to Haiti.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry speaks at the inauguration of his new cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office in Port-au-Prince on November 24, 2021. (VALERIE BAERISWYL/AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Henry has vowed to resign once a transitional council is authorized to form a new government, but with gangs threatening violence to form a new government, it is difficult to assemble a council. It is proving to be a very difficult task.
Meanwhile, Kenyan President William Ruto’s plans to spearhead an international intervention force have been blocked by a Kenyan court that ruled that the president lacks the constitutional authority to send police officers abroad. There is.
William O’Neill, the U.S. human rights lawyer who serves as the United Nations’ top adviser on Haiti, described the situation in Haiti as “apocalyptic” on Thursday, calling it worse than Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s brutal dictatorship decades ago. He said it was even worse.
A man stands near a burning tire during a demonstration against insecurity in Carrefour-Feuilles, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, August 14, 2023. (RICHARD PIERRIN/AFP, Getty Images)
“Frankly, there aren’t enough words at this point,” O’Neill said. Said England guardian, “The intensity and level of brutality of the violence is truly unprecedented in my experience in Haiti,” he lamented.
“There are no nations, it’s very much like a Hobbesian world of survival of the fittest, and unfortunately at this point the fittest are gangsters,” he said.
O’Neill said there was likely to be a mass exodus of refugees to the neighboring Dominican Republic and the United States as violence spread beyond the capital Port-au-Prince and hunger gripped the country.
On March 20, 2024, a woman with a child in her arms flees the scene after hearing gunshots in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (CLARENS SIFFROY/AFP via Getty Images)
“Right now we’re in a situation like Somalia in its worst days, a 90-minute flight from Miami. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting dangerously close,” he said. I warned you.
While O’Neill acknowledged that the United States is unlikely to intervene directly in the bloody Haiti quagmire in an election year, there seems to be little movement on a proposed Kenya-led multinational force, but the dangers of gangs proposed blocking the transport of weapons and ammunition to reduce the risk of violence.
“Haiti doesn’t produce guns or bullets, so I can’t believe they can’t inspect every boat leaving the Miami River and take out all the rifles and bullets. If the gangs don’t have guns or bullets, , you lose all your power,” he said.
