The UNSC (United Nations Security Council) has threatened to impose targeted sanctions against Haiti's criminal gangs and human rights abuses.
Fremont, CA: China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said to the council, "We hope that this will not send any wrong signals to the gangs," adding that Beijing would continue to push for a UN embargo.
Haiti has witnessed a surge in gang violence because of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, which energized political instability and sparked fierce battles between opposing gangs for control of parts of the capital Port-au-Prince.
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The UN's World Food Programme cautioned earlier this week that hunger would probably rise amid the escalating attacks, which have displaced thousands of residents and paralyzed key roads and transport links throughout the country.
Many people have been killed in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Cite Soleil amid the gang violence, with a local human rights organization saying on Wednesday that at least 89 had been killed while 16 others were reported missing.
"Along the sole road into [the Cite-Soleil area of] Brooklyn, we have encountered corpses that are decomposing or being burned," Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement. "It is an actual battlefield."
Haitian protesters have also resisted in the capital this week in anger over fuel shortages due to gang violence.
The UNSC resolution drafted by the US and Mexico that was accepted demands an immediate cessation of the violence and criminal actions.
It also conveys the council's readiness to impose sanctions that could include travel bans and assets freeze "as necessary" on individuals engaged in or supporting gang violence, criminal activity, or human rights violations in Haiti within 90 days of the resolution's adoption.
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US Deputy Ambassador said it will permit the UN mission to "continue its critical advisory efforts in support of facilitating political dialogue, enhancing the capacity of the Haitian National Police to address gang violence and protecting human rights."
However, the adopted resolution does not mention China's call for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss with various parties the possibility of establishing "a multinational police unit" to help Haitian police tackle gang violence.
Beijing had taken a remarkably active stance in the Security Council negotiations on the resolution.
To the ire of China, Haiti has long recognized the sovereignty of Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing views as part of its territory. Some analysts have said Beijing might see the impending political transition in Haiti as a chance to convince the country to swap its diplomatic ties to China.
"Its statement about gangs may be a constructive way for it to market a switch … while also recognising that Chinese companies would operate in Haiti following such a change, and thus it has real practical interests in getting the gang violence under control," said Evan Ellis, a Latin America research professor with the US Army War College.
But Zhang, China's UN ambassador, disagreed, saying Beijing's only interest was to help the Haitian people and the Haitian government.
"I don't think it's reasonable today to link the two issues," he told reporters. "It's true that they have diplomatic ties with Taiwan and we are against it. However, on this issue, that's not the basis of our position."
