ハイチでゼネスト　治安悪化で誘拐多発に抗議

【ポルトープランスＡＦＰ＝時事】カリブ海の島国ハイチで１８日、急速な治安悪化に抗議するゼネストが行われた。１６日には米国とカナダの宣教師ら１７人がギャングに誘拐される事件が起きたばかり。（写真はゼネストが呼び掛けられたハイチの首都ポルトープランスで、燃やされるタイヤを背景に写真を撮る人）
　西半球の最貧国ハイチでは７月、ジョブネル・モイーズ大統領が暗殺され、政情不安が続き混乱状態に陥っている。
　個人事業主・運転手組合のシャンジュー・メフ組合長はＡＦＰに対し、「われわれが助けを求めてから数か月が経過したが誘拐の恐れはなくなっていないため、国民に対し全活動を中止するよう呼び掛けた」と述べた。
　「誘拐、レイプなどギャングはやりたい放題だ」と語った。「もうたくさんだ」
　地元メディアは首都ポルトープランスで１８日、店舗や政府機関、学校が閉鎖されたと報じた。
　パトカー数台が幹線道路沿いを中心に巡回していたが、街は比較的静かだった。ＡＦＰカメラマンによると、ある通りではタイヤのバリケードが燃やされた。
　ポルトープランスの中心部にいた２０代の男性は「家族や友人、知り合いが誘拐されたと毎日聞かされている。やっていられない」と語った。
　企業団体などは先週からゼネストの決行を呼び掛けていたが、１６日に米国人１６人、カナダ人１人がギャングに誘拐された事件を受け、賛同の声が高まった。
　米国を拠点とする援助団体クリスチャン・エイド・ミニストリーズは、宣教師らが孤児院を訪れた帰りにポルトープランス東部で誘拐されたとしている。この中には子ども５人も含まれているという。
　ポルトープランスの貧困地区を長年牛耳ってきた武装集団は、同市と周辺地域での支配を強化しており、誘拐事件が急増している。
　人権分析研究センター（ＣＡＲＤＨ）によると、同国の今年１～９月の誘拐事件の発生件数は前年同時期の２３１件から６００件以上に大幅に増加した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/10/20-12:25）

A nationwide general strike emptied the streets of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince on Monday with organizers denouncing the rapidly disintegrating security situation highlighted by the kidnapping of American and Canadian missionaries at the weekend.
The kidnapping of 17 adults and children by one of Haiti's brazen criminal gangs underlined the country's troubles following the assassination of president Jovenel Moise in July, with lawlessness mounting in the Western hemisphere's poorest nation.
It has been months since we appealed for help, and since we have had no security against kidnappings we have called for the population to suspend all activity, the president of Haiti's Association of Owners and Drivers, Changeux Mehu, told AFP.
The bandits are going too far. They kidnap, they rape women, they do whatever they want, he said. Enough.
In Port-au-Prince, shops, schools and government buildings were shuttered Monday, but schools were opened in several other towns around the country, local media said.
A few police vehicles circulated in the capital, sticking to the main roads, which were relatively quiet, although an AFP photographer reported a barricade of flaming tires in one street.
It's as if we weren't living anymore, said Germain Joce Salvador, a young man in his twenties in the city center. You can't go on, every day hearing that it's a loved one, a friend or someone else who is kidnapped.
- 'No one is safe' -
Launched last week by business and professional groups in Port-au-Prince, the call for a strike took on additional resonance after the kidnapping Saturday by an armed gang of 16 Americans and one Canadian.
The missionaries work for US-based Christian Aid Ministries, which said in a statement that the group, which includes five children, was abducted east of the capital while returning from visiting an orphanage.
The kidnapping of the Americans shows that no one is safe in the country, Mehu said. We pay our taxes to the state. In return what we ask is to have security, so that the country can function.
Armed gangs, which have controlled the poorer neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince for years, have tightened their grip on the city and the surrounding areas, where kidnappings have surged.
The assassination of president Jovenel Moise on July 7 plunged the country into further uncertainty.
Nature abhors a vacuum, so gangs take advantage of it to gain strength, said Gedeon Jean, director of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights.
The United States in August issued a red alert on Haiti, urging Americans not to travel to the Caribbean nation because of rampant kidnapping, crime and civil unrest.
The State Department has publicly provided no details on the search for the kidnap victims, but a spokesman said Monday that US teams in Haiti were working closely with our interagency partners ... with our partners on the ground in Haiti, to do all we can to seek a quick resolution to this.
A spokesperson said Sunday that the welfare and safety of Americans abroad is one of the highest priorities of the department.
The abduction took place just after the missionary group had visited an orphanage located between the Haitian capital and the border with the Dominican Republic.
Experts said the large-scale kidnapping bears the hallmarks of a gang called 400 Mawozo, which has controlled that part of Haitian territory for months without the police being able to tackle them.
In April, 10 people including two French clerics were kidnapped and held for 20 days by the 400 Mawozo in the same region.
Haitian police declined to specify which group they suspected.
More than 600 kidnappings were recorded in the first nine months of 2021, as opposed to 231 in the same period in 2020, according to the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights.
The gangs sometimes demand ransoms in excess of a million dollars, and do not hesitate to demand sums that are the equivalent of decades of wages from families living below the poverty line.