(2008-09) Haiti: Confronting the Gangs of Port-au-Prince (Special Report 208)

United States Institute of Peace (USIP) • 2008 • 16 pages

Summary — USIP Special Report 208, by Michael Dziedzic and Robert M. Perito, documents MINUSTAH's 2007 campaign against the gangs of Port-au-Prince, the joint military-police operations in Cité Soleil, and the lessons for UN enforcement against irregular armed groups.

View Document View Original Source

Key Findings

MINUSTAH's December 2006 to February 2007 intelligence-led military-police operations dismantled gang control of Cité Soleil without provoking a popular backlash. Surveyed residents overwhelmingly supported the operations despite collateral damage. Success required integrated military-police intelligence, credible force, and political will from the Haitian government. The report warned that gains were fragile without follow-through on policing, corrections, jobs, and services.

Full Description

This September 2008 Special Report describes how the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) broke the grip of the armed gangs that controlled Port-au-Prince's key slums and threatened the Préval government and the peace process. Based on field research, the authors reconstruct the December 2006 to February 2007 military-police operations in Cité Soleil, the intelligence-led targeting of gang strongholds, and the accompanying community outreach. Surveys cited in the report found overwhelmingly positive Haitian attitudes toward the operation and its results. The report distills lessons for UN mandate enforcement against irregular armed forces, including the need for integrated military-police intelligence structures, credible force backed by political will, quick-impact projects to consolidate security gains, and follow-through on jobs and services in cleared neighborhoods, and warns that gains would remain fragile without progress on policing, corrections, and socioeconomic conditions. Nearly two decades later, it remains a reference point for debates over international enforcement action against Haiti's gangs.

Topics

Geography

Time Coverage

2004 — 2008

Keywords

gangs, Cité Soleil, MINUSTAH, UN peacekeeping, mandate enforcement, police operations, Port-au-Prince, security, lessons learned, series:usip-haiti-analysis

Entities

USIP, MINUSTAH, Michael Dziedzic, Robert M. Perito, René Préval, Haitian National Police, United Nations, Cité Soleil, Brazil

Notes

USIP Special Report 208; original publisher PDF (usip.org static file still live post-takedown)