(21 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Port-au-Prince, Haiti - 21 June 2024
1. Various of family (in white mourning attire) and police officers at funeral of police officer killed in June 9 ambush
2. Various of band, relatives, and officers at funeral
3. Various of presentation ceremony for new interim police chief Normil Ramea
4. Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille at podium
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Garry Conille, Haiti Prime Minister:
“In the last three weeks, three of your colleagues were killed. This morning, I attended a funeral ceremony with the family. Mr. General Director (chief of police), this situation has been going on for too long. This needs to end.”
6. Ceremony participants applauding
7. Various of police chief Normil Ramea at podium
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Normil Rameau, Interim Director of Haiti National Police:
“The force of the law will silence the arrogance and terror of the criminal gangs. They will be neutralized and dismantled.”
9. Police officers pass by coffin
10. Brass band plays
11. Various of officers at funeral
12. Banners with photos and names of officers killed in June 9 ambush
STORYLINE:
Emotions ran high in Haiti's capital on Friday as relatives attended the funeral ceremony at the police academy for one of three officers killed in an ambush earlier this month.
Masked officers were among the many people passing by the coffin to pay their final respects to their dead colleague during the event in Port-au-Prince.
The funeral for the officer of the Anti-Gang Tactical Unit came as the new interim chief of the country's police was officially presented.
Prime Minister Garry Conille urged Normil Rameau to put an end on the killings of police officers by gangs in the violence-wracked capital.
The June 9 attack took place in a part of Port-au-Prince that is controlled by a notorious gang leader, Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier.
In his speech, Rameau vowed to use “the force of law” to “neutralise and dismantle” criminal gangs.
Rameau takes the helm of an underfunded and ill-equipped department that, according to the United Nations, only has around 4,000 officers on duty at a time in a country of more than 11 million inhabitants.
A survey of 132 officers by the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights confirmed long-known issues faced by them, including unpaid salaries, inexistent health care, and a lack of psychological help.
Police officers, for the most part, do not receive additional training after graduating from the academy and are forced to use old and substandard equipment.
The international community has provided training and other resources to help Haiti’s national police.
Kenya is set to lead a U.N.-backed multinational peacekeeping mission with officers drawn from several countries to combat gang violence in Haiti that has left thousands of people dead.
AP Video shot by Pierre Luxama
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