ARTICLE - UNPOL - NO CRISIS IN HAITI

THERE IS NO CRISIS IN HAITI ACCORDING TO THE UNPOL
(Haiti Libre) -

Concerning the security situation that worries the Haitian people a little more each day, Michel Martin the new spokesperson of the UNPOL (UN Police) declared, "we must tell you that we checked the data for the past four years in Haiti. Currently, the situation in Haiti is a reflection of what happens throughout the Caribbean and Central America. There was a small increase in criminality, I said a small increase, but it is a phenomenon which is global. It is not unique to Haiti, this is not unique to the Caribbean. There are trends, there are cycles [...] the component of the MINUSTAH makes every effort to work hard with the National Police of Haiti, (HNP) and we follow the events, we adapt, and we adjust. We are strengthening in certain sectors depending on the type of criminality, or different trends. But there is nothing alarming, there is nothing at the level that might suggest there is a crisis. This is totally wrong. We want to reassure the public there is no crisis currently underway on the level of criminality..."

These statements are surprising.... contradicts a study published last Sunday, conducted by researchers Athena Kolbe and Robert Muggah, with the support of the Research Centre for International Development, a Canadian Crown corporation, and the Institute Igarape, a nonprofit organization in Brazil, which indicates that "the number of crimes committed in major cities of Haiti has increased dramatically over the last six months"; stating that "the homicide rate appears to have jumped significantly in the densely populated areas of Haitian towns between August 2011 and February 2012 [...] If the situation is less alarming in Port-au-Prince than in other urban centers of the Caribbean, the Haitian capital has still reached in February 60.9 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest rate since 2006. In comparison, the number of homicides in New York was less than 7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2011, while that of the City of Oakland, California, was 23 per 100,000..."

So who is right...?