A lovely family photo in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. That's Jean Simson Desanclos with his wife Josette Fils Desanclos. I read about them on the BBC News website. They are pictured with their beautiful daughters Sarhadjie and Sherwood Sondje. Their father often proudly referred to them as his "princesses".
Jean Simson Desanclos is a lawyer and human rights activist. His daughters also qualified as lawyers. However, everything changed on August 20th.
He came home to find that Josette, Sarhadjie and Sherwood had been shot dead in a failed kidnap attempt. Their burnt bodies were found in the family car.
It seems that Port-au-Prince has become a haven for brutal gangs and kidnappers. The authorities appear powerless to control them. They shoot, they pillage, they rape and they take revenge. No one is safe, not even the country's leading politicians with their contingents of armed security guards.
The worst times for kidnapping are during the morning and evening rush hours. Targets are yanked from their cars by gun toting thugs. Ransoms can vary between a hundred dollars and a million.
1,107 Haitian people were kidnapped between January and October of this year and between June and September 1377 were killed, badly injured or "disappeared" in gang related attacks.
Jean Simson Desanclos is of course bereft. He lost his loved ones and his hope for the future. He said, "Criminals have taken my country hostage. They make their own laws. They kill. They rape. They destroy. I would like my daughters to be the last sacrifice, the last young women killed."
He wants the world to understand one thing about the Haiti of today - that the gangs have free rein.
When you look into that family photo, you see the three women smiling in a happy pose for the camera but Jean Simson Desanclos appears to be looking into the ocean of grief that awaits him, through the photographer and beyond. And naturally, he seeks revenge.
Sad that this happens, but the corruption in policing and in the courts is also to blame. If you can't/don't/won't arrest these thugs, then you can't prosectue them.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a very corrupt country but I doubt that the family in the photo added fuel to the corruption. They were just trying to live happy, decent lives.
DeleteMy heart weeps for this father. His mind or spirit or soul will surely perish. Making him the fourth victim in this family to succumb to this horrid behavior.
ReplyDeleteHow could he ever forget them and how they died? From now on, every day will be coloured with memories of them and regrets too - wishing he had done something different to save them.
DeleteThe country sounds to be a dire situation. It's the old story; education and alleviating poverty.
ReplyDeleteThe lawlessness has become like a tsunami in Haiti.
DeleteI can't imagine going on if my whole family was murdered. I think I would just lay down and die.
ReplyDeleteEvery day would bring nightmare visions and pain. Can that man ever be happy again?
DeleteJean can never again have the happiness and peace of mind he had when his wife and daughters were alive and well.
ReplyDeleteTo think that Jean's wife and daughters were shot without mercy, their bodies burned the way workmen burn trash.
Jean's grief will never go away; he may learn to live with it, if he and other decent people can work together, to take back their country from the hoodlums.
People in Liverpool put up a wall of silence when police were investigating the shooting of the little girl in her own home.
The lawlessness in Haiti is on pandemic level compared to Britain's worst places.
Every day I am thankful for the courtesy and kindness of strangers.
We trust strangers. We put our lives in their hands.
Contrary to Mrs Thatcher, there is such a thing as civilized society.
Thatcher's heartless and inaccurate remark has always stayed with me. In a way it sums up her callousness. I agree that we are lucky to live on island that is in general courteous and helpful. A very different island from Hispaniola - at least the French-speaking half of it.
DeleteHaiti is a very sad state.
ReplyDeleteYou might say that it is truly broken.
DeleteAs always, the question: WHY?? As always, the answer: Power and Money. Yet it should not be this way. :( :( :(
ReplyDeleteYou are of course right but they also had a big earthquake in Haiti.2010 - up to 250,000 people were killed. This had many knock-on effects.
DeleteWhat happened to Jean's family is, according to the numbers you list here, just one of many. The horror and grief are unimaginable for someone who has been living a largely, happy sheltered life like mine here in one of the most affluent parts of a country so well off and so well structured that it attracts millions of immigrants seeking a better life - politically, economically and maybe socially.
ReplyDeleteHaiti needs a revolution - a peaceful one, by the decent folks who just want to go about their lives without constant risk of they or their loved ones being raped, injured or killed.
The odds seem to be stacked against decent, law-abiding citizens.
DeleteThe article I read said they were on their way to a University when they drove into a crowd of 400 protestors who killed them along with five others. A case of bad luck and timing, not a targeted attack. Regardless, it is a tragedy that shouldn't have happened and I can't imagine the life Mr. Desanclos is living right now.
ReplyDeleteIn the BBC article there was no mention of a crowd of protesters. Truth can also be a victim.
DeleteI read this yesterday on the BBC website. My heart went out to this poor man, and to all the innocent victims in this lawless country.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be no way forward to peace and democracy for them. Not when the gangs control influential people in all walks of life.
It would take an awful lot of clearing up and a lot of extra resources too. THe scars would last for decades.
DeleteIt is too horrible to even contemplate. Such barbarity stems from many things. Perhaps justice is not being applied severely enough but a breakdown in society brings untold misery.
ReplyDeleteThe earthquake, the poverty, disease, COVID, colonial legacy - all seem to have conspired to make Haiti almost ungovernable.
DeleteVery very sad. Like so many news stories we are powerless and can only watch from a far.
ReplyDeleteWe could fly over there for our holidays and invite some of the hoodlums round to our hotel for afternoon tea and persuasive conversation so that they might see the errors of their ways.
DeleteSuch tragedy. I really have no words.
ReplyDelete