Amnesty International urges El Salvador to disclose terms of Haiti troop deployment
Rights group Amnesty International has called on El Salvador and Haiti to publish the agreement behind the deployment of Salvadoran troops to Haiti and to ensure human rights are respected. About 2,000 soldiers have been sent to the gang-ravaged Caribbean country.
The human rights organisation Amnesty International on Monday called on El Salvador and Haiti to make public the agreement governing the large-scale deployment of Salvadoran troops in Haiti, a Caribbean country plagued by gangs, and to make sure that human rights are respected.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has sent roughly 2,000 troops to Haiti since four Salvadoran personnel went missing there in mid-October. Most of the soldiers are not part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), which has prompted concerns about their rules of engagement.
Amnesty's Americas Director, Ana Piquer, said both governments must disclose the agreement and explain how the deployed forces are overseen, what rules govern the use of force, who the troops answer to, and how people can report possible violations without fear of reprisals.
From finding the missing to a broader goal
Bukele initially said the deployment was meant to bring the missing personnel home. He has since hinted at a wider aim of eliminating Haiti's powerful gangs, as he did in his own country. That campaign has drawn allegations of rights abuses.
Demands for both governments
Piquer urged Bukele and Haiti's prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aime, to ensure that all operations carried out by Salvadoran forces in Haiti comply with international human rights law. She also called for prompt, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations.
"The response to gang violence must not replicate the abuses and impunity that have characterized previous interventions in Haiti," she added.
