Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Haiti’s uncertain political future, the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Russian military leaders, and new economic growth targets in China and Indonesia.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Haiti’s uncertain political future, the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Russian military leaders, and new economic growth targets in China and Indonesia.
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‘Heading Straight for a Civil War’
The United States reportedly pressured interim Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to leave office on Tuesday amid escalating gang violence in the Caribbean nation. Henry was attempting to return home following a diplomatic mission in Nairobi to secure a Kenyan-led police force when he received the message from the U.S. State Department.
The move represented a dramatic policy change for the Biden administration, which for months has pushed back against calls for Henry’s resignation and instead proposed that he lead a political transition toward democratic elections.
Henry took office in July 2021 after then-President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination, and he has repeatedly delayed national elections since. Many Haitians reject Henry’s legitimacy and argue that he did not have legal authority to sign off on the Kenyan-led police deployment, known as the MSS mission, because he is not an elected official.
Last Thursday, gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier took advantage of Henry’s absence to coordinate an armed assault calling for his ouster. “If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide,” Chérizier said on Tuesday. “Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us.”
The government in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, issued a 72-hour state of emergency and curfew on Sunday after gangs freed around 3,700 inmates from two major prisons, stormed numerous police stations, and killed multiple police officers. Since then, gangs have surrounded Toussaint Louverture International Airport, preventing Henry from safely landing in Port-au-Prince.
After he signed the police deployment agreement with Kenyan President William Ruto in Nairobi on Friday, Henry’s whereabouts were publicly unknown until late Tuesday, when he showed up in Puerto Rico. The Miami Herald reports that the Haitian leader had flown to the United States after his weekend Kenya trip. Unable to fly back to Haiti safely, Henry secretly negotiated a plan with diplomats from the Dominican Republic to help Henry stealthily cross the border into Haiti.
However, after Henry’s flight departed the United States en route to the Dominican Republic, the country decided at the last minute not to allow his plane clearance to land. Henry then diverted to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico; while on his way there, he received the message from the U.S. State Department urging him to resign. Henry landed safely in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he remains.
“Our support is focused on helping the [Haitian National Police] restore security, expediting the deployment of the MSS mission, and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections,” a U.S. National Security Council official said on Tuesday night. “Our dialogue with Prime Minister Henry has been focused on these efforts and the need for security and a peaceful political transition.”
Almost 40 percent of Haiti’s 11.7 million residents face acute hunger, according to the World Food Program. And since last Thursday, around 15,000 people, mainly women and children, have been forced to flee their homes in Port-au-Prince, adding to the more than 300,000 people already displaced by gang violence last year. The United Nations Security Council held a closed-door emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the worsening security crisis.
“Who is in control? I think nobody is in control,” said Jean-Marc Biquet, head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in Haiti, adding that if the police give up fighting, it’s a lost battle. “Then what can happen? Well, I guess, total chaos.”
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What We’re Following
War crimes accusations. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for two senior Russian commanders. The court accused Army Lt. Gen. Sergey Kobylash and Navy Adm. Viktor Sokolov of war crimes, including targeting civilian objects and incidental harm of civilians. The men are believed to be responsible for numerous strikes on Ukrainian power plants between October 2022 and March 2023. Moscow dismissed the allegations on Wednesday as having no legal significance; Russia is not party to the court’s Rome Statute.
“Every Russian commander who orders strikes against Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure must know that justice will be served,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, formerly Twitter, following the ICC announcement.
This is the second time that the court has issued arrest warrants against top Russian leaders related to this conflict. In March 2023, the ICC targeted President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their involvement in the forcible removal of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is considered a war crime.
Growth targets revealed. Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced an ambitious yet unsurprising economic growth target of around 5 percent for 2024 at the annual National People’s Congress on Tuesday. Amid worrying deflation and a struggling property sector, Li touted Chinese stability. He unveiled a 7.2 percent increase in Beijing’s military budget, the same as last year, and promised to target big-ticket spending, such as on electronics and automobiles. The roughly 5 percent goal is similar to 2023’s target.
Presumptive Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto also announced new economic goals on Tuesday. He vowed to focus on privatization once he takes office as well as accelerate growth by 8 percent within the next five years. Prabowo is expected to win the country’s presidential election, with official results to be announced later this month. Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy and has positioned itself as a key part in global supply chains for electric vehicles.
Gaza aid deliveries. Washington airdropped additional humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in its second such operation within a week. The U.S. Air Force dropped 36,800 ready-to-eat meals in coordination with the Jordanian Air Force, adding to the roughly 38,000 meals that Washington dropped last Saturday. U.S. officials reiterated that there are currently no plans to deploy troops to the area.
The U.S. decision came amid rising concerns over acute hunger in Gaza, with the U.N. warning late last month that a quarter of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents risk imminent starvation. Yet humanitarian officials say that these meals are not enough to address the problem. “The three planeloads that the U.S. dropped last week are equivalent to ballpark four to six truckloads” of aid, Refugees International President Jeremy Konyndyk told NPR. “So it really is not a significant additional amount of aid relative to the already hugely inadequate amount that’s getting in.”
Odds and Ends
Artificial intelligence may be pushing for a spot on Captain Kirk’s crew. Scientists discovered that AI chatbots performed better on math equations when asked to pretend that they’re on Star Trek, according to a new study first reported by New Scientist last month. Other friendly motivation, including “take a deep breath” and “you are an expert mathematician,” also produced better outcomes. So, move over, Data. A new crew member of the USS Enterprise is coming through.
The post U.S. Urges Haiti’s Interim Prime Minister to Resign appeared first on Foreign Policy.