For U.S. security planners, the mission in Haiti couldn’t have been clearer. A primary task of the international force is to deploy in the Caribbean island nation to search, seize, and “kill” gang members, according to an early U.S. draft plan, known as a Concept of Operations, or CONOPS.
But the blunt U.S. language rattled some of its potential partners, particularly Canada, which has been working closely with the United States to draw up a detailed plan for ending Haiti’s heavily armed gangs’ reign of terror in Port-au-Prince and other parts of Haiti. Instead, they settled on slightly less provocative language. The Gang Suppression Force, according to a preliminary summary of the CONOPS obtained by Devex, “aims to neutralize, isolate, and deter armed gangs.”
The negotiation points to a larger question facing the United States, the United Nations, and other countries involved in planning to confront Haiti’s gangs. Is the UN-mandated force engaged in a largely law enforcement operation, with all the legal encumbrances that entails, or is it a classic armed conflict, which permits wider scope for lethal operations? The matter has particular sensitivity given the fact that so many of the gangs’ fighters are children.