Haitian President Rene Preval pleaded for calm as the death toll from a cholera epidemic soared past 1,000 and the disease surfaced for the first time in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
Tempers are frayed in Haiti less than two weeks ahead of crucial general elections that will see Preval’s successor chosen in the first polls since January’s earthquake killed 250,000 people and flattened the capital.
Political forces are being blamed for whipping up tensions in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, where two Haitians died — one shot by a UN peacekeeper — in widespread rioting on Monday.
“Disorder and instability have never brought solutions to a country going through hard times,” Preval said on Tuesday in a recorded message that denounced unnamed groups for taking advantage of the cholera epidemic and fanning discontent.
“You must be even more watchful of those who exploit the country’s misfortunes for their own benefit,” he said. “Gunshots, throwing bottles, barricades of burning tires will not help us eradicate cholera bacteria. On the contrary, it will prevent the sick from receiving care and to deliver medicine where it is needed.”
Thousands of protesters went on the rampage on Monday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, setting a police station ablaze and threatening to torch a UN compound before being broken up by gunfire and tear gas.
Haitian Interior Minister Paul-Antoine Bien-Aime and Haitian police chief Mario Andresol will lead a delegation to the north in the coming days to help restore calm, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Across the border, Dominican authorities tightened controls and stepped up health checks in an attempt to stop the disease spreading after a 32-year-old man was found to have contracted cholera in the eastern town of Higuey.
In a bid to keep the disease at bay, Dominican authorities banned Haitian traders from crossing the border.
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