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.
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