Charity resolves gang war in Haiti
A group of Irish peacemakers has helped resolve gang warfare in disaster-hit Haiti.
Members of Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation travelled to the Caribbean nation, parts of which were destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.
Former UVF paramilitary Martin Snodden was among those who encouraged gang lords in one of the country's poorest slums to decommission their weapons.
Irish charity Concern invited them to work with peace-building group 3PSM in St Martin, where 70,000 people live in poverty and children as young as 11 are initiated into gangs.
They used the North's peace process as an example of how conflicting communities can live without violence.
Glencree international programme director Ian White said methods for achieving peace are the same the world over.
"For a peace process to work you don't have to trust each other, you just have to trust in the process," he said.
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- Lyndsey Telford
Irish Independent
