06/19/2013 15:41 GMT
PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 19, 2013 (AFP) - Violent crime in Haiti has claimed the lives of more than a thousand people over the past year, including foreigners and United Nations peacekeepers, a human rights group said.
Between May 2012 and May of this year, at least 1,041 people were shot, stabbed, stoned or hanged, the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) said in a report marking President Michel Martelly's second year in power.
United Nations peacekeepers and foreigners, as well as young children, minors and Haitian police officers, were victims of rapes, robberies, assassinations and kidnappings, the group said.
It listed 72 kidnappings, detailing that young children were targeted.
The group said 972 cases of sexual violence were recorded with women, as well as young girls and boys, the victims. Fifty-five sex offenders were convicted in criminal courts, it added.
The group also published a list of 23 Haitian police officers who were shot and killed over the course of the year. Twenty-three others were shot and wounded, while four were hurt in stabbings, it added.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is still recovering from a January 2010 earthquake that killed 250,000.
Martelly, a former pop singer, came to power in May 2011.
cre/vlk/sg
© 1994-2013 Agence France-Presse