By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Kidnappings and other violent crimes have increased in Haiti in recent weeks, and Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis on Monday blamed the surge partly on criminals deported by the United States.
As many as 100 people have been kidnapped for ransom in November, according to the Coalition of Victims and Friends of Victims of Kidnappings, a group that assists relatives.
"The situation is very serious," Reginald Delva, the group's leader, said.
According to police statistics, 40 kidnappings were reported in October and 30 in September. There seems to be no pattern to the abductions and they are not confined to any particular social class or group.
"We have noted a considerable increase in kidnappings," said Stanley Ralph Brice, police director for the West department (province), which includes the teeming capital, Port-au-Prince. "We have also noted several killings over the past few days."
Brice declined to comment on possible reasons for the surge.
Even with the presence of an 8,300-member United Nations peacekeeping force, Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has struggled to contain gang and political violence since a bloody rebellion ousted then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.
At least two recent kidnapping victims, a 20-year-old woman and a 6-year-old boy, were killed even after ransoms were paid.
The woman, Fara Natacha Dessources, was found dead last week after being kidnapped and tortured by gunmen outside the capital. She was shot several times and one of her arms was broken.
The body of the boy, Carl Rubens Francillion, was found near Cap-Haitien on Haiti's north coast, police said. He was kidnapped in Port-au-Prince.
At a news conference on Monday, Alexis said criminals sent to Haiti by the United States were partly at fault for the surge in crime and at least two deportees were sought in the woman's death.
"We are not going stand idly by. We are doing everything we can to arrest these criminals and bring them to justice," said Alexis.
Haitian officials have long complained that the United States sends dozens of Haitian criminals to the Caribbean island each month after they have finished serving their U.S. prison time. With its feeble judicial system and police force, the impoverished nation is ill-equipped to deal with them.
Human rights activist Renan Hedouville, who heads the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, blamed the surge in violence in part on the police and judiciary.
"The police should be vetted and the judicial system reformed for the struggle against criminality to be effective," Hedouville said.