Supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide plan to attack commercial enterprises which closed their doors in the capital on Friday 15 October within the framework of the day of protest against the violence which prevails day and night in Port-au-Prince. The belligerents are considering blocking activities in Port-au-Prince. According to their own calendar, three days of rest will be given to the people so they can get fresh supplies. By the way, the members of the people’s organizations are sticking absolutely to the physical return of Aristide to Haiti, otherwise, peace will be far from returning to the capital. Furthermore, they say they are ready to engage in a confrontation with the former soldiers. I invite you to listen to them.
“The private sector has called for a strike in order to allow Guy Philippe and Ravix to come here and slaughter people in the poor neighbourhoods.
“As for us, we are telling the private sector that they can keep observing strikes until the physical return of President Aristide. They can keep observing strikes and let the former soldiers take care of the city. We will manage them. Just like the assailants cut off the policemen’s heads to take revenge for former soldiers who died in Bourdon and then attributed these actions to Lavalas supporters, similarly, we will behead all former soldiers who are ready to commit slaughter.
“We are ready for them. We are ready to go and attack them, to kill them. We are not afraid and we will never be afraid. Let the ladies speak now.
“Yes, the ladies.
“Listen to a statement made by Latortue. He says he has given the former soldiers weapons to kill the people. But I know that the people also have weapons to assault the National Palace and Latortue.
“But we cannot . . . We will manage them and will study strategies for them, because we will never prove to be cowards, we will never prove to be cowards, up until President Aristide physically returns. They must also satisfy our other demands. For example, we have strategies for the street vendors. There are seven days in the week and we give them three days to work, three days to work.
“We have our own strategy to keep watching the assailants and thugs for these three days. But they have Wednesday. If a person wants to go out, for example, if the person wants to make a withdrawal, the person can sign any documents. We give the people Wednesday for this kind of thing. We are also giving them Friday and Saturday to go to the market.
“For the other four days, we will control the city, the former soldiers and the assailants who come from Gonaives, because we will not let them kill us in the way they killed the policemen, the members of the Intervention and Maintenance of Order Company. We are ready for them. We tell them that just like they have begun establishing the practice of beheading people, we are ready to behead them also.
“But the question of assailants who are coming from Gonaives and former soldiers from Plateau Central is bound to fail. We are ready for them. Just like they are making scenarios by beheading policemen and then putting their heads in the streets while attributing these acts to Lavalas supporters, we ready to behead them as well. We will not accept the logic of letting them slaughter us.”
“You know that Guy Philippe, for example, is saying that they do not need many weapons to restore order and virtually have control over your movement? Is that true?
“The men think that Port-au-Prince is like Gonaives and some provincial cities which they used to hold hostage. Not at all. Philippe has been saying that he is going to restore order, that he is going to do this and that for a long time. Why? We in Bel-Air would like the Bel-Air issue to be entrusted to Philippe and Remissainthe and that they be sent to Bel-Air because we are ready for them. We are ready for them. We respect only the Minustah and the PNH. We respect no one else.”
Radio Galaxie: They cannot come to Bel-Air?
“No, they cannot. This is correct. Why has the chief of police not taken any initiative? I just told you that all those groups of chiefs, including the chief of police and other chiefs, always preach violence. They have their own groups, and they give them the uniforms they want to make slaughters in any areas on behalf of the police. This is one of the reasons why nothing will happen to the police if there is strategy by the police to come to the area in the company of Minustah. But we do not want any other armed groups to come and slaughter people in the poor neighbourhoods. Those people have caused our blood to shed too much. We will not let them shed our blood again.”
Radio Galaxie: What are the prospects? What is the future of the movement?
“Well, the future of the movement is the liberation of the Lavalas militants who are in jail, not only the liberation of the Lavalas militants who are in jail for unclear reasons but also we want to live and be able to work so our children can go to school.
“In addition to that, we want the physical return of our constitutional President Aristide so democracy can continue in the country and so elections can always be respected. We know very well that to manage power this government, the forces of darkness, have to shed blood. This is how things are. It divides only. That is the only means. Those people are never the friends of elections. The evidence is obvious. Have you not seen that they show what they are doing here, they have staged a coup d’etat against the parliament. They have dissolved the parliament. They never want — once something is legal, they are against it.”