Lavalas Family (FL, forming ruling party under Jean-Bertrand Aristide) party officials have condemned the murder of journalist Jacques Roche. In a note sent out on July 15, the FL officials warn the current government against all armed confrontation to resolve the gang issue. At the same time, FL denounced the exclusion and, what the party calls the kidnapping of its leaders. Former Lavalas Senator Yvon Feuille speaks as follows:
“We are very sorry to see the sad and inhumane circumstances in which a journalist such as Jacques Roche lost his life. We send our condolences to all the journalists, to all the sectors he belonged to and to his family in particular.
“In the face of this sad situation, it is time for everybody to rise up to create a chain of solidarity to say enough. For, kidnapping and assassination are a cancer that is destroying the country. We, at Lavalas Family, have seized this occasion to send out the following message.
“The right direction cannot be the road that will lead to nowhere. It cannot be the road of exclusion because exclusion, in whatever form, can only lead to segregation.
“The right direction cannot be the road that will lead to nowhere. It cannot be that of armed confrontation because armed confrontation favours criminal instincts instead of a spirit of compromise and consensus.
“The right direction cannot be the road that will lead to nowhere. It cannot be that of kidnapping because kidnapping impoverishes the Haitian families, terrorizes the people, traumatizes our children, leads to a degrading and inhumane situation that can be hopeless for the young people of the country.
“FL condemns the violence and asks his members to take their distance from all those, wherever they may come from, that are using violence to achieve their goals whatever they may be.
“May each Haitian citizen be a light to combat the forces of darkness and the evil of violence, of poverty, of exclusion, and kidnapping.
“FL is referring to the consequences of the violence that is gnawing democracy and destroying the Haitian society to say enough, enough, enough.
FL is making the cry of dignity, the cry of nonviolence, the cry against sequestration of political personalities and militants, the cry against kidnapping, the cry in favour of dialogue, compromise, and consensus.”