Students throw stones at riot police.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – The Director General of the National Police of Haiti, Godson Orelus, on Wednesday accused university students of disturbing public order after four days of violent protests after senior double major Damaël D`Haiti was shot and killed by a police office on Saturday.
Orelus has put in action measures to find protesters disturbing public order, endangering lives and damaging property. The police chief warned the incidents would not be tolerated in anyway.
“The disorder is unjustified because all dispositions have been taken to ensure the alleged killer is found,” said General Orelus.
The Minister of Justice, Jean Renel Sanon, also called students to renounce violence and warned the forces of order have to ensure by the “letter of the law” the prevention of disturbances of the public order.
Regarding the use of tear gas and gunfire by police to deter student protesters, Minister Sanon said “it’s a proportional response. We don’t have to congratulate students who sow confusion in the capital.”
People were injured and several others were seriously disturbed when they inhaled tear gas.
The Dean of the School of Law at the State University of Haiti, Adrian Pascal, said the statements of the Minister of Justice is an attempt to justify the brutal action against his comrades in the streets.
Pascal said the students don’t have anything to do with the violence in the streets but infiltrators in their otherwise protest.
Denouncing what he declared a “disinformation campaign”, Dean Adrien Pascal informed student to remain mobilized for justice for the family of the student shot in the head Saturday night in the courtyard of the university campus.
Wednesday was the fourth consecutive day that students took the streets to demanded justice for Damaël D`Haiti, who was 24 and graduating with a degree in Agronomy and Economics. The students also demand reparations for D’Haiti’s family who are mourning the loss.
The scene on Christophe Avenue in downtown Port-au-Prince where the police used tear gas to disperse an excited crowd was apocalyptic. In uptown Port-au-Prince, in the vicinity of the School of Agronomy, students demonstrated more peacefully and in solidarity for their colleague who was enrolled at the institution.
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