In an interview with Brazilian state-owned news agency, Radiobrás, the Brazilian general who is commanding the UN military forces in Haiti, José Elito Siqueira, said that the demonstrations in Haiti in favor of presidential front-runner, René Préval, are undesirable from the point of view of security, but are unavoidable.
The general affirmed that the most important thing is to help maintain security in the country and keep the streets free of radicalism.
"Radicalism from any quarter cannot be permitted. We must ensure that," he explained. He emphasized that Monday’s, February 13, protests were peaceful and did not involve any serious incident anywhere in the country.
Demonstrators took to the streets of Port-au-Prince to protest on behalf of Préval. According to the official site of his party, Lespwa, the demonstration was peaceful.
David Wimhurst, press adviser to the UN mission in Haiti, also judges the protests to be non-violent, and the military forces will confine themselves to ensuring the security of government officials so that the electoral process can be concluded.
ABr
