Investigative report concerning the tensions in Arcahaie

On 22 July 2015 the government adopted a decree creating a new commune, the Commune des Arcadins. Arcahaie, one of the twenty communes of the Ouest and the seat of the district that also contains Cabaret, took the decision badly and organised a series of protests to force its withdrawal, and a situation of tension and violence followed. The network investigated on the ground from 23 September to 13 October 2015. Four people were killed, among them a twenty-three-year-old woman who died on 2 September and a man on a motorcycle struck fatally by a vehicle while fleeing; eight people were wounded by gunfire and two by other means, including a police officer hit in the face by a stone. Two houses were set on fire, and on the night of 1 to 2 October the doors and gates of buildings housing public offices were burned.

Seven vehicles were burned, along with a lottery outlet, a hundred-foot container at Pont Matheux and a banana garden; the report ends with photographs of the damage. The network reminds readers that the decree behind the tension was issued by the President despite his public undertaking of 12 January 2015 that he would adopt only one decree, on the organisation of elections, and that raising a locality to a commune is not a matter for a decree at all but for parliamentary debate with the participation of every sector. It asks for an inquiry into the events, the prosecution of everyone involved including police officers, an assessment of the losses and compensation for the victims, the repeal of the decree of 22 July 2015, and whatever measures are needed to restore calm.