civic movement Citizen participation, Dominican chapter of Transparency International, expressed its resounding rejection of the aggression to which the Ombudsman, Paul Ulloa, his team and members of the press who accompanied him on an inspection of the greyhound track last Monday. They consider that this action constitutes a serious attack on the freedom of the pressaggravated by the action of erasing what was documented in the incident, affecting the population’s right to information.
¨It is totally unacceptable that frequently members of the police and military corps behave in a dictatorial, aggressive and arbitrary manner against citizens, and even less against a constitutional authority such as the Ombudsman, fully invested with the right to appear before any public body or private where violations of the rights of the population have been reported¨they pointed out in a press release.
Citizen Participation emphasized that trying to prevent them from entering a public area, attacking the entourage, taking cameras and cell phones from members of the press, are crimes that they must be sanctioned in an exemplary manner, not only with dismissal but also with submission to justice.
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¨It is time that, once and for all, the forces of order understand that they are not above the law, nor to run over citizens and that public venues are not closed places, protected by a wall of impunity, where nobody finds out what happens there¨, the civic movement specifies.
Citizen Participation understands that the moment is opportune to transform this vehicle holding center which has been denounced for many years as an entity of corruptionabuse and violation of the rights of citizens.
¨Thousands of vehicles are seized by arbitrary decisions of the cops traffic, beyond the powers assigned to them by law. It is true that the country needs to impose order on traffic, but this will only be achieved with the rule of law, education and respectful actions by the police, they concluded.
The National Council of the institution of civil society trusts that the president Abinader will take advantage of this opportunity to set an example and order the dismantling and total transformation of this center of abuse and dispossession of citizens. They also pointed out that it would be opportune to raise awareness and discipline the members of the DIGESET in relation to human rights, the limits of their actions and knowledge of the functions of figures of democracy such as the Ombudsman and the press.
