By GARY DARMANIE Monday, April 13 2009

click on pic to zoom in

FLYING DAISY: Anuradha Sonny flies her kite named 'Sonny Daisy' during the Easter Sunday kite flying competition at the Queen's Park Savannah yesterda...

« prev photo next photo »

RESIDENTS of Oropune Gardens in Piarco will virtually be in ‘‘lock-down mode’’ during the Summit of the Americas and to prepare for this self-imposed curfew, will use tomorrow and Wednesday to stock up on supplies.

Oropune residents live near to Piarco International Airport and as such, their village is part of a wider area in and around the airport that has been deemed a red-zone and which will be heavily secured and free movement severely restricted, during the summit.

The Airport is the arrival and departure point for visiting heads of governments including US President Barack Obama, who will attend the summit at the International Waterfront Centre in Port-of-Spain and at the Prime Minister’s Residence and Diplomatic Centre.

Because they live in the red-zone, Oropune residents would need accreditation passes from the Ministry of National Security, to move freely in and out of the red-zone during the summit.

And because the vast majority of residents do not have such permission, they have decided on one course of action — to stay home during the summit.

And while many persons complained at a recent summit community meeting about the inconvenience they would face, during a visit to Oropune yesterday, many residents were resigned to their fate and were preparing for the ‘‘lockdown’’.

The residents said they would prefer to stay at home for the three days of the summit (from Friday to Sunday) rather than be subjected to police searches and traffic because of road blocks which are expected to be part of the security force’s means of securing this red-zone.

Residents also complained they did not receive any real information about the security measures for the summit and how it would affect them since they were never told about the recent meeting in Maloney where security issues surrounding the summit were discussed by police and summit officials.

The residents said that while the summit is three days, they would be home for four since they were told by police that the area would be locked down by the security forces from 1 pm on Thursday.