Haiti Discounts Coup Reports, Imposes Siege

Denying reports that he had been overthrown, President Jean-Claude Duvalier declared a state of siege Friday on the sixth straight day of violent anti-government demonstrations and other disturbances around his impoverished country.

Hours after the emergency decree was announced, rioting broke out for the first time in Port-au-Prince, the national capital. At least four people were killed here by gunfire, and about 50 were injured, a hospital reported.

In a morning radio broadcast, Duvalier denied rumors that he had fled the country, saying he was still in control in his national palace and was as “firm as a monkey’s tail.”

White House Error

In the United States, the rumors sparked street celebrations Thursday night among Haitian exiles in Miami. They were fueled Friday morning by an erroneous statement from White House spokesman Larry Speakes that the Duvalier government had been overthrown.

The White House later acknowledged the error, blaming a wrong report from the U.S. Embassy here.

Duvalier and his father before him, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, have held power for nearly three decades in this Caribbean nation of nearly 6 million people, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Soldiers in olive-green battle gear Friday patrolled streets and a park in front of the white, triple-domed presidential palace, closing the area off to vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

The State Department issued a “travel advisory” warning Americans against coming to Haiti. The U.S. Embassy here also urged American citizens living in Haiti--an estimated 5,000 people--to stay home and off the streets.

Some leading opposition figures openly advocated a military coup to depose Duvalier, but there was no sign of a coup movement by the armed forces.

“The forces of order have received the command to enforce strict respect for the constitution, legality and the security of life and property,” Duvalier said in a televised statement Friday afternoon.

Radio Stations Closed

Authorities shut down three radio stations that had been broadcasting news reports on the week’s protest demonstrations. The demonstrations have resulted in numerous disturbances and at least 12 reported deaths this week.

During the morning, groups of young men formed sporadically in the capital’s downtown area, sometimes breaking windows and damaging cars. Several stores were looted and burned on the Rue des Miracles, a downtown thoroughfare. Squads of running soldiers dispersed the crowds, sometimes firing automatic rifles. Troops later cordoned off part of the area, and it was calm during the late afternoon. Some shots were heard after dark.

Downtown stores were closed and shuttered throughout the day.

In the provinces, demonstrations and fires were reported in the cities of Gonaives and Cap Haitien, north of the capital, and in Les Cayes, to the southwest. Demonstrators barricaded the northern highway at several points between Port-au-Prince and Gonaives, travelers reported. The government’s Radio Nationale broadcast a message that it said was given by Duvalier while he toured downtown streets early in the morning.

“My dear friends, because of wild rumors and nonsense circulated by troublemakers for some time now, I am obliged to come into the streets,” Duvalier said. “They are saying since 2 a.m. that I flew away. It is not true. The President is here--strong, firm as a monkey’s tail.”

Supporters Thanked

On television in the early afternoon, Duvalier expressed thanks to his supporters and called for an end to violence.

“Let us close our hearts to envy, hatred and dissension,” he said.

Wearing a tan safari suit, his customary attire, Duvalier spoke from the National Palace. His statement was broadcast live. He said that the time has come for members of Haiti’s “economic elite” to do more for the poor majority by creating jobs and spreading wealth. He said he is planning a major economic project to help the poor, but he did not elaborate.

“In the past years, I have been and I remain a catalyst of your most cherished dreams and ambitions,” Duvalier said. “I am determined to continue.”

Many Haitians and foreign observers, however, see Duvalier’s grip on power as increasingly weak.

“It’s certainly the most serious crisis he has faced since he became president,” a U.S. official in Port-au-Prince said.

“Baby Doc” Duvalier, 33, inherited the mantle of president-for-life when his father died in 1971.

Public demonstrations against the regime, unheard of before 1984, have gathered momentum since November. Daily since Sunday, protesters have taken to the streets in a number of provincial cities, and some of the gatherings have turned violent.

Warehouse Raid

Three people were shot by security officers Monday in the northern city of Cap Haitien, and five others were reported to have been trampled to death there Wednesday as a crowd raided a food warehouse.

The state of siege, announced on government-run television at 7 a.m., suspends basic civil liberties and permits the government to impose a curfew. The emergency decree is scheduled to remain in force at least a month.

Among the guarantees suspended are freedom of speech, freedom from arrest or search without warrant, the right to assemble peacefully and freedom of association. The government closed radio stations Soleil, Lumiere and Cacique. Officials apparently felt that broadcasts of news about demonstrations around the country were contributing to the unrest.

Radio Soleil, operated by the Roman Catholic Church and Radio Lumiere, a Baptist station, previously had been shut down temporarily after violent demonstrations in late November, when at least three people were killed by security forces in Gonaives.

More demonstrations followed in December, generally led by youths. “Down with the dictatorship,” they chanted.

When schools closed for the Christmas break, the demonstrations subsided. But early in January, as the new school semester began, they resumed. Three people were shot to death in Cap Haitien in early January.

Schools Suspended

The government immediately suspended school operations, and none have been allowed to reopen.

This week’s demonstrations began in Gonaives, 80 miles north of Port-au-Prince, when youths gathered to protest an announced trial of two militiamen and an army captain charged with the November killings. Demonstrators said that judicial proceedings were a sham.

The courthouse in Gonaives was later burned down.

Reported by the non-government radio stations, the protests spread to Cap Haitien, the country’s second-largest city, 160 miles north of Port-au-Prince. The three people killed there Monday included boys ages 11 and 13.

Reporters in Cap Haitien estimated that about half of the city’s 75,000 people turned out to protest. Other cities where demonstrations have taken place this week were Jacmel and Jeremie, on the country’s southern peninsula.

At some places, there has been looting.

In Cap Haitien on Wednesday, a large crowd raided a large food warehouse operated by CARE, the private American relief agency. It was in that incident that five people were reported trampled or smothered to death. Haiti depends heavily on donated food, much of it from the United States, to keep the impoverished population fed. The U.S. government provided half a million daily lunches for school children and mothers of infants.

The school meals have not been available since classes were suspended Jan. 8.

Under that international pressure, Duvalier has periodically eased repression in recent years, allowing increased dissent. The kind of brutal repression used by Duvalier’s father might have helped suppress the protest demonstrations that began in November. The underlying complaints of the protesters appear to be over worsening poverty, resentment of the country’s wealthy elite and the continuing monopoly on power exercised by the Duvalier family.

Francois Duvalier took power in 1957.

For the past several years, the Roman Catholic Church has been promoting social justice and political democracy although it has not advocated violence.

“The Catholic Church has urged nonviolence,” said one foreign diplomat. “It certainly is not calling people out to the barricades.”

There is no major political organization to oppose Duvalier, but several opposition figures have become well known. One of them, Gregoire Eugene, said Friday that a military takeover is the only solution to the current crisis.

“Things have gone too far,” said Eugene, 60, a lawyer and head of a tiny Social Christian group.

‘No Other Way’

Speaking to three foreign reporters, Eugene said the 8,000-member armed forces should organize a transitional government and prepare the way for general elections.

“It is a possibility because there is no other way,” he said.

Duvalier is the chief of the armed forces and unit commanders report directly to him. He is said to pay them well for their loyalty.

Another leading opposition figure, Hubert de Ronceray, said the army is divided and lacks decisive leadership. He agreed, however, that a coup is needed.

“A coup d’etat is one of the necessities of the moment,” de Ronceray, 53, said. “But it is a possibility that is not going to arrive without the psychological and strategic support of the Haitian population as well as foreign friends.”

By “foreign friends,” he said he meant especially the United States and Israel, the two countries with the closest military ties to the Haitian armed forces.

De Ronceray said the army is the only institution capable of controlling the National Security Volunteers, a repressive militia created by Francois Duvalier and popularly known as the Tontons Macoutes.