Haitian Firms Reopen Under Tough Decree

President Jean-Claude Duvalier used a tough, 29-year-old decree Wednesday to pressure businessmen into opening stores and factories that were closed in fear of violence or in sympathy with anti-government protesters.

An estimated 90% of the businesses on this capital’s main downtown streets were closed during Tuesday afternoon business hours. The same afternoon, 30% to 40% of the assembly factories in the city’s industrial sector were reported shut down.

The closures put Duvalier’s beleaguered government under new pressure after a wave of anti-government protests around the country last week.

In a related development, spokesmen for the governments of Greece and Spain said they received and rejected requests for asylum for Duvalier last week.

In Switzerland, officials said the government refused a request by Duvalier to visit the country with his family and a large entourage.

Spokesman Denies Story

But a spokesman for the Duvalier government, Guy Mayer, said no such requests have been made.

Although there have been no disturbances in Port-au-Prince since Friday, uneasiness continues. Some foreign executives--including the manager of an electronics plant operated by GTE Sylvania, the biggest American investor in Haiti--have left the country.

Some businessmen said they received anonymous telephone calls threatening reprisals against their establishments if they did not close. Others said they are worried about a possible repetition of the disturbances that broke out Friday in downtown Port-au-Prince, after Duvalier imposed a nationwide state of siege.

And some businessmen were said to have closed in sympathy with the anti-Duvalier movement. Duvalier, 34, has been “president-for-life” since inheriting the title from his father, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, when he died in 1971.

Tuesday night, the government issued a communique reminding businesses of a 1957 decree that requires them to stay open.

Heavy Fines, Jail

Penalties for violation of the decree include jail terms of up to six months, suspension of business licenses, fines up to $10,000 and confiscation of businesses.

The communique said the government relies “on the good will of businessmen to resist anti-patriotic blackmail,” referring to the threats. It said that “adequate security measures” have been taken.

Wednesday, helmeted soldiers and blue-uniformed militiamen were deployed around the downtown area to guard stores. The militiamen--members of a force called the National Security Volunteers but more commonly referred to as the Tontons Macoutes (Creole for “bogeymen”) went from store to store, ordering hesitant merchants to open as required by the decree.

The feared Tontons Macoutes, who have been accused of human rights abuses and of having a license to kill indiscriminately, had previously been restrained out of concern for Haiti’s image abroad.

More than half of the stores on main downtown streets were open Wednesday afternoon.

Foreign diplomats said that 80% of the plants that assemble goods for export were open Wednesday afternoon. Together, they provide about 60,000 jobs and account for about 16% of all goods produced in Haiti.