Haitians Urge Civilian Rule : Block Main Highway to Protest Military Regime

Crowds blocked the main highway north of Port-au-Prince at several points Saturday morning in new protests against the country’s six-week-old provisional government.

The rural demonstrations followed mass protests and disturbances in this capital Thursday and Friday. A major demand in the protest movement is for a civilian government to replace the military-led National Government Council.

The council took over Feb. 7, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier fled the country after a wave of violent protests against his dictatorial regime.

Port-au-Prince was quiet Saturday, after Friday’s violence in which at least two people were killed by gunfire and half a dozen more were wounded as demonstrators and security forces skirmished in city streets. Word circulated Saturday night of plans for more protests here Monday.

On Saturday morning, several miles north of Port-au-Prince, demonstrators blocked the main highway with a series of barricades that included rocks, tree branches and burning tires. By mid-afternoon, the protesters had reopened the highway, but some said they would block it again Monday.

At the village of Arcahaie, a crowd of men stood near a trail of ashes across the highway where old tires had burned earlier. Kesnel Bernard, 49, said the villagers’ demands include the appointment of a civilian governing council for Haiti.

“No Namphy, no Regala,” Bernard said, referring to two military officers on the National Government Council.

Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, president of the council, announced Friday that it was being “reconstituted” with a reduction in its membership from five to three. Namphy remains the council’s president and Col. Williams Regala remains as the other military member. Jacques A. Francois, a civilian who has been foreign minister since early February, was appointed as the third council member.

Army Col. Max Valles and Alix Cineas, a former Duvalier Cabinet minister, were dropped from the council, apparently in response to popular demand.

Must Gain Public Support

“The change is something the people have wanted since the council came into power,” Gregoire Eugene, a Social Christian Party leader, said. “The council is looking for a formula to win the people’s support because there is a risk of real anarchy in the city.”

Gerard Gourgue, the only previous council member who had not been linked to the Duvalier regime, resigned Thursday. Gourgue, a popular schoolmaster and head of the Haitian Human Rights League, complained that the provisional government was not complying with popular demands.

A widespread demand is expressed in Creole, Haiti’s French-African language, as dechoukaj (uprooting). It means the weeding out of officials who for 29 years formed part of the governing system of Duvalier and before him, his father, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier.

Council members Namphy and Regala were both high army officers under Jean-Claude Duvalier, who personally picked the members of the council that replaced him Feb. 7.

Charges of ‘Duvalierism’

Gourgue’s departure, which helped trigger the personnel shake-up, is expected to make the ruling body more vulnerable to critics, who charged that it represents “Duvalierism without Duvalier.”

“We think it is unfortunate,” a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Saturday, “but we have received assurances that the council will continue to pursue its goals of democracy, human rights and economic development.”

In his Friday announcement of the government changes, Namphy renewed a pledge to hold free elections “as soon as possible,” but he did not set a date.

He said that the government “will continue to guarantee order, peace and security of families and property “as indispensable conditions” for democratic elections.

Army Muscle Effective

Troops with automatic rifles and police with night sticks dealt forcefully with the demonstrators Friday.

Casuis Hubert, director of the Port-au-Prince morgue, said two bodies with bullet wounds had come in. But at the general hospital next door, a doctor in the emergency ward said he knew of four people killed by bullets. Another doctor said that about 25 people were injured in violence.

In an apparent effort to appease the demands of those seeking a more marked departure from the past, two former officials accused of earlier murders were shown on Haitian television Friday night. The two were under military detention.

But a hand-lettered sign in a working-class neighborhood of Port-au-Prince asked Saturday: “Where are the others?” The sign listed 20 other former officials accused of murder who have not been seen since Duvalier left.

The sign said that Haitian patriots “must continue to fight for a civilian provisional government and for the soldiers to return to the barracks.”

Troops Less Popular

During the anti-government protests that helped force Duvalier from power, demonstrators often called for the army to take power. But the army’s popularity has eroded rapidly since the early days of the provisional government.

Last Wednesday, an angry crowd gathered in defense of a taxi-bus driver in a traffic incident with an army captain. The captain brought in a squad of armed troops, and five civilians were reported killed in shooting. Protests by minibus drivers mounted.

On Saturday morning, the government announced that it regretted the Wednesday incident and that the captain will face a military inquiry. Later in the day, the transportation strike appeared to be ending as minibus traffic resumed.