Haitians Push Demands for Civilian Rule

Thousands of Haitians marched on the provisional government’s headquarters Monday, chanting demands that the military give way to a civilian government.

Later, young anti-government protesters blocked downtown streets with barricades of rocks, overturned trash bins and burning tires that sent up clouds of black smoke. Security forces fired some shots in the air to break up crowds at the barricades, but no clashes were reported.

The demonstrations were the latest sign that the army has lost much of the popular support it had when it assumed power on Feb. 7, the day President Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to exile in France.

Not long after the march, the National Government Council, headed by Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, dropped from the Cabinet some unpopular ministers who had been associated with the Duvalier regime.

Last Friday, a day of mass protests and disturbances in the capital, Namphy announced a shake-up in the council itself. Also, the council’s adviser, Col. Prosper Avril, was removed, a government spokesman said. Avril had been Duvalier’s top security adviser.

Friday’s demonstrations were violent, with protesters clashing with security forces, but the police and military stayed away from Monday’s march. The crowd was estimated at more than 5,000.

“We want civilian government!” the demonstrators shouted as they marched in front of the National Palace. “We don’t want Gen. Namphy!”

The march was organized by a new group calling itself the Committee to Start Democracy. In a handbill distributed Monday, the Committee called for the formation of other pro-democratic groups in neighborhoods, workplaces and schools.

“Democracy has not been won,” the handbill said. “For us to be able to win, we have to organize.”

Evans Paul, a popular radio announcer who heads the new committee, said it is demanding that Namphy return the army to the barracks.

“The biggest patriotic gesture he could make is to allow civilians who are capable to assume political responsibility for the country,” Paul said.

Joseph Namphy, a hotel operator and brother of the general, told reporters that the army will be needed in the government “until there are lasting institutions” to run the government and “keep a new Duvalier from coming in.”

But a European diplomat said that the army has lost public credibility as a governing institution. People are disappointed that it has not prosecuted Duvalier officials who abused their authority, has not announced a date for elections and has made no notable economic changes, the diplomat said.

In announcing the Cabinet changes Monday, Namphy said that elections would be organized “with the shortest possible delay,” but he offered no timetable.

Among Cabinet members dropped Monday were Alix Cineas and Col. Max Valles, both of whom had been removed from the council Friday. Cineas was a long-time Duvalier collaborator and Valles had been chief of Duvalier’s Presidential Guard unit of the army.

Cineas was not replaced as minister without portfolio. Valles’ post, minister of information, was given to another army colonel, Herard Abraham.

Col. Williams Regala continues as both a council member and minister of the interior and defense.

The council’s membership was reduced from five members to three by Friday’s action. The new member is lawyer Jacques A. Francois, 77, who was replaced Monday as foreign minister by Jean-Baptiste Hilaire.

The resignation of Gerard Gourgue, the only council member who had been a Duvalier critic, helped catalyze the popular discontent with the government last week.

Many political analysts contend that Gourgue resigned in order to position himself for becoming president. Gorugue told foreign reporters he quit “because I am too much of a liberal, too much in favor of democracy to be part of a government that couldn’t satisfy democratic principles.”

‘Sensitive Problem’

Asked if he would accept the presidency of a civilian government, Gourgue said: “It is a very sensitive problem that needs to be studied. People walking into the presidency and forming a government -- well, things just aren’t done that way. It requires a certain amount of organization, a series of contracts and also obligations. There are lots of forces within the country, so those forces have to be dealt with,. Those forces also have to express their will for political stability.”

A Western diplomat said that Gourgue might be available to become president, but added: “He can’t do it without the support of the army. Any civilian who comes in must have the support of the army.”

Gourgue said that the military led government has not moved fast enough to satisfy popular demands. Among those demands are punishment of corrupt and brutal former officials, new faces and reforms in the public administration, development projects, more jobs and prices that are affordable to the country’s impoverished majority.

Haiti’s severe economic problems cannot be solved overnight, Gourgue said. “But actions must be taken now and that’s what the government has to do. It has to confront the basic problems related to the immediate needs of the people.