‘Everyone Should Strike in Peace’ : Violence Shunned as Haiti Protest Resumes

Smoke from burning tires blackened the air over three intersections on J. J. Dessalines Boulevard, a major downtown thoroughfare here. Knots of people idled on the sidewalks, observing the fires and the boulevard’s eerie emptiness.

Tap-taps, the brightly painted jitneys that normally jam the street, were nowhere to be seen. Stores were shuttered and locked as a sporadic and well-orchestrated general strike resumed Monday.

At the Leogane Crossroads, at the end of J.J. Dessalines, youths milled near the burned-out carcasses of four buses and two cars, reminders of disturbances last week. Occasional cars came by on a cross street, and the youths pelted them with stones, but no more vehicles were burned.

A couple of miles away, just beyond the slum-ridden suburb of Carrefour, a barricade of tree trunks and refuse blocked the road out of town.

Barricade Makers

“We’re going to make barricades until the CNG leaves,” said Gerard Saint Vil, 33, who is unemployed.

The CNG is the National Government Council, the military-led junta that has ruled Haiti since Feb. 7, 1986. That was the day President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to exile in France, ending nearly three decades of Duvalier family dictatorship.

The popular protests that forced Duvalier out did not stop after his departure. Many Haitians resent the continuing presence of former Duvalier government officials in the provisional regime that replaced him.

Last week, that resentment fueled an unprecedented protest movement that shut down the country for four days with a general strike. Government security forces reacted with repressive tactics, and at least 22 people were killed.

The strike was suspended to allow for “resupplying” on Wednesday and again on Saturday and Sunday. When it resumed Monday, there seemed to be a new determination on both sides to avoid violence.

Low Security Profile

Troops and police kept a low profile. Few left the barracks, and they stayed clear of trouble spots such as J. J. Dessalines Boulevard. Protesters on the streets said they planned to keep cool.

“Everyone should strike in peace,” said Alfred Jean, 40.

Meanwhile, strike organizers were negotiating with the government through diplomatic channels, seeking a solution to the crisis.

Sources said that the U.S. Embassy was among the go-betweens. An embassy spokesman said: “We are talking to everyone, and we’re listening to everyone. We are trying to urge restraint and a period of reflection.”

The 57 Organizations, a coalition of civic and political groups that organized the strike, said in a declaration broadcast over the radio Monday morning that the goal of the strike is to replace the National Government Council.

“We ask all of the forces struggling in the country to continue until they have a CNG of their own,” the declaration said. It accused the CNG of committing “a great crime of treason” by “violating the people’s constitution.”

“They are outlaws; nobody can trust them any more,” it said of the council’s three members.

Jean-Claude Bajeux, a leader in the strike movement, said the strike leaders’ demand for a new ruling council reflects the popular will. But he acknowledged that the demand is likely to be rebuffed by the three-man council’s two military members, Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, the president, and Brig. Gen. Williams Regala.

As a compromise, Bajeux said, the 57 Organizations may settle for something less.

“We are asking for them to go, but perhaps in the negotiations, something can be found,” said Bajeux, 55. “Perhaps you can’t have 100%.”

“To calm the people,” he said, the government must at least make some changes in its Cabinet of ministers. “That is the minimum that we can accept.”

He also said some gesture is needed to guarantee that the armed forces will respect and protect the security of Haitians.

The council already has made concessions to the strike, which was originally called to protest two government decrees. One decree took away the independent Provisional Electoral Council’s control over elections, and the other dissolved a left-leaning trade union federation, the Autonomous Center of Haitian Workers.

Last Thursday, the government announced that it was revoking the electoral decree, and on Sunday it said it was reinstating the union federation. Both concessions were said to have been encouraged by diplomatic mediators.

Bajeux said the electoral decree, published June 23, was an attempted coup d’etat, aimed at giving the armed forces control over presidential and congressional elections scheduled for November. He said the general strike was necessary to keep the elections free.

“What you saw last week, it was all a struggle for power,” he said.

Under Haiti’s new constitution, approved by a national plebiscite in March, elections are to be controlled by the Electoral Council, whose members were selected by different institutions and sectors of society.

Never before in Haitian history have elections been controlled by an independent agency.

“We have never had free elections in Haiti,” said Bajeux. “This is the first time we have the opportunity to have them.”