Brazen Political Violence, Duvalierists Threaten to Derail Haiti Election

Many of this nation’s citizens had expected political violence and a move by loyalists of the Duvalier family dictatorship to cling to power, but when they came last week, even the most hardened Haitians seemed surprised by their brazenness.

In daylight, a presidential candidate was shot to death Oct. 13 in front of police headquarters in the presence of reporters, allegedly by a plainclothes officer who escaped. Then, several former Duvalier associates announced their candidacies for president--despite a constitutional ban on their running--and made veiled threats against an electoral council that may reject them.

Some candidates and political observers say the two events are linked, noting that on the day of the shooting, several truckloads of soldiers protected the kickoff rally for Clovis Desinor, a wealthy presidential candidate who held senior posts for more than 10 years in the regime of the late Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier.

Duvalierists Feared

Others say the incidents may be unrelated but agree that they have fueled a new crisis in Haiti’s troubled presidential campaign and threaten to derail the U.S.-backed elections scheduled for next month.

“People say the Duvalierists are back; forget about elections and democracy, those people are back,” said Marc Bazin, a leading presidential candidate. “It will take much more now to convince people that elections are the order of the day.”

Candidates and election officials charge that the caretaker National Council of Government, led by Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, has done little to promote elections or prevent violence. Although Namphy has repeatedly vowed that there will be elections and that he will turn over power, some suggest inaction may be his way of letting the elections fall apart so that he can stay in power.

“If there is so much trouble, there will be no possibility of holding elections and the army will retain power,” said Louis Roy, one of the principal authors of Haiti’s new constitution.

Radio Haiti Inter reported Tuesday that the government ordered the military to stay neutral and ensure that next month’s elections are fair. The radio said the order from Brig. Gen. Williams Regala, the defense minister and a member of the junta, was read Monday evening to the chiefs of staff of the armed forces.

Western diplomats concede that the elections may be in chaos but insist that it would be worse not to have them at all. The United States is spending about $5 million on the elections, while Canada, France and Venezuela are donating about $2 million worth of voting materials and technical assistance.

Municipal elections are scheduled for Nov. 15, followed by the national balloting Nov. 29. A run-off election is scheduled for Dec. 20. The new president is to take office Feb. 7, 1988, the second anniversary of the flight from office of President Jean-Claude Duvalier, son of “Papa Doc” Duvalier. The departure of the younger Duvalier, often called “Baby Doc,” ended nearly 29 years of corrupt and often brutal family rule.

Climate of Violence

Some candidates and election officials say that even if elections are held next month as scheduled, the climate of violence may keep so many people from voting that the results would be inconclusive and lack legitimacy.

Since the shooting of Yves Volel, a minor but dynamic presidential candidate, the streets of this impoverished capital have grown unusually quiet by 9 p.m., and some residents say they hear shooting at night. Crime is said to be on the rise in recent weeks, although some candidates believe the muggings and robberies are political violence in disguise, a means of adding to the confusion and instability surrounding elections.

Volel, a lawyer, was shot twice in the head and once in the heart as he held a press conference in front of the police station to protest that he had been unable to meet with a client detained for a month without charges. Witnesses says that he was killed by a plainclothes policeman, but the government issued a denial and asserted that Volel was brandishing a .45-caliber handgun.

Several candidates and election officials say they have received death threats since Volel was slain. One candidate pulled a .38-caliber revolver out of his desk drawer during an interview to emphasize the danger he feels, while another admitted to having a dozen bodyguards and to varying his route to and from campaign headquarters. Others say they sometimes sleep at different houses and always are indoors early at night.

“I don’t want any accidents,” Bazin said.

Volel was the second political leader killed during the campaign. Louis Eugen Athis, leader of the Social Democratic Party, was hacked to death by a machete-wielding mob in a remote village Aug. 2. His unexplained death brought a halt to campaigning for a month, and political activities had just picked up again when Volel was shot.

Candidates say they have not stopped campaigning this time, but they note that their rallies and caravans are smaller and that they are more hesitant to push into crowds to press the flesh. They say they let the army know when they are coming into an area to make sure there are “no misunderstandings.”

There have been other effects. Louis DeJoie Jr., another leading presidential candidate, said that after the Volel killing, 40 of his party’s candidates for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, more than a third of those he had lined up, pulled out of the race.

Filing for all posts was to close last Friday, but the election council extended the registration period for mayoral and rural council elections because there were too few candidates. By Friday morning, only nine candidates had registered for 137 mayoral posts and 17 for 565 positions on rural councils.

The reason for such low numbers, officials and candidates say, is that fear is even greater in the countryside, where they say “the army is everything.”

Councilmen in Danger

Political observers say the nine men on the Provisional Electoral Council may be those most in danger because they are charged with deciding which candidates are eligible to run for any public office.

The constitution, approved by referendum in March, includes an article barring for 10 years the candidacy for public office of anyone in the following categories: “architects” of the Duvalier dictatorship, accountants of public funds during the regime about whom there is “presumptive evidence of unjustified gains,” or anyone “denounced by public outcry” for torture of political prisoners or commiting political assassinations.

The National Council of Government cleared more than a dozen candidates who had worked for the Duvaliers of any financial wrongdoing, but the electoral council has the final say. According to the hastily written electoral law, however, the council does not have to issue its decision until Nov. 19, just 10 days before the election.

Political observers say the lawyers, university professors and technicians who make up the council now face this dilemma: If the council, which so far has maintained the public’s respect, accepts the candidacies of Duvalier loyalists, it will lose credibility; if it rejects the candidacies, its members are likely to be in great personal danger, and there could be widespread turmoil.

“Some people will get hurt or killed,” admitted a Western diplomat who is pushing for the election.

Several election officials and diplomats said they are sure the council will reject the candidacies of Duvalier loyalists.

Embassy Supports Council

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince issued a communique Tuesday supporting the council and the elections.

The embassy release said that the Haitian people, by overthrowing Duvalier, expressed their “determination to turn to democracy. This process, encouraged by the United States, is continuing in spite of occasional eruptions of violence and challenges launched by personalities of the defunct regime.”

The source of the potential danger is never exactly clear. Some say it is the 7,500-man army, while others say it is the Tontons Macoutes--the Duvaliers’ feared private army, which was officially disbanded but whose members were not disarmed. Still others say the two are linked.

Violence, says presidential candidate Gregoire Eugene, “depends on the position of the armed forces. If they are not in favor of these (Duvalier) candidates, nothing will happen. If they are, we will have trouble.”

35 Register for Race

Thirty-five presidential hopefuls have registered with the electoral council. The most prominent among half a dozen Duvalier associates is Desinor, called by one critic “the mastermind” of the Duvalier dictatorship.

Desinor, 72, is a gray-haired, statuesque man who wears a gold depiction of Jesus’ head on a necklace and walks tall with a wooden cane in his opulent house. His speech is dramatic and peppered with references to God, love and the needs of the poor.

Under Francois Duvalier, Desinor held the posts of minister of commerce and industry for more than three years and minister of finance for six years, as well as other positions. He said he was responsible for building the nation’s airport and had nothing to do with widespread killing and human rights abuses attributed to the Duvalier dynasty and for which President John F. Kennedy once cut off all U.S. aid to Haiti.

Desinor defends the elder Duvalier as “a great man” and a black nationalist forced to act badly by his enemies who tried to kill him. “He was not the man history now presents him as, the devil. . . .”

“He was a Janus, good here and bad here,” Desinor said, drawing an imaginary line down his face.

Warns of ‘Civil War’

Desinor attacks the new constitution and the electoral council for trying to prevent Duvalier loyalists from running for president. He publicly warns of “civil war” if he is rejected as a candidate and says that if he is rejected, “the people will do what they have to do.”

He denies that statement is a threat, but electoral council members take it as one and say they will ask for protection from the army. Similar pronouncements have been made by other Duvalier candidates running for president and mayor of Port-au-Prince.

Desinor is described by a diplomat as having the backing of wealthy families who benefited from agricultural and business monopolies under the Duvaliers and hope for the same under a new government. Candidates and voters believe the military or the Tontons Macoutes back him.

“If Desinor has the army’s backing, why bother?” a businessman said. “The problem is if we all say it’s over, then it’s over.”

Diplomats say that if fear and fatalism do not keep voters away from the polls, confusion might. The council plans to try to register about 3 million Haitians over 18 in the next two weeks, but the 6,000 registration books have not yet been distributed throughout the mountainous countryside.

There is some concern whether all of the ballots will be printed in time. Each candidate for president, senate and the chamber of deputies will have his own ballot. The voter must select one for each office out of the stack and place them in separate envelopes--a complicated process for a population that is 85% illiterate and has had little experience in voting.

Diplomats paint an almost equally grim picture if the elections do come off, no matter who is elected. They say expectations for change will be high and that developed countries will have to quickly send aid to Haiti, where per capita income is only $300 a year and the unemployment rate is 50%.

But they say developed countries rarely act quickly for aid projects.

For a new government to survive, they say, losing candidates not only must refrain from undermining the new president, but work for him. Some say they expect Gen. Namphy to wait in the wings as chief of staff and to watch.

“A lot of people think that in six months, the government will fall from the weight of all the things it has to deal with,” a Western diplomat said. “For the guy to make it, there has to be a sense of national endeavor. It hasn’t ever happened here before.”

Times correspondent Marjorie Miller was recently on assignment in Haiti.