Haiti President Fires Namphy, 2 Other Generals

President Leslie F. Manigat sacked longtime Haitian strongman Gen. Henri Namphy and two other army generals Friday, accusing them of insubordination following a constitutional confrontation three days ago that brought the troubled country to the brink of civil war.

Haitian national television and radio broadcast a surprise presidential decree abruptly retiring Namphy, who ruled the country for two years and who presided over the army-staged and deeply flawed election last January. Manigat emerged from that balloting as the military’s choice to be Haiti’s first civilian president since the discredited Duvalier family dictatorship fell in 1986.

The presidential decree also ordered the retirements of two Namphy loyalists in the army high command, Brig. Gens. Carl Michel Nicholas and Wilton Cherisson, charging all three with “a sort of insubordination . . . toward the constitutional commander in chief (the president.)”

Failure to Consult

The action grew out of a crisis following Namphy’s failure to consult Manigat on Tuesday before issuing an order retiring and transferring a dozen senior officers.

One of the affected officers, Col. Jean-Claude Paul, who is under indictment on drug-trafficking charges in the United States, refused Namphy’s order transferring him to an adminstrative post and withdrew to the barracks of his fiercely loyal Dessalines battalion, Haiti’s toughest infantry unit. There were fears Tuesday night that Namphy would attempt to lead loyal troops into an armed clash with Paul’s infantrymen, touching off an intra-military civil war.

On Wednesday, Manigat intervened in the crisis and challenged Namphy by rescinding the transfer order on the constitutional grounds that he, as nominal commander in chief of the armed forces, had not been consulted.

Following a five-hour meeting Wednesday with Manigat and Gen. Williams Regala, now on leave as the civilian minister of defense but formerly the right-hand man of the sacked army commander, Namphy backed down and agreed to Manigat’s setting aside the controversial order “temporarily.”

In a press conference Thursday, Manigat praised both the civilian and military leadership for “dialoguing” in the national interest to resolve the crisis.

But in his presidential decree reported by Haitian radio and TV late Friday, Manigat said that Namphy and the two other general staff officers violated their Wednesday pledge and “began to execute the order” transferring Paul and the others.

It was reliably reported by government officials and others that Namphy’s attempt to remove Paul from his Dessalines power base grew out of personal pique and had nothing to do with charges of drug trafficking and contraband smuggling that have been made against the controversial colonel.

Cabinet Endorses Move

Significantly, the presidential statement said Manigat’s decree firing Namphy and the other two men had the endorsement of the entire Haitian Cabinet, including Defense Minister Regala, who is widely viewed as the most popular and influential military figure in the armed forces. Many in Haiti see him as the logical choice to succeed Namphy as top armed forces commander.

The decree named Col. Morton Gousse as acting commander in chief, replacing Namphy, until a new armed forces chief is appointed and approved by the country’s Senate. Haitian political sources said Gousse does not figure prominently in the army power structure, thus probably is not in the running for permanent assignment to the top job.

Since the Manigat-Namphy confrontation on Wednesday, there has been widespread speculation among government officials, political observers and foreign diplomats in Port-au-Prince that the cashiered general had been prepared to use guns to force the controversial Col. Paul out of the Dessalines barracks, but that no other army unit was prepared to go along with the move.

Left in Cold

Left in the cold by most of his old comrades, Namphy had to acquiesce to being overruled by Manigat, who previously had been derided by many observers as Namphy’s “puppet,” sources in the capital said.

According to a senior government official, the resulting loss of face to Namphy meant that he would have to step down, but few believed that Manigat would move so quickly to force the issue.

Schanche was on assignment in Port-au-Prince this week.