Gunmen Burst Into Haitian Church, Kill 3, Wound 60

Men armed with guns and machetes burst into the church of a militant Roman Catholic priest Sunday and killed at least three parishioners, wounded 60 and burned down the building, witnesses and news reports said.

The witnesses said that army troops and trucks stood outside the church but did not intervene until noon, three hours after the assault began.

After the attack, gangs stoned the offices of two groups opposed to the military regime of Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy.

At the church, Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, an outspoken opponent of the military government, had just begun a 9 a.m. Mass when a group outside began throwing rocks. The parishioners inside--estimated to number between 600 to 1,500--panicked and rushed for the doors, a foreign journalist attending the service said.

‘Huge Sticks and Guns’

“Suddenly the doors at the back of the church burst open and 20 to 30 men with machetes, huge sticks and guns came in. They were dressed in civilian clothes,” said the journalist, who contacted the Associated Press in New York by telephone.

“They started shooting people, beating them and stabbing and slashing them,” the reporter said. “They stabbed a woman who was pregnant. They stabbed another man who ran outside the church. He died. Some people were shot.”

The journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least three parishioners were killed. Others in the church surrounded and protected Aristide, who was apparently uninjured.

Witnesses said it is possible that more died after the attackers set fire to the church, almost gutting it.

Opposition Leader

Aristide, a popular opposition leader, has survived several attempts on his life blamed on forces loyal to the government.

Radio Haiti-Inter reported that 60 people suffering from gunshot wounds and machete slashes were being treated at the public general hospital. The radio also reported that the attackers were dressed as civilians, although there was speculation that they may have been former members of the Tonton Macoutes secret police.

Opposition political leaders said it was apparent that the military had turned a blind eye to the attack. Despite the presence of the troops outside the church--whom government sources said had been sent to arrest Aristide--the attackers burst in without hindrance.

Urged to Wear White

The attack on the St. Jean Bosco Church coincided with the first day of a national vaccination campaign and a day of peaceful protest called by the opposition to show support for the 1987 constitution.

The organizers had urged Haitians to wear white as a symbol of their protest. Some witnesses to the church attack said the assailants particularly sought out people wearing white clothing.

The constitution was intended to pave the way for democracy in Haiti after 30 years of dictatorship by the Duvalier family. It was followed by elections last January that brought a civilian government to power.

But Namphy, who headed an interim military government after Jean-Claude Duvalier fled the country in January, 1986, ousted the elected government in a June coup.

In a speech earlier this week, Namphy warned Haitians against wearing white on Sunday, saying he would take it as a sign they were defying authority.

After the attack, bands roamed the streets of the capital and shortly after 3 p.m. stoned the headquarters of two opposition political parties--Louis Dejoie’s National Agriculture and Industry Party and Sylvio Claude’s Christian Democratic Party. The gangs also stoned Radio Cacique, a populist station.