Last Haiti Mutineers Ready to Surrender : Leopards Unit Begins Negotiations, Seeks Pledge of No Reprisals

The last of the rebellious soldiers who mutinied against Haiti’s military president, Gen. Prosper Avril, began negotiations for a peaceful conclusion to the bloody conflict Sunday, ending a week of convulsive uncertainty that paralyzed the capital city and almost toppled the government.

Hours after fellow mutineers of the capital-based Dessalines Battalion surrendered after a two-day shower of gunfire that rocked downtown Port-au-Prince, officers of the rebellious Leopards Battalion said they had telephoned army headquarters to begin negotiating a conditional surrender.

Maj. Jean Lucien Cazeau, acting second-in-command of the Leopards, told three American reporters who visited the mutineers’ camp in suburban Freres that his unit is not opposed to Avril’s remaining in power and asks only that there be no discharges, transfers or other reprisals for joining last Sunday’s attempted coup d’etat that was led by their former commander.

‘Swept Into It’

“Our ex-commander, Col. Himmler Rebu, was implicated in the business of a coup, and we believe we were swept into it. It’s not that we had a problem with President Avril,” Cazeau said.

In telephone talks with the army commander in chief, Maj. Gen. Herard Abraham, Cazeau said the unit sought an honorable end to the affair.

Abraham was reported by army sources to have felt so relieved by the prospect of a peaceful end to the conflict that he withdrew a signed order he had been on the verge of issuing that called for the immediate dissolution of the Leopards. However, they said he will proceed with an order dissolving the notorious Dessalines Battalion, which fought a prolonged last-ditch street battle against loyal troops of the Presidential Guards on Friday night and Saturday.

At least 35 soldiers and five civilians died in the fighting, according to Haitian Red Cross and hospital officials, and scores of soldiers and civilians were wounded.

Avril Remains in Control

The end of armed conflict between loyal and rebel army units left Avril in control of a temporary government that he has ruled since an enlisted men’s coup put him in power last Sept. 19. At the insistence of the populist sergeants who named him president, Avril pledged then to move the country toward “irreversible democracy.”

Avril’s efforts in that respect and in cracking down on the growing Haitian drug traffic recently prompted U.S. officials to begin a gradual renewal of economic assistance, which was abruptly cut off when the country’s last attempt at free and fair elections was aborted in bloody massacres on Nov. 29, 1987.

Despite the near anarchy brought on by last week’s coup attempt and the army mutiny, Avril proceeded with further steps toward democratic elections by swearing in an independent Electoral Council to begin planning them.

But political leaders and diplomats said that his hold on power in the aftermath of the latest turmoil may be so shaky that the task of shaping a transition to civilian government could be difficult.

Faces ‘Long-Term Problem’

“He obviously has a long-term problem with restructuring the armed forces to fit into the transition,” a European diplomat said.

“Avril is on very shaky ground with a very shaky government on his hands,” said Jean-Claude Roi, the 44-year-old leader of the Haitian Constitutionalist Union, a political group. He said that political leaders will support Avril’s steps toward democracy but fear giving him unqualified support lest he become too powerful and abandon democratic goals.

Another politician, Jean-Claude Antoine, 35, of the Young National Movement, pointed out that for the moment Avril’s hold on power depends entirely on continued support by the powerful Presidential Guards and would vanish if that support wavers.

The guards turned out to be the only one of Haiti’s three army battalions that remained loyal, saving Avril from the coup plotters and defeating the rebels of the Dessalines’ barracks, which adjoins their own barracks on the grounds of the presidential palace.

Needs to Restore Credibility

“We want to see him move quickly to meet with popular groups and political leaders to restore his credibility with the people,” Antoine said. “Then he must move quickly to constitutional elections.”

Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince, the only city in Haiti affected by the crisis, abounded with rumors, amplified by the silence of five major radio news stations that were knocked off the air by soldiers Thursday. In this largely illiterate country, radio is the only source of news for most people. A Roman Catholic Church-owned station and the government-run National Radio remain on the air.