Gen. Avril Quits as Ruler of Haiti : Caribbean: Massive protests topple leader. A 72-hour interim regime is to form a new government that will schedule free elections within three to six months.

The military ruler of Haiti, Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril, resigned after massive public protests Saturday, and joyful Haitians celebrated by trashing the homes and offices of some of his chief supporters.

Streets throughout the capital city of Port-au-Prince were blocked by bonfires lit by celebrating crowds even before the acting army chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Herard Abraham, announced Avril’s resignation. It came after 18 months of controversial rule marred by human rights violations, corruption and widespread public distrust.

Avril stepped down in a deal that calls for him to hand over the presidency to Abraham for 72 hours. During those three days, Abraham is to preside over the formation of a provisional civilian government headed by a member of the Haitian Supreme Court and advised by a 19-member civilian council of government, said Marc Bazin, presidential candidate of the leading political party in the opposition coalition.

The provisional government will be mandated to organize Haiti’s first free and fair elections within three to six months, Bazin said.

The agreement was accepted by Avril in a meeting with American Ambassador Alvin Adams and Papal Nuncio Paulo Romeo on Friday evening. It was hammered out at a meeting with a coalition of opposition political parties that was brokered by the ambassadors of the United States, France and the Vatican, according to political and diplomatic sources.

The agreement also calls for Avril’s powerful Presidential Guard, the last remaining elite unit of the Haitian army, to be dispersed by transfers to the provinces and to other army units, said Bazin, a one-time World Bank economist.

The wave of destruction that swept Haiti on Saturday was similar--but on a much smaller scale--to that of February, 1986, when President-for-Life Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier was deposed.

Police used tear gas Saturday to repel would-be invaders at a pro-Duvalier radio station, and a bodyguard fired a machine gun to drive a torch-bearing crowd from the home of former Duvalier official Clovis Desinor.

The offices of two Avril political allies, Gregoire Eugene and Daniel Narcisse, and a government branch office on the outskirts of the capital also were trashed, but there were no confirmed reports of casualties.

Many Haitians expressed fear that the public celebrations would become more violent and perhaps continue for several days.

The coalition of parties of which Bazin is a member issued a statement praising the deal that forced Avril to step down as “a new and important victory for the people of Haiti in their unceasing fight for a new society . . . guaranteeing progress and liberty for all.”

The announcement referred to the “irresponsible power of Gen. Avril, masked at times by violent and barbaric actions,” but it made no reference to his future. Some telephone callers to popular radio call-in shows asked that he be arrested and tried.

But Bazin and diplomats said the deal that gained his resignation also provided personal guarantees to the general and his family.

They said that before going into voluntary exile, Avril will remain in Haiti briefly, possibly as long as several days, to help in assuring the cooperation of the 1,300-strong Presidential Guard, the last intact and fully armed fighting battalion in the army.

The unit’s officers and enlisted men have been implicated in corrupt business deals, bribery and crime since they placed Avril in power in September, 1988. In April, 1989, they helped him put down a mutiny of the army’s other two operating battalions, both of which were later disbanded. That success left their palace-based unit in the catbird seat of the Haitian power game as long Avril remained in charge.

In announcing Avril’s resignation, Abraham indicated that the entire army, including the Presidential Guard, has accepted the conditions laid down by the opposition political coalition.

“The armed forces of Haiti accept the heavy task,” he said, adding that “the mission is clear and the goal precise: to re-establish peace and order within 72 hours in order to hand over power to a provisional government conforming to the spirit of the constitution that will have the task of organizing the elections.”

It would be accomplished by the people, he stressed, “with the assistance of the army and not in opposition to it.”

Abraham’s acting title of “interim president” until the civilian government takes over inspired a rash of calls to local radio stations by Haitians complaining that they never want to hear again of a military president--even for only 72 hours.

One businessman said: “This is no time for half measures. No one wants to take a chance with a military government for even one hour.”

The army chief of staff is a former foreign minister and is generally regarded as both a moderate and intelligent. But Haiti’s history of repression and bloodshed under two military rulers, Henri Namphy and Avril, during the four years since Duvalier’s departure has left almost everyone deeply suspicious of all uniformed men.

According to political and diplomatic sources, the American ambassador was the most influential voice in bringing about Avril’s departure from office.

“It was positive, very positive and quite a change (for a U.S. ambassador),” said Bazin of the newly appointed Adams’ role in brokering the agreement.

Many Haitian leaders have been critical of Adams’ predecessor, former Ambassador Brunson McKinley, who had looked upon Avril as the last and best choice to bring Haiti to democracy.

Adams, 48, replaced McKinley last Nov. 24, and according to Bazin and diplomats here, Adams played a significant part in inspiring a dozen previously at-odds political parties to join forces in a coalition against Avril and talked business, industrial and civic groups into joining the movement as well. But they said his part was purely inspirational and that he was careful to avoid an appearance of U.S. direction of the opposition movement whose calls for nationwide demonstrations finally brought Avril down.

Adams could not be reached for comment Saturday, but an embassy official said, “If it (the agreement with Avril) means a civilian government that results in free and fair elections, we are encouraged.”

In a statement released both in Washington and Port-au-Prince, the U.S. government pledged “to help this provisional (civilian) government bring democracy to Haiti” and urged the Haitian military “to defend the constitution and the democratic process.”

Despite the air of euphoria here, however, some political analysts expressed doubts that the transition will go smoothly because there is a great deal to be accomplished in only 72 hours.

Abraham met with representatives of the political coalition and business and civic groups Saturday night to begin the process, but it may go slowly, said a former government official who had a hand in the opposition group’s negotiations with Avril.

Two possible stumbling blocks are reaching agreement on a Supreme Court appointee as provisional president and naming the 19 people who will make up the government council. The president of the Supreme Court, Gilbert Austin, already has been rejected by the opposition politicians because he is close to Avril and once served in his Cabinet.

The vice president of the court is reported to have turned down the job, and no one seemed quite certain late Saturday whether any of the remaining 10 justices on the court will consider it.

The council, according to the coalition’s agreement with Abraham, is to be named by social and civic groups such as the Roman Catholic and Protestant church hierarchies, the Bar Assn. and the labor federation, as well as by the governments of eight of Haiti’s nine provinces.

“It’s a cumbersome process that will be hard to manage in three days,” said the former official.

Meanwhile, mystery surrounded the discovery of six bodies--four men, a woman and a child--in the house of a former member of the Tontons Macoutes, the dreaded secret police under the Duvalier dictatorship. Witnesses said there were indications that the six had been recently slain, but there was no official confirmation.