Duvalier’s 15-year rule will “soon be over,” Haitians say

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 26

Duvalier’s 15-year rule will “soon be over,” Haitians say

NZPA-Reuter Cap Haitien Thousands of people, chanting “Down with Duvalier,” took to the streets yesterday and batonwielding troops moved into the cathedral during one of the biggest protests against President JeanClaude Duvalier of Haiti.

Foreign tourists, mainly American, French and Canadian, were caught up in the turmoil in Cap Haitien, Haiti’s most picturesque tourist resort An American family said they were driving though the narrow streets when a group of demonstrators rocked their car, threatened to turn it over, and sprayed their windscreen with coloured water.

The family said the demonstrators then let them drive to their hotel.

Foreign reporters who toured the town later found the situation less tense and found that most people were friendly and

more than willing to talk. A few minor injuries, apparently from clubbings by soldiers, were reported but no-one was seriously hurt as the troops fired live rifle rounds in the air, threw tear-gas at the protesters and clubbed a number of people inside the cathedral Itself during evening mass, witnesses reported. The demonstration emphasised the momentum the anti-Duvalier movement has gained in' the last two months, since three students were killed by security forces during a similar demonstration in the town of Gonaivps on November 27. The majority of Haitians have long criticised President Duvalier,' who has ruled for almost 15 years, and his father, Francois “Papa Doc,” for 13 years before that, but more and more are now prepared to risk reprisals by speaking out openly. Many residents said

there was no doubt that Duvalier’s Administration would soon be over, certainly this year. Most predicted the Army would take over for a period of military rule leading to democracy. “We want a change, desperately,” one teen-age student said. “We don’t care what kind of change, initially, so long as we get rid of this man (Duvalier).”

President Duvalier has disbanded the Haitian political police and made changes in the army command, an official communique announced yesterday.

President Duvalier ordered the retirement of 12 senior police and replaced the commanding officers of two “strategic” combat units,- the communique said.

There also have been changes in the Air Force and the Navy and the anti-smuggling unit has been disbanded.