27 dead, elections off

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 10

27 dead, elections off

NZPA-Reuter Port au Prince Ambulances ferried the dead and wounded and machinegun fire shattered the silence on Sunday night in the Haitian capital, where rampaging gangs killed at least 27 people, forcing the postponement of Elections. Residents hiding indoors said they heard loud bursts of heavy machinegun fire in Port au Prince after a day of terror that turned the capital into a ghost town. Haiti’s National Council of Government dismissed ail members of the group supervising elections and military leader Lieutenant General Henri Namphy said on television that voting would take place before February 7 next year. On Sunday morning,

carloads of men with machineguns and machetes roamed the capital for three hours, attacking polling stations and terrorising residents, forcing the nowdisbanded Provisional Electoriai Council to postpone the elections.

“The ambulances that are now going through the streets are only carrying corpses,” a nursing supervisor said at the hospital where 27 corpses had been brought, and to which 67 people were admitted with bullet and machete wounds. The nine-member election body disqualified 12 candidates on November 2, sparking violent retaliation by factions believed to be Tonton Macoutes, the feared former secret police of the ousted dictator JeanClaude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Many residents said the Army did little to control the marauders who operated freely and one Senate candidate blamed the military for the violence and postponement of the elections.