Haitians turn on bogeymen

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 6

Haitians turn on bogeymen

NZPA-AP Port-au-Prince Haitians celebrated the end of 28 years of repressive rule with looting, parades, and revenge killings at the week-end. Soldiers of the new ruling council disarmed, and also protected, the hated private militiamen of Mr Duvalier. Reporters told of seeing members of the Tontons Macoutes militia beaten and hacked to death with machetes. An Associated Press reporter saw at least 100 bodies stacked in a sweltering, unrefrigerated morgue at the general hospital. He was unable to tell how they died. Dr Sinora Nassar, a doctor who spent 24 hours at the general hospital’s emergency rooms, said about 20 bodies of civilians and security forces,

most with bullet wounds, had been received at the hospital.

Most of the victims were believed to be Tontons Macoutes, the private army set up by Mr Duvalier’s father, Francois, to stifle dissent At one Tontons Macoutes station in the hillside suburb of Petionville, soldiers controlled an angry, screaming crowd trying to get at 30 militiamen inside the walled compound. A Baptist minister, who identified himself as Jean Raymond, said the crowd had gathered to protest against the Macoutes’ killing of two people on Saturday.

The Macoutes inside had shot and wounded a woman and child in the crowd. The Army had then surrounded the post,

arrested the men who allegedly fired the shots, and confiscated rifles from the post. Also in Petionville, the Leopards, the Army’s special forces unit, surrounded the militia’s regional headquarters, disarmed eight Tontons Macoutes, and sent them away under Army and police guard. They included the Macoutes’ commander, Paul Vericain, also the Mayor of Petionville. A Haitian radio reporter said he saw a Macoute shoot himself in the head with a pistol when he was cornered by a screaming mob near the capital’s national cemetery. Other reporters said they saw youths jump from a pick-up truck in the capital’s downtown

and grab a man believed to be one of the Tontohs Macoutes, Creole for “uncle bogeymen.” The man was thrown into the truck bed and beaten with sticks. . “You can bet there won’t be a live Macoiite around by next week,” said a policeman guarding the ransacked auto dealership of Mr Duvalier’s father-in-law, Ernest Bennett.

A band playing drums and traditional instruments danced down a street yesterday carrying a human head on an end of a pole.

At the international airport, hungry slum residents looted a warehouse where tonnes of flour and other foodstuffs had been stored. Soldiers fired into the air to disperse the looters, who staggered

away bearing sacks of flour on their heads.

Foreign residents of Port-au-Prince and wealthy Haitians were abandoning homes for hotels after a night of heavy gun-fire in the capital.

Hundreds of wealthy Haitians fled the country during the popular revolt against Mr Duvalier over the last two weeks before he went into exile.

But, with the airport closed since then, many Haitians apparently decided to opt for moving into hotels.

They apparently feared reprisals by the impoverished masses after 28 years of dictatorial rule, in which Mr Duvalier became one of the wealthiest men in the world and a minority of Haitians cashed in with him.