Haitians wonder if they have been conned

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 6

Haitians wonder if they have been conned

NZPA-ReuterPort-au-Prince

Haiti’s euphoria over Friday’s departure of the President, Jean-Claude Duvalier, has given way to the cold realisation that perhaps, after all, little has changed. Many Haitians say the peaceful revolution that forced Mr Duvalier into exile was nipped in the bud by a military coup d’etat. Haitians have been left with a military-led Government, a list of promises that may be difficult to fulfil, and little to show for the courage of the people who defied Mr Duvalier.

Diplomats say the new six-man ruling council, referred to by Haitians as

the junta although it contains two civilians, is largely made up of men who supported Mr Duvalier or his father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, who died in 1971. The new 19-man Cabinet, the diplomats say, also retains a majority of former supporters of Mr Duvalier, and already there have been public protests against several of the council and Cabinet members. “Duvalier still has major interests in this country. With this executive, he can rest assured his interests are safe,” one European diplomat said.

Although in carnival mood, tens of thousands of people who marched

through the town of Gonaives on Wednesday made it clear they wanted more change. “The battle is not over. It has barely begun,” said a statement from the Gonaives marchers. Thousands of Haitians demonstrated yesterday outside the Presidential palace in the first open protest in the capital, Port-au-Prince. While the demonstration was continuing, the mansion of one of Haiti’s most famous painters, a suspected friend of Mr Duvalier, went up in a huge flash of flame on a nearby hill. The stylish garden home of the painter, Bernard Sejourne, was destroyed. Asked what

had happened, residents of nearby shanty houses said: “He was a friend of Duvalier.”

Sejourne, a modern artist whose paintings fetch high prices abroad, was not in his mansion.

The demonstration, by thousands of mostly young Haitians dancing and waving palm branches outside the gleaming white palace, was peaceful and almost carnival-like.

But diplomats said the burning of Sejourne’s house could mean a significant shift towards violence. They said the homes of other wealthy Haitians or those linked to Duvalier, who fled the country on Friday, could be endangered.