CRITIC OF DUVALIER IS MOST TRUSTED MAN IN HAITIAN JUNTA (original) (raw)
World|CRITIC OF DUVALIER IS MOST TRUSTED MAN IN HAITIAN JUNTA
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- March 5, 1986
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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March 5, 1986
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Section A, Page
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The generals and priests were poised on the dais at the former presidential palace, ready for oratory to commemorate the end of 29 years of Duvalier family rule. For the first time in years, the palace doors were swung open - a fact widely noted, for the large building had so long sucked all the nation's power inside.
Then nervous whispers began to cross the lawn. Gerard Gourgue, the Minister of Justice who is the most respected man of the new five-member junta had failed to show up.
That gesture of protest last week, coming in a capital still jumpy from weeks of turmoil, caused the Government's first political crisis. It has also made Mr. Gourgue, a former law professor and human rights activist, the most widely discussed figure on Haiti's new political scene.
As friends explained it later, Mr. Gourgue had been infuriated that the junta was protecting and providing safe passage for notorious Duvalier officials, the same people he had long denounced for corruption, torture and the disappearance of people believed held for political reasons.
Mr. Gourgue, a sober man averse to personal publicity, has declined to discuss his power play of last Tuesday or his ensuing arguments with the military chiefs who dominate the junta. But an intimate of Mr. Gourgue said he had threatened to resign unless the Government changed its policy. Government Reversed Policy
Since then a flurry of communiques has reversed Government policy with pledges to arrest and try the accused officials, to seize illegitimate wealth and even to bring back the exiled Mr. Duvalier and one of his police chiefs. The messages quickly helped calm the street violence and mob manhunts of former officials last week.
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