Haiti Closes Key Airport as Violent Protests Go On

President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier ordered the international airport at Cap Haitien closed until further notice Thursday after looting and anti-government demonstrations escalated in the north-coast port city and in other interior towns.

The government reported five new deaths during a raid on a warehouse of CARE, a U.S. aid organization, in Cap Haitien, a city of 60,000. The deaths pushed the toll in disturbances that erupted Sunday to eight and brought to 12 the number killed in the last two months of demonstrations, representing the most serious challenge ever to Duvalier’s 15-year rule.

Witnesses said demonstrators toppled a statue of the late President-for-Life Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier in downtown Cap Haitien on Thursday as the crowd cheered.

Unsigned leaflets calling for a nationwide general strike on Feb. 12 have been distributed in Cap Haitien, witnesses said. Similar leaflets were put out earlier in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Interior and Defense Minister Pierre Merceron said that “the government has instructed the forces of order to take all necessary measures to guarantee the security of the state, the protection of life and well-being and the maintenance of public peace.”

‘Dead From Asphyxiation’

His statement said that “five people were found dead from asphyxiation during the sacking and vandalism in the CARE foundation warehouse” in Cap Haitien. The statement did not elaborate, but it appeared to refer to episodes that took place Wednesday.

Merceron also announced that action was being taken against members of the security forces who shot to death three civilians during protests Monday in Cap Haitien.

Baptist-run Radio Lumiere reported that members of the government’s so-called “Leopard” counterinsurgency corps were sent to the northern town of Gonaives, where an angry mob threatened the militia headquarters.

Every street in the town, 90 miles north of Port-au-Prince, was blocked, with crowds burning tires and saying they wouldn’t retreat, the radio said.

The people of Gonaives have been at the forefront of opposition to Duvalier since security forces there shot three youths to death Nov. 28.

Radio Lumiere also reported looting and rock-throwing in the town of St. Michel de l’Attalaye, inland from Gonaives. It said a truckload of troops from Port-au-Prince arrived in Petit Goave, where residents filled the streets shouting, “Long live justice!”