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At the funeral of Guy André Francois, murdered outside Port-au-Prince Sept. 14, the question on mourners' lips was `why?'

BY DANI McCLAIN

dmcclain@MiamiHerald.com

Hundreds of people packed a Kendall funeral home Saturday to bid farewell to a former commander of Haiti's army whose tragic killing 10 days ago in an upscale Port-au-Prince suburb serves as a stark reminder of Haiti's worsening violence.

Guy André Franc¸ois, 53, wasn't just a former colonel. He was an emblematic link between Haiti's history of bloodshed and South Florida's Haitian-American struggles. Twice, he was accused of plotting to overthrow Haiti's government.

Last year, his younger brother, Dr. M. Rony Franc¸ois, became Florida's secretary of health -- among the highest-ranking Haitian-Americans appointed to a state agency.

On Saturday, family, friends and strangers alike tried to make sense of Franc¸ois' assassination Sept. 14 in Petionville.

STILL NO ANSWERS

''Guy was killed not by foreigners, but by his countrymen,'' said Father Verdieu Joassaint, who officiated the services. ``Why?''

The funeral service was standing-room-only. Those who came to pay their respects were packed shoulder to shoulder and spilled into the chapel's foyer. Men who had served in the military alongside Franc¸ois saluted their higher-ranked officers.

Franc¸ois' widow, Marie-Alice, sat near the open casket next to her four children -- Guy Jr., Valerie, Fabienne and Sabine.

Though he lived in Petionville, Franc¸ois' family buried him in the Miami area to accommodate the many family members and friends who live here, said Dr. Laurinus Pierre, director of the Center for Haitian Studies in Little Haiti and a longtime friend of Franc¸ois' son.

The younger Franc¸ois lives in the Miami area and is well known in the Haitian-American community as a music promoter, Pierre said.

The former colonel had planned to move to South Florida at the end of this month, said Eddy Altine, a Miami-Dade Department of Human Services employee and childhood friend. Altine and Franc¸ois both graduated from St. Louis de Gonzague, a prestigious boys' school in Port-au-Prince.

''The man worked hard all his life,'' Altine said. ``He was in jail under Aristide, and he was trying to start his life over.''

ACCUSED IN PLOT

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide accused Franc¸ois of helping to plot a December 2001 attack that Aristide said was a coup against the government. Franc¸ois was imprisoned soon after, many believe unjustly.

Years earlier, when he served as commander of the feared Dessalines Battalion in Port-au-Prince in 1989, he was accused of conspiring with other officers to overthrow then dictator Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril. After the failed attempt, Franc¸ois fled to Venezuela and later returned to Haiti.

He also served in the Department of Interior under General Raoul Cédras, who was Haiti's dictator from 1991 to 1993 after a coup against Aristide during his first presidential term.

The details surrounding Franc¸ois' murder remain murky. On Sept. 14, he was found dead behind the wheel of his car in Petionville, according to The Associated Press. Minutes earlier and on the same street, journalist Liliane Pierre-Paul and her brother, Stephan Pierre-Paul, were robbed.

The Pierre-Pauls were not injured, but their money, cellphones and other belongings were taken. Moments after the robbers ran away, shots rang out, Liliane Pierre-Paul told The Miami Herald. She said she believes the men who robbed her also killed Franc¸ois.

If Franc¸ois was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, his murder is further evidence that random violence is moving out of Haiti's slums and into its wealthier neighborhoods. Several months ago, the widow of former Haitian President Dumarsais Estime also was murdered on a street in Petionville.

SPREAD OF CRIME

''This is a last-resort place where people could have a good time,'' Pierre, the director of the Center for Haitian Studies, said of the Petionville suburb. Violent criminals ``try to disrupt the kind of apparent peace they have there.''.

At Saturday's funeral, family members sobbed as they crowded around the open casket. The packed chapel sang How Great Thou Art and incense hung heavy in the air.

Dr. M. Rony Franc¸ois stood near the casket, receiving those who had come to pay respects. Both the secretary of health and a spokesman from his office refused to comment on Guy Franc¸ois' murder.