Haiti Closing Infamous Jail in Bid to Aid Image

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  In an apparent bid to improve its human rights image, the military has announced it is closing Ft. Dimanche, a notorious prison linked for decades with political killings and torture.

An armed forces statement last Thursday gave no reason for the decision to close the mustard-yellow prison, which also serves as a explosives storehouse, and to transfer the military detachment based there.

But the decision was seen by some analysts as an effort by the new military government of Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril to improve Haiti’s poor human rights record.

The United States has made improvement of human rights a key to resumption of $70 million in annual aid. The funds were cut off after attacks from gunmen allied with the ousted Duvalier family dictatorship led to the canceling of elections in November, 1987.