Will Jean-Claude Duvalier Return to Haiti?
Former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier will soon be returning to Haiti and will be posing his candidacy in upcoming presidential elections, according to several people at a meeting of Duvalierists held in Brooklyn on Sep. 10. If he doesn't take power through elections, he will take it by other means, some participants said. About 100 partisans of the former "President for Life" gathered at the Tropical Reflections night club at 4501 Glenwood Road, where they heard a panel of speakers extol the glories, both political and economic, of the Duvalier years and the evils of the Lavalas and former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier succeeded his father François (or "Papa Doc") as "President for Life" of Haiti in 1971. Both regimes jailed and killed opposition figures, muzzled the press, and terrorized the Haitian people through the infamous "Tonton Macoutes," a nationwide network of thugs and killers. Jean-Claude and his cronies also financed lavish lifestyles of sports cars, motorcycles, and villas by milking bribes from visiting and resident businessmen and skimming millions from incoming foreign aid packages, a practice which finally alienated Washington, the regime's long-term ally. With U.S. acquiescence and Vatican direction, a popular uprising in Feb. 1986 toppled Jean-Claude, who was trundled off to Paris in a U.S. C-130 military transport packed to the gills with all the loot that "Baby Doc" and his trophy wife Michelle Bennett could lay their hands on in the regime's final hectic days. The phlegmatic ex-dictator has lived in France ever since, making periodic telephone statements to meetings of his nostalgic supporters scattered in all corners of the Haitian diaspora.
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"Duvalier or death!" bellowed Mirabeau Petit-Homme, one of the many "heavy macoutes" who was in the room for the occasion. He was the right hand man of Roger Lafontant, the former head of the Tonton Macoutes, with whom he attempted a coup d'état in Jan. 1991 and was jailed. Petit-Homme escaped from prison during the Sep. 1991 coup and is now living, with impunity, in Brooklyn.
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In any event, as Washington's pressure on the Haitian government mounts in the weeks to come, it is likely that the Duvalierists and FRAPHists will clamor in the diaspora. Do they really want to participate in presidential elections? By their conduct and their declarations, the answer is clearly no. Their results would surely be as dismal as that of their brethren in the neo-Duvalierist front called the Patriotic Movement to Save the Nation (MPSN) in last May's election.
Their real goal seems rather to capitalize on the destabilization campaign now being deployed against Haiti so as to seize the opportunity to have Duvalier or a Duvalierist "sitting in the presidential chair," even if by other than democratic means.
http://www.haitisurf.com/babydocwill.shtml ===
Duvalier and the 500 million he stole were graciously, willingly. lovingly given asylum by the French government. Neither the millions nor Duvalier were ever returned to Haiti, despite numerous requests for monetary restitution and for Duvalier to face judgement for his crimes of terror against the Haitian people.
The millions are all gone now. France had better not think this is a good time to return him.===
Ex-Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier goes on TV to `explain myself’
December 17th, 2002
PARIS - Jean-Claude ’’Baby Doc’’ Duvalier, the former President of Haiti who has lived in exile in France since 1986, has granted his first television interview to an American journalist in 15 years.
The interview, with WFOR-CBS4 investigative reporter Michele Gillen, will be aired tonight on CBS 4 at 6 and 11 p.m.
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During the 2 ½-hour interview in a Paris hotel, Duvalier said he now hears the cries of his people, who ``are suffering a lot. It is not bearable. It is revolting.’’
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Q: Do you want to return to Haiti?
A: It is my firm intention as soon as conditions allow.
Q: Why do you want to go back and what do you want to do?
A: In spite of all these years that have elapsed since I was in Haiti, I am still very touched by that country. I suffer from being away as well as from seeing the misery under which the Haitian population has to live. That is why it is my duty to go back to the country and participate in the rebuilding of my country.
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http://www.haiti-news.com/article.php3?id_article=26 http://www.haitisurf.com/jeanclaudeint.shtml ===
MrPrax posted this yesterday`Baby Doc,' former Haiti `President for Life,' is broke and living in Paris. (Newsmakers).(Jean-Claude Duvalier)(Interview)
Jet, May 12, 2003
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, Haiti's former "President for Life" who fled Haiti 17 years ago with millions of dollars, is now broke and living in Paris, the Wall Street Journal recently reported.
The exiled dictator nicknamed "Baby Doc" lives in a borrowed one bedroom apartment with a girlfriend. A friend pays the $1,000 a month rent, the newspaper reported.
Duvalier said he lives off donations from friends and supporters.
He longs to return to Haiti. "I didn't come to France to live indefinitely," Duvalier, 51, told the Wall Street Journal. "The whole time I've been here, my heart and my spirit have been in Haiti."
Duvalier's father, Haiti President Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, appointed him "President for Life" of Haiti in 1971. At the time, "Baby Doc" was 19 and his father was gravely ill and dying.
A popular uprising forced "Baby Doc" into exile in February 1986. Tens of thousands had been killed during the 29-year reign of the Duvalier family, and hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen.
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http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1355/20_103/101613586/p1/article.jhtml
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