Haiti's former dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier is back (News Feature)

By Helmut Reuter Jan 17, 2011, 19:15 GMT

Port-au-Prince/Sao Paulo - A massive quake, the cholera epidemic, politics chaos ... in case impoverished Haiti did not have enough problems already, former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier is back.

Since late Sunday, when the man widely known as 'Baby Doc' arrived back in the country after nearly 25 years in exile, everyone has been asking themselves what his plans are.

Duvalier's move was surprising, although rumours about his return spread quickly in Port-au-Prince Sunday. When the Air France plane landed at the Toussaint Louverture airport, hundreds of supporters were already waiting for him. So were many opponents of the former dictator, for whom his return did nothing to promote stability in the troubled Caribbean country.

Sunday was also the day when the runoff in Haiti's disputed presidential election was originally scheduled to take place. The official results of the chaotic first round of voting on November 28 have still not been made public, and the runoff has been postponed, with no new date set.

At the same time, the poorest country in the Americas is fighting a cholera epidemic and still struggling to recover from a massive earthquake a year ago that left nearly 230,000 people dead.

Ironically, instead of a runoff set to give the country a new president, Haitians got 'Baby Doc,' who inherited power from his father, doctor Francois Duvalier, also known as 'Papa Doc.' And he led the country - through the use of terror, like his father - from 1971, when he was only 19.

The brutal regime of 'Papa Doc' claimed at least 30,000 lives. And his son illegally enriched himself to an extent that remains unknown to this day, taking hundreds of millions of dollars by the time he left power in 1986.

Human rights activists were enraged by Duvalier's return. They accuse him of having systematically used torture during his regime, and of having had hundreds of people killed whose bodies were never found.

'Haiti is under the obligation to prosecute him and anyone else responsible for such crimes,' said Javier Zuniga, special advisor at Amnesty International.

'The Haitian authorities must break the cycle of impunity that prevailed for decades in Haiti,' he added.

For now, however, Duvalier was completely free to return to the country with his Haitian passport. He spent his first night back after a 25-year exile in the luxurious Karibe Hotel, in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, along with his entourage.

Duvalier seemed reluctant to address reporters, and said he was back to help the Haitian people. He did not, however, give details about how exactly he intends to do this.

He said he would answer questions soon, with rumours of a press conference Monday and with Haitian media noting that this might happen Tuesday.

'Baby Doc was a playboy, he loved cars and motorbikes. He was not a politician interested in power, like his father was, but was rather interested in money and luxury,' said writer Hans Christoph Buch, an expert on Haiti who lives in Berlin.

While Duvalier lived the high life on the Cote d'Azur, most of his compatriots suffered in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. He only rarely addressed them.

'Baby Doc' is known for saying the telling quote, 'It is the destiny of the people of Haiti to suffer.'

Under 'Baby Doc' the rein of terror of the feared paramilitary 'Tontons Macoutes' ebbed somewhat in Haiti, but in their place came unprecedented corruption and personal enrichment by those in power.

The brutality of the Duvalier era created the modern Haitian diaspora, Human Rights Watch said in a statement, as it forced hundreds of thousands of Haitians into exile in Canada, France, the United States, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.

For Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas Director of Human Rights Watch, his return is too much. Haiti had enough problems without Duvalier.

'Duvalier's presence - unless he is immediately arrested - is a slap in the face to a people who have already suffered so much,' Vivanco said.

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