HAITI: Impunity & Despot Watch
Rights Action - January 18, 2011
Of the Somoza family regime in Nicaraguan, US politicians and pundits
would say: "Somoza is a son-of-a-bitch, but he is our
son-of-a-bitch."
The same can be said of Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti, a
repressive family regime supported by the US and France for generations.
Now, Baby Doc Duvalier has returned to Haiti.
BELOW: a call by the IJDH (Institute for Justice & Democracy in
Haiti) to have Baby Doc Duvalier arrested in Haiti. Please contact the
IJDH to find out how to support their efforts to have Baby Doc Duvalier
arrested.
* Please re-publish this article, citing author and source
* To get on/ off RA's listserv: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?m=1103480765269
* * * * * * *
Up until 1986, Haiti was controlled and abused by the U.S., French &
western-backed Duvalier family regime, headed by Papa Doc, then Baby Doc.
In 1986, Baby Doc fled to France, with hundreds of millions of stolen
dollars, fleeing a popular Haitian uprising, that resulted in the democratic
election of Jean Bertrand Aristide as president in 1990.
This should have been the water-shed year in Haiti's long history of
internal and international oppression and intervention.
In 1991, the US (under "Papa" President Bush) and France
backed a military coup that ousted the government of Haiti, forcing president
Aristide into exile. There followed 3 years of brutal repression against
the popular movement.
In 2000, the Haitian people again elected a government headed by
president Aristide.
In 2004, the US (under "Baby" President Bush), France and
Canada back a coup that again ousted the government of Haiti, forcing Aristide
into exile. There followed more years of brutal repression against the
popular movement.
In 2010, Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake that killed some
315,000 people out right, and left hundreds of thousands more homeless.
After the earthquake, Presidents Bush and Clinton paraded through Haiti,
there purportedly to help Haiti's poor. Now, Baby Doc Duvalier has returned
to Haiti, parading around. Still, Aristide is not allowed back into
Haiti.
If real democratic elections were held in Haiti, it is most likely the
people would re-elect Aristide again, hands down, and/or the leader of the
Lavalas party, that was co-founded by Aristide in the late 1980s, after Baby
Doc Duvalier was forced to flee the country he had ruled and ruined.
Though it is not surprising, it is outrageous and deeply sick that US
presidents, that supported coups directly and indirectly in Haiti, and Baby Doc
can walk freely in the streets of Haiti, a country they together have helped
keep in ruin, while Aristide is forced to stay away.
The complicit "international community" and Haitian elites
(including Duvalier) are afraid of one main thing in Haiti - democracy.
And Haiti cannot and will not be properly rebuilt, from the bottom up,
inclusively by and for all Haitians, without real democracy.
BELOW: a call by the IJDH (Institute for Justice & Democracy in
Haiti) to have Baby Doc Duvalier arrested in Haiti. Please contact the
IJDH to find out how to support their efforts to have Baby Doc Duvalier
arrested.
* * * * * * *
January 17, 201
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS:
January 17, 2011- Port-au-Prince and Boston- Today, the Institute for
Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and the Bureau des Avocats
Internationaux (BAI) call on the Government of the
Republic of Haiti to comply with Haitian law and arrest ex-President
Jean-Claude Duvalier, who returned to Haiti on a commercial flight yesterday.
IJDH and the BAI note that the extensive legal documentation of Mr.
Duvalier's crimes includes:
A July 3, 2009 order from the First Court of Public Law, of the Federal
Court of Switzerland, which notes that the Haitian government had informed it
of current criminal proceedings against Mr. Duvalier as late as June 2008;
The Decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
Florida, Jean-Juste v. Duvalier, No. 86-0459, dated
January 8, 1988, finding Mr. Duvalier liable for over $500,000,000 for his
misappropriation of public monies for his personal use; and
An extensive accounting of Mr. Duvalier's misappropriation of public
funds conducted for the Haitian government by a U.S. accounting firm between
1986 and 1990, establishing the theft of over $300,000,000 U.S.D. of public
funds.
This legal documentation is supplemented by an extensive public record
of Mr. Duvalier's human rights violations, including the torture and
disappearances of political dissidents at the Fort Dimanche
prison and other crimes committed by organizations under his control, including
the Armed Forces of Haiti and the Volunteers for National Security (Tontons
Macoutes).
Mr. Duvalier is not protected against prosecution by any statutes of
limitations. According to Article 466 of the Haitian Code of Criminal
Procedure, the proceedings for misappropriation of funds are not
proscribed because of the continuing prosecution of the case from 1986 to 2008.
The political killings and torture are not proscribed because they are crimes
against humanity, which are imprescriptible under
international law.
The BAI and IJDH believe that if there are not any arrest warrants
outstanding against Mr. Duvalier, that the information available in existing
legal proceedings and Mr. Duvalier's 25-year flight from Haitian justice
clearly justify the immediate issuance and execution of an arrest warrant. The
BAI and IJDH offer their assistance, including their extensive documentation of
Mr. Duvalier's crimes, to Haitian authorities conducting a serious
investigation.
# # # # # # #
IJDH
666 Dorchester Avenue
South Boston, MA 02127
(617) 652-0876
http://ijdh.org
info@ijdh.org
# # # # # # #