The case, which involves acts that he is accused of committing before fleeing the country nearly 25 years ago, was presented at the end of a dramatic day during which Mr. Duvalier, one ofHaiti’s most polarizing figures, was escorted by heavily armed police officers out of his hotel. Clusters of supporters shouted in outrage, calling for “revolution” and threatening to burn the country down.
Mr. Duvalier, 59, wearing a pin-stripe suit and looking fragile, waved back with one hand while he held onto his companion, Véronique Roy, with the other.
As the police convoy made its way downtown, Mr. Duvalier’s supporters cheered from the roadside. Some tried to block the procession by heaving chunks of concrete and garbage containers onto the road. The crowds eventually thinned, and Mr. Duvalier arrived at a courthouse without further incident.
He was released four hours later, but was ordered to remain in Haiti while a judge considered whether there was sufficient evidence to send Mr. Duvalier to trial.
Gervais Charles, a lawyer representing Mr. Duvalier, said in an interview that the day’s events were part of a “political show.”
“Jean-Claude came into this country at the wrong time,” Mr. Charles said. “That’s what this is about, not the law.”
He said that the bulk of the charges against Mr. Duvalier stemmed from the $4.6 million that Mr. Duvalier’s family held in Swiss bank accounts. Swiss authorities were prepared to release that money to Mr. Duvalier in 2008, Mr. Charles said, but the authorities in Haiti filed a legal claim. They contended that the money was part of the hundreds of millions of dollars that they believed that Mr. Duvalier had embezzled from the government.
The charges filed on Tuesday seemed to be a modest list for a man who is widely blamed for one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history — and whose government has been accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering thousands of political opponents. But the case against Mr. Duvalier represents a bold step by a country with a long history of impunity, and one where leaders have rarely faced prosecution.
The charges also heightened concerns about conflict at a time when Haiti is struggling to pick itself up after the earthquake a year ago and to reach a peaceful resolution to November’s contested presidential election.
So far, tensions have played out only sporadically on the streets. Dozens of Mr. Duvalier’s supporters rallied outside the courthouse as he was being questioned, occasionally burning tires and throwing rocks at passing cars.
Those who considered themselves to be victims of Mr. Duvalier’s government applauded the prosecutor. But the silence and apparent indifference of the majority of people in this desperately poor country seemed glaring. Several people said they simply carried too many other burdens to care.
“Jean-Claude’s return to Haiti makes no difference to me,” said Chery Antoine, 40, a mother of four who is one of the more than a million people displaced by the earthquake.
“He’s the past,” she said, looking at her 7-year-old daughter. “I have to worry about the future.”
Amnesty International offered muted praise about Haiti’s decision to pursue a case against Mr. Duvalier, calling it a good start.
“If true justice is to be done in Haiti,” the group said in a statement, “the Haitian authorities need to open a criminal investigation into Duvalier’s responsibility for the multitude of human rights abuses that were committed under his rule, including torture, arbitrary detentions, rape, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.”
Mr. Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, took control of the country in 1971, when he was 19, after the death of his father, François Duvalier, who was known as Papa Doc.
The father-and-son dynasty was long accused of using a special security force known as the Tonton Macoute to brutally repress opponents and dissidents.
Jean-Claude Duvalier was forced to flee the country in 1986 when the mix of repression and social distress pushed Haiti to the brink of civil conflict.
Since arriving here on Sunday, Mr. Duvalier has not spelled out his plans, and his next steps remain unclear.
Until Tuesday, Mr. Duvalier had not been seen in public since his surprise return to the country from exile near Paris on Sunday.
He emerged at noon from his hotel room, walked slowly down three flights of stairs and then out a back entrance and into a waiting S.U.V. His gaze seemed unfocused, but when hotel staff members called him “President,” he summoned a brief smile and waved.
The flurry of events provided no answers to many questions, including how Mr. Duvalier had managed his trip and why he had decided to come back.
Although people close to him said he had only planned to stay for only a few days before returning to France, the prosecutor’s case against him prohibits such a departure.
Desravins Luckania said her father used to tell her stories about Haiti under Mr. Duvalier, about clean streets, plentiful work and good schools. It seemed too good to be true, she said.
“I didn’t believe Duvalier was real,” she said. “Then he came back.”
No comments:
Post a Comment