PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Four Haitians, including a former United Nations spokeswoman, filed criminal complaints yesterday against former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, accusing him of crimes against humanity including torture.
The filings came a day after Duvalier was briefly detained and charged by a Haitian state prosecutor with corruption, embezzlement and other alleged crimes during his 1971-1986 rule in the impoverished Caribbean nation. He returned unexpectedly to Haiti on Sunday from 25 years of exile in France.
Michele Montas, the former spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said she and three other Haitians who were jailed during Duvalier’s rule filed the complaints with a Port-au-Prince prosecutor.
“There are grounds not only to judge him for economic crimes but also for human rights abuses,” she said.
Duvalier’s return convulsed politics in Haiti, which is grappling with a dispute over a disputed presidential election in November and a cholera epidemic that killed more than 3,800 people. The Western Hemisphere’s poorest state is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.
Adding to the potential for upheaval in Haiti, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who spearheaded a pro-democracy movement under Duvalier before becoming Haiti’s first freely elected leader in 1990, yesterday expressed his own desire to return from exile in South Africa.
“The people of Haiti have never stopped calling for my return,” said Aristide, in a statement issued by his aides. “As far as I am concerned, I am ready.
Once again I express my readiness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time.” he said.
