|
 by Yves Pierre-Louis
& Kim Ives
On Feb. 28, 2013, former Haitian
dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier had to show up at the
Port-au-Prince Appeals Court to hear various charges against him
for crimes against humanity. After not responding to three
previous summonses in February, the former "President for Life"
had to bow to the court’s authority or risk arrest for contempt.
Duvalier is due to report to court again on
Mar. 7, but his lawyer claims that he has been admitted into an
unspecified hospital with an unspecified sickness.
Nonetheless, many suspect that the hearings summoning
Duvalier are nothing more than "show business" aimed at
eventually rubber-stamping the Jan. 30, 2012 finding of
examining magistrate Jean Carvès. He ruled that the statue of
limitations has expired for prosecuting Duvalier for his human
rights crimes. These hearings are for an appeal to overturn that
ruling.
Duvalier ruled Haiti with an iron fist from 1971 to 1986,
during which time tens of thousands were extrajudicially killed,
imprisoned, exiled, or disappeared.
With many of his victims in the audience, Duvalier responded
to questions from members of the Court, the prosecution, the
plaintiffs, and defense counsel.
When the court asked about "repression, torture, beatings,
crimes against humanity, political killings, and human rights
violations" under his regime, Duvalier dead panned that "every
time an anomaly was reported to me, I intervened so that justice
could be done. I want to stress that I sent a letter to all
department commanders, to all section chiefs, asking them to
strictly apply the law around the country, and these directives
also applied to the Corps of the Volunteers for National
Security," better known as the infamous Tontons Macoutes, a
paramilitary militia which acted as the eyes, ears, and fists of
the Duvalier regime.
Asked again later about "murders, political imprisonment,
summary execution under your government, and forcing people into
exile," Duvalier replied: "Murders exist in all countries. I did
not intervene in police activities... As for imprisonment,
whenever such cases occurred, I intervened to stop abuses being
committed."
Duvalier never betrayed a trace of remorse or regret, arguing
that "I did everything to ensure a better life for my
countrymen... I'm not saying that life was rosy, but at least
people could live decently."
Returning to Haiti in January 2011, "I found a ruined
country, with boundless corruption that hinders the development
of this country," Duvalier said. "And on my return, it’s my turn
to ask: what have you done to my country?"
He suggested that he was close to journalist Jean Léopold
Dominique (assassinated in 2000), "who accompanied me often in
my inspections in the provinces" and that he helped Dominique
obtain his radio station, Radio Haïti.
Former soccer star Robert "Bobby" Duval, the founder of the
Haitian League of Former Political Prisoners (LAPPH), was also
in the courtroom as one of the plaintiffs appealing Judge Carvès
Jean’s ruling. Duval spent 17 months imprisoned in the infamous
Fort Dimanche prison without charges. But Duvalier claimed that
Duval "was arrested for subversive activities," saying that
"during a search at the François Duvalier airport, we found
weapons in his possession and he was released a few years later
by an act of clemency by the Head of State." Duvalier claimed
that Duval’s suit against him "is a real joke" and that Duval
"was treated well" and that "a family member brought him food
three times a day." Duval almost died from starvation and
disease in Fort Dimanche.
Asked what he thought about the charges against him, Duvalier
said "it makes me laugh" because people are just "inventing
fantasies."
The hearing lasted more than three hours, after which
Duvalier’s victims and representatives of human rights
organizations said they were satisfied and encouraged that the
Appeals Court judges were not intimidated by pressure from the
government of neo-Duvalierist president Michel Martelly. They
said they felt more determined than ever to talk about the
suffering and torment caused by the murder, imprisonment,
disappearances, and other crimes committed under Duvalier’s
dictatorship. They were also galled by Baby Doc’s contemptuous
attitude during the hearing.
After the hearing, Bobby Duval scoffed at Duvalier’s
assertion that he had been arrested for illegal possession of
firearms. Of the 13 Haitian political prisoners whom Amnesty
International championed at that time in the late 1970s, Duval
is one of the three survivors. "Their goal was to kill me," he
said, adding that he would not have survived much longer in
prison.
Henry Faustin was another former political prisoner who
attended the trial. Arrested on Jun. 15, 1976, Faustin spent two
months in a dungeon in the Dessalines Barracks (another
political prison under Duvalier, located behind the National
Palace). Only 20 years old, Faustin was then transferred for
another 16 months (until December 1977) to Fort Dimanche. "Fort
Dimanche was not child's play," he said. "You arrived there as a
prisoner, with clothes, but then they stripped you naked as a
worm."
International human rights organizations are following the
Duvalier hearings closely. "If someone like Duvalier is not
judged, how can one judge someone who has stolen a chicken to
feed his family?" asked Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch. "How
do you establish the rule of law when he who is accused of the
worst crimes gets away with it? But Haiti has always been
considered an exception. Moreover it is interesting to see that
the big countries like France and the United States have never
requested that Duvalier be tried, because they have disdain for
Haiti. Haiti is not entitled to justice. It's good enough if
Haiti just gets a little to eat, or if the population has a
little shelter. They don’t make the link between the lack of
justice for the vast majority and the lack of social justice as
well." |
