Former Haitian Dictator Taken Away by Police--OS
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[ed.note: BlackVAULT - After tracking down Philippines Dictator Ferdinand MARCOS’ $2.1 Billion in stolen assets (including approximately $500 Million is stolen Central Bank gold) in 1986, FRONTLINE next sicked US/1 onto Baby Doc DUVALIER. Turned out the guy was piker compared to the master MARCOS. Yet BABY DOC probably caused more of his people, per capita, to be tortured or starved, than MARCOS (both pail, of course, in comparasion either overall or per capita, to Chairman MAO and Comrade STALIN).
US/1, your affiant, actually first took up the ‘cause’ of Haiti’s DUVALIER family and their legendary shadow henchmen, the always torturous TON TON MACOUTE--under both the father, PAPA DOC, and his successor/son—twenty years earlier, in the fall of 1966. His Arlington, VA fifth-grade elementary school class had formed-up a mock Organization of American States (OAS). The 10-year-old US/1 chose to become the mock-representive for Haiti—attracted, of course, to the fact that Haiti was said to still practice VOODOO, and was then (and still IS) the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
Chief educational benefit: US/1 gained an early mastery of the Machevellian ways of Roberts Rules of Order, and was able to usurp influence to Haiti’s benefit and to deny its deployment by the mock US-OAS Ambassador and the mock CUBAN Non-Member observer.
Now that’s how to learn international affairs—fast and furious.*
Members of Miss Nelson’s advanced-fifth-grade Mock-OAS class were rewarded for their efforts at the end of the school year--during the blossoming Spring of 1967--with a special road trip to the actual, ornate OAS Headquarters building, katty-conner across the Elipse from the White House. This rambunctious crew of 11-year-olds were the FIRST outsiders ever allowed into the chambers to actually occupy the council seats of their respective members states at the real OAS.
For one, brief, shinning moment--outside of their just and fear-inducing slave-revoltution of 1803--HAITI ruled…
And finally, by February 1986, the last of the Duvalier clan and WIFES had fled to FRANCE.
US/1 was dragged out of bed on this VOODOO deal only following the success (and soon-to-be Emmy Award-winning) 1987 FRONTLINE investigation of ‘In Search of the Marcos Millions’ ($2.1 Billion, actually). Only road trip, however, was upto NYC to uncover about $120 Million in cancelled checks paid to various secret overseas bank accounts. Some of the intial tracking had already been done by Nick PECK, then with security consulting giant, KROLL Associates, who had taken up the BABY DOC gauntlet on a pro-bono basis. US/1 also got to chat with Jonathan DEMME, the New York-based Hollywood director (Silence of the Lambs), who had just completed a rather artful documentary: ‘Haiti Dreams of Democracy.’
on Haiti.
But the best thing that came out of this eventually frustrated Haitian documentary effort, US/1 got to meet the 'fabulous G,’
otherwise known as Her Gness, who--under US/1’s ‘exquisite hindsight’ concept (i.e. being an admitted moron on possibly more than one occasion)--was probably the love of his sorry life…
Go figure.
* - Also see 15-year-old US/1’s 1972 ‘White Paper’ on the Pakistan/Bangaladesh/Indian conflagration, ATTACHED.]
The New York Times - January 18, 2011
Former Haitian Dictator Taken Away by Police
By GINGER THOMPSONPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haitian police officers on Tuesday took away Jean-Claude Duvalier, the former dictator who abruptly returned to this country nearly 25 years after being forced from power, leading him out of the high-end hotel where he has been huddled since his arrival.
Surrounded by heavily armed police officers, Mr. Duvalier emerged from his room at noon in a blue suit and walked down three flights of stairs, never letting go of his companion’s hand as he waved to supporters chanting his name and calling him “president.”
“We are with you,” some supporters shouted as police officers led Mr. Duvalier out of the back of the hotel. With United Nations peacekeepers standing by, police officers put him and several of his associates into a waiting vehicle and drove off. Small clusters of his supporters outside the hotel cried “revolution.” Hunks of concrete were thrown into the convoy’s path.
It remained unclear whether Mr. Duvalier would be arrested or simply questioned. He has faced threats of prosecution in the past for the many human rights abuses committed during his rule, and for the hundreds of millions of dollars government officials have said he looted from the country.
A Haitian justice official and one of Mr. Duvalier’s lawyers said that Mr. Duvalier was being brought to a meeting with prosecutors for questioning. Another Haitian official said separately that Mr. Duvalier could be released by the end of the day.
Still, in a country with a long history of impunity, where leaders rarely face prosecution, it was a striking scene, underscoring the political volatility that has gripped Haiti since a contested presidential election late last year.
One year after the nation was hit by a devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, the country has been grappling to absorb the potentially destabilizing blow of Mr. Duvalier’s surprise return this week, which drew condemnations from around the world and ignited new fears of conflict.
At a courthouse where Mr. Duvalier was taken on Tuesday, his companion, Veronique Roy, denied that Mr. Duvalier had been arrested. “Absolutely not,” she told The Associated Press by phone. “We are very relaxed, drinking coffee and water," she added. “They said they are making photocopies. We don’t know why.”
Mr. Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, returned to Haiti 24 years and 11 months after he was forced to flee the country by a tide of social upheaval driven by severe poverty and his regime’s brutal political repression. In a brief radio interview, Mr. Duvalier said he had returned only to help his country, not to get involved in politics. He spent the rest of his first day back in Haiti out of the public eye, huddled with his advisers and relatives at a high-end hotel in the mountains overlooking Port-au-Prince, the capital.
His silence left Haitians and the rest of the world to wonder what Mr. Duvalier was really up to.
Neither France, which had granted Mr. Duvalier asylum, nor the United States, Haiti’s largest benefactor, said they had anything to do with his return. In fact, both governments said they had been unaware that Mr. Duvalier had left Paris until his flight was close to landing in Port-au-Prince.
[ed.note: So much for pre-screened advance passenger flight manifests…]
The Haitian government — in disarray since the earthquake — seemed to respond in fits and starts, initially dismissing Mr. Duvalier’s arrival as well within his rights as a Haitian citizen, and later suggesting that the Justice Ministry had begun an investigation into his return.
Angry reactions poured in from around the world, with human rights groups demanding that the Haitian government charge Mr. Duvalier with crimes against humanity — including the kidnapping, torture and murder of thousands of his opponents — and with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the nation, the poorest in the hemisphere...
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