Powerful Haitian Dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier Dies At 63

The former Haitian dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, has died of a heart attack aged 63. The ex-president’s lawyer, Reynold Georges, said he died at home in Port-au-Prince of a heart attack on Saturday. After inheriting power from his father in 1971 when aged 19, Duvalier fled into exile in 1986 after a popular uprising. After 25 years in exile in France, Duvalier returned to his Caribbean homeland in January 2011 and was briefly detained on charges of corruption, theft and misappropriation of funds.

A Haitian court ruled in February that Duvalier could be charged with crimes against humanity under international law, and that he could also be held responsible for abuses committed by the army and paramilitary forces under his rule.

Duvlier consistently denied any responsibility for abuses committed while he was in office. It was a “shame” Duvalier died before he could be put on trial, said Reed Brody of New York-based Human Rights Watch, who helped Duvalier’s victims build the criminal case.“Duvalier’s death deprives Haitians of what could have been the most important human rights trial in the country’s history,” he added.
Under Duvalier, “hundreds of political prisoners held in a network of prisons died from mistreatment or were victims of extrajudicial killings”, said Brody.“Duvalier’s government repeatedly closed independent newspapers and radio stations. Journalists were beaten, in some cases tortured, jailed, and forced to leave the country.”

The dictator, who called himself “president for life”, was notorious for failing to address the poverty and illiteracy of Haitians, while he and his friends indulged in a luxurious lifestyle.

An introvert who shunned public appearances, Duvalier relied on terror in the style of his father, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, a former country doctor who employed paramilitary secret police agents and exploited popular superstitions surrounding the native voodoo religion.

Source: The Guardian UK