Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
In the 1970s and '80s, Michele Montas and her husband, Jean Dominique, ran a small radio station called Radio Haiti-Inter, which was vocal about the injustices taking place under the regime of dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier (pictured with blue tie).
The couple lived under constant threat and their station was attacked on several occasions by Duvalier's brutal Tonton Macoute militia, twice forcing them in to exile. The couple persisted in their resolve, though, even after Duvalier was himself forced in to exile in 1986 and Dominique was assassinated in 2000.
A quarter century after Baby Doc left Haiti, just as destitute as he found it when his despotic father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, died, Montas has returned to Haiti to seek justice against the man who terrified her and hundreds of thousands of other Haitians.
Why?
Because Jean-Claude had the arrogant gall to show his despised face on the western end of Hispaniola this past week.Tweet
It's no secret that Baby Doc tortured and maimed whole populations of Haitians and chased many more away from the island to other points in the Caribbean, Florida and New York - the same way his father had.
But his exit was so long ago that many, including many young Haitians which make up half of the nation's population, are too young to remember how brutal the man and his father were.
To be blunt, the Duvaliers were the Western Hemisphere's own version of Pol Pot, the Cambodian genocidist, during the '70s.
Baby Doc did allow a few things to thrive, such as press freedoms and a better relationship with the United States, during his tenure. But as it is now, Haiti was then the hemisphere's poorest nation: Literacy was about 5 percent, infant mortality was 50 percent and the per capita income was $150 a year.
All this took place while Baby Doc paid more attention to his penchance for fast cars and faster women. Haiti's situation got even worse when he won favor from the Reagan Administration, because of the anti-communist stance of the Duvaliers.
Baby Doc's regime took control of the country's tobacco wealth and funneled it in to foreign accounts that are untouchable. Meanwhile, underground media, such as the aforementioned Radio-Inter Haiti who dared to report the corruption, began to also tell about political murders all over the country - the disappearances, random arrests and graft held the nation under a dark cloud for years.
In 1986, the world turned a blind eye when Baby Doc took a totalitarian grip on the government, going as far as torturing and killing opposers, which spelled the beginning of the end for the ruler. He was deposed by Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1986, who was himself forced in to exile in 1994.
So now after all that, Baby Doc wants back in to Haiti to "help his country" a year after a devastating earthquake levels Port-au-Prince and sends the nation in to further turmoil. He wasn't there three whole days before he wound up in front of a judge and now might face criminal charges.
Montas, who became spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and three other Haitians, are suing Duvalier over his crimes.
But the question is, does Haiti need one more headache in a Duvalier trial?
Suprisingly, Baby Doc still has supporters in Haiti. One man made the point that even after he was deposed, nothing really changed:
"Under him, we ate well, we were safe."
The problem is that there are probably a few hundred thousand of your countrymen who are disagreeing from their shallow graves, and ask those Haitian residents of Flatbush, Brooklyn, who are old enough to remember why their families are in the United States in the first place, and they won't paint a pretty picture.
There are still bodies being recovered from the rubble that sits in Port-au-Prince. The aftermath of the 2010 earthquake is still developing. The elections held in Haiti last November still have no clear winner. It is a nation, like far too many black countries, dependent on foriegn aid, which mires it in poverty.
After all that, a man whose very name is synonymous with despair has come back to "help."
He's already helped himself to wealth inconceivable to most Haitians. He's helped himself to an infamy reserved for the worst humanity has ever produced, including Adolf Hitler and Rasputin. He's helped a nation that has spent 200 years in turmoil remain vulnerable to civil unrest and the aftereffects of natural disaster.
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has "helped" enough.
Because he is a Haitian citizen, he is said to have the right to return there, and there is no law that says he can be forcefully returned to France. As Amnesty International says, though, he does deserve to face trial for his crimes.
But with the country's parliamentary house still lying in ruin and the capital's fragile infrastructure basically being an emergency Red Cross setup, who could mount the extraordinary effort it would take to prosecute Duvalier?
No one is saying to forgive the man.
But the nation must first focus on recovery, on creating an economic system that is based on trade and market investment rather than charity. It has to build an educational system that is dedicated to eliminating illiteracy and refurbish its badly deforested and overfarmed lands. Right now, too much of the millions donated to helping Haiti still sits in the bank waiting to be spent.
That is a more immediate decision to be made rather than focusing rightful anger on a despot.
Yes, Duvalier deserves justice, but Haitians deserve to eat.