Duvalier's case will test whether Haiti's polarized political landscape and elite will allow the trial to go ahead
BOGOTA (AlertNet) - Haiti may have netted its most high-profile defendant in former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, whose surprise return this month led to charges of corruption and abuse of power and sent fear rippling through those who survived years of tyranny.
But experts say the real test is whether Haiti's dysfunctional judicial system, further weakened by last year's massive earthquake, has the capacity and political will to prosecute the man who came to power as a chubby-cheeked 19-year-old playboy, following the death of his father Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, a doctor-turned-despot.
Together the Duvaliers, backed by the dreaded Tonton Macoutes militia, ran the Caribbean nation for almost three decades until Baby Doc fled in the face of a revolt in 1986.
“Is the Haitian judicial system really up to the task?” said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.
“This was the one of the longest running dictatorships in Latin America. It’s an enormously complex task to ensure a fair trial. I don’t think the Haitian government has the capacity to manage a trial that would be constructive to Haiti,” he told AlertNet in a phone interview.
Hakim pointed out that in comparatively more stable democracies in the region, the trials of former dictators such as Chile’s Augusto Pinochet and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori took years to conclude and caused political and social upheaval.
CONFUSION AND CHAOS
Duvalier's case is now in the hands of a Haitian investigating judge, who has initially three months to decide whether a criminal case should go ahead.
The challenges are huge.
The country is still reeling from last year's quake in which the reconstruction of toppled court houses has barely begun, but it's also facing an electoral crisis and a drawn-out cholera epidemic. The disaster killed thousands of civil servants and destroyed untold official documents.
Duvalier's case will test whether Haiti’s polarized political landscape and elite will allow the trial to go ahead.
“It all depends on the political will and actors involved. Haiti does not have a rich tradition of exemplary justice,” Human Rights Watch counsel Reed Brody told AlertNet in a phone interview from Brussels.
Most analysts agree that Duvalier, who said "solidarity" led him back home, does not enjoy a high level of popular support.
His return has been both welcomed and scorned by Haitians, revealing a generational divide. Around half of Haiti’s population is under the age of 18 and have never lived under either Duvalier.
Hakim said Duvalier is a potentially destabilizing figure, who could make an already fragile political situation even more unpredictable.
“Whether Duvalier can mobilise people no-one knows. But Duvalier’s return is not good news for Haiti because it creates more confusion and chaos. His presence makes the situation in Haiti more traumatic," Hakim added.
Just days after Duvalier was charged by state prosecutors with corruption, theft, misappropriation of funds and other alleged crimes committed during his 1971-1986 rule, four Haitians stepped forward to file criminal complaints, accusing him of crimes against humanity including torture.
BURYING HAITI'S GHOSTS
Despite these challenges, international rights groups are pressing the Haitian authorities to prosecute Duvalier for crimes against humanity, which have no statute of limitations, in what they see as a landmark trial that could help Haiti bury the ghosts of its past.
With Duvalier back in his homeland, there is a better chance of his trial going ahead because it is easier to bring charges in the country where the crimes occurred, legal experts say.
Rights groups and lawyers are now busy sifting through the archives and digging up testimonies of systematic torture, detention without trial, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of political opponents that took place under Duvalier. Amnesty International says it has already handed over some 100 documents detailing such abuses to the Haitian authorities.
Many of these crimes were believed to have been committed at the notorious Fort Dimanche prison in the capital, Port-au-Prince, a crumbling fortress prison and torture chamber set behind wrought-iron gates that became to symbolize the epicentre of the Duvalier dynasty’s reign of terror.
Baby Doc maintained a tight grip on power by using the same security force his father had created. Hidden behind dark glasses and packing submachine guns, these trigger-happy gunmen, were dubbed Tonton Macoutes by Haitians after mythical bogeymen who take away bad children in knapsacks, or "macoutes".
The Macoutes were behind the killing and torture of up to 30,000 dissenters during the Duvalier years, rights groups say.
“The human rights allegations against Duvalier are that he did not torture with his own hands -- you would have to prove he gave orders. These are very complex charges,” said Human Rights Watch’s Brody, who has been a prosecutor in Haiti.
LONG ROAD TO RULE OF LAW
Duvalier’s arrest has also prompted victims of his regime living abroad to seek justice. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians were forced into exile, many settling in the United States and Canada, to escape persecution.
“Haitians are mobilising to file individual complaints against Duvalier. The call for Duvalier’s trial in and outside of Haiti is increasing by the day,” said Gerardo Ducos, Amnesty's Haiti researcher, by phone from Port-au-Prince.
Ducos said it could take at least a year for a trial to go ahead, but that Haiti had a "golden opportunity to start this long road towards the rule of law".
“It’s a chance for Haitians to define themselves. It can determine what kind of society Haitians want - whether the rule of law will prevail or whether the country remains in the status quo where impunity reigns,” he said.
But for many Haitians, it seems, the most pressing issue remains one of daily survival and putting food on the table.
With the second round of presidential elections postponed indefinitely while disputes over the winners of the first flawed round remain unresolved, Haitians are looking to the outgoing government to solve the country’s political impasse and improve their dismal living conditions. More than 1 million Haitians are still stuck in makeshift tents a year after the earthquake.
"There is an uneasy atmosphere in Haiti. There is much social frustration,” Bernice Robertson, senior Haiti analyst at International Crisis Group told AlertNet.
"I think that Haitians are more interested in seeing how the Haitian authorities move forward to conclude the electoral process and form a new and legitimate government rather than Duvalier's return. They want to know how the government is going to help provide access to adequate housing, create jobs."
Photo credits: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz and REUTERS/Allison Shelley
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