Today, despite
itself, nothing was resolved. Jean-Claude Duvalier was "arrested"
today, but it seems more like he was held for several hours in a
courthouse (photocopies were made?), and then he was released,
although apparently he is under investigation. All morning we
waited in the hotel where he was staying, watching the SWAT teams run
up and down the stairs, changing the guard in front of his hotel room
on the third floor. His spokesperson, a short man in an olive green
coat, ran about furiously, at one point practically chasing
us from the third floor stairwell where we had followed the police.
He was shouting and scurrying. Obviously things were not
going as planned. At every moment, his arrest seemed imminent. A
judge of the peace entered, went to the third floor. A police
official entered, went to the third floor, and then exited.
Eventually a prison vehicle with caged windows backed
its way right up to the entrance of the hotel and waited. One
of Duvalier's henchmen, the former ambassador to France, made a
statement to the press saying that they "dared" the
government to arrest the dictator. But words are only words,
and about an hour later Jean-Claude Duvalier descended the staircase
of the hotel in the company of his wife, friends, and about a dozen
Haitian police officers. They exited the hotel from the back,
with Duvalier getting into a private car that was driven by a
policeman. The man never said a word. He looked broken, tired, sick.
Duvalier was taken
to the courthouse downtown. It was announced all over the radio, and
soon after he left the hotel men waving Duvalier's picture were
throwing pieces of rubble into the street. It was a little too late
to prevent them from arresting him, but it was a display of support
none the less. However, it was a "half-hearted" attempt at
a road block, and according to a friend the police were there soon
after watching over as the men lifted the rocks from the street. By
the time we arrived at the courthouse, two or three hundred people
had gathered outside, watching with interest as the cars pulled up
and the Haitian lawyers and the blan journalists poured out. Some of
them were chanting pro-Duvalier songs.
I interviewed a few people, both young and old. The older generation (those who remember life under Duvalier) was well represented in the crowd, but young people were there too. One man insisted that Duvalier had returned to Haiti to reinvest his millions in the poor country, and that other wealthy diaspora folk should do the same. Another man had been a functionary under Duvalier, and claimed that the Duvalierist, a very moderate group, had laid dormant for 25 years, but now that the dictator was back he was ready to sacrifice everything, including himself, to see him back in power. One woman was demanded that they release him immediately because they were certainly giving him cholera in the prison. I even interviewed a self-identified member of the Tonton Macoute (the volunteer militia, he said), who expressed his unqualified support for the return of Duvalier. When I asked people what they thought of the accusations that he stole millions of dollars from the Haitian treasury, they assured me that it was all lies. The younger people I talked to, in their twenties, insisted that while they had no memory of the Duvalier era, the stories of their parents and relatives had convinced them that life was much better then and that his return could only be a boon for Haiti. But honestly, overall, I don't think people really cared that he was back, or that he got arrested. I think they are tired. It's just one thing after another.
At one point the former ambassador to France made a statement to the press that was uncommonly emotional. According to him, the news of buildings destroyed in the earthquake, including the National Palace and the school where the dictator went to high-school, took an emotional toll on the man and he felt compelled to come back and reconnect with his country. Over a year after the quake. At a time of political crisis. He claimed that the arrest only happened when Duvalier's people announced that there would be a press conference. Preval doesn't want him to address the nation, he said. That is what has caused all of this. Never mind the fifteen years of murder, corruption, and the theft of millions of dollars. Never mind the expired passport and the political vacuum.
We waited, we waited. The rumor was he was getting released, and would be returned to his hotel. Duvalier never made a statement. In the Haitian judiciary system, there are no charges like there are in America. The man is under investigation. For most Haitians, this would mean being held in the national penitentiary, possibly forever, without seeing a judge, but since Duvalier is a former president, they let him return to his hotel. I guess he's too high profile to be a flight risk at this point. Supposedly the government had been building a case against him for years, but the file was lost in the earthquake.The question at hand is if there is still definitive proof of his wrong-doing. When Duvalier returned to the hotel and escaped into the restaurant, I flashed a hotel key and scored a table right next to the dictator and his dictator-loving friends. If only I had cameras in my eyes. I would profile every face, try to understand each personality that sat with him and welcome him back with jovial smiles. But we kept a low profile, made up code words, and tried not to look at them too much. We didn't hear anything unexpected.
So what does this all mean? What does this rule out? It would appear that Preval did not orchestrate Duvalier's return, although it still serves the purpose of distracting from the election results (oh yeah, announced tonight, the electoral consul will not be changing the results of the elections according to the OAS's recommendations. Apparently Mickey is still out and Celestin will be making it to the second round?) My impression is that Duvalier was acting on his own, perhaps convinced by sycophants that he would find massive support in Haiti. I still think he came here to die. The man seems like he has a degenerative muscle disease. His movements are very limited, in the face, neck and arms. He will probably still be arrested, eventually, although the Haitian judicial system is a maze I do not understand. This will be a landmark case in Haiti and around the world, certainly. A murderous dictator returns, can a troubled nation bring him to justice? What would justice even mean? Hopefully Haiti won't let this moment slip through the cracks. Yet unless there are massive riots tomorrow, I will feel confident saying this is almost a story more important to the journalists and historians and others who keep their eyes on the past, than to the Haitian people themselves. It does nothing to reduce their misery. Its impact on their lives is so small.
No comments:
Post a Comment