14465: Blanchet: Fw: Duvalierists resurface in West Palm Beach (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>
From: <Tttnhm@aol.com>


Miami, 6 January 2003 [AlterPresse] --- Between three and five hundred
supporters of the former dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier, rallied on Saturday
4 January at the Sheraton Hotel in West Palm Beach to discuss the
possibility
of returning to power in Haiti, reports an AlterPresse correspondent.

The meeting was organised by a group of Duvalierists living abroad,
including
Dr. Frantz Bataille, Fritz Altidor, and Pierre Antoine Baptiste, a former
news presenter at Radio Nationale d'Haiti.

"We are ready to participate in the country's next general elections once
(President) Aristide hands in his resignation", declared Véronique
Mitterand,
chair of the meeting.

The Macoutes anticipate the organisation of a convention in Haiti to select
candidates to represent them at the polls. Jean-Claude Duvalier was himself
"ready to return to Haiti to help in the reconstruction of the country",
according to one of the organisers, who underlined that the ex-dictator is
"champing at the bit to come first to the US before returning to Haiti."

The meeting took place with a party atmosphere, reuniting brother Macoutes
to
the rhythms of a song called "Nou renmen Duvalier" (We love Duvalier) by the
band Tropicana, while many of the supporters shouted "Vive Duvalier".

During the meeting, the ex-dictator spoke with the organisers by telephone.
The participants reaffirmed their faith in the former regime. One
seventy-something declared loud and clear, "I am a Macoute and I will die a
Macoute".

Some of the organisers adopted a hostile and arrogant tone in response to
journalists' questions regarding the multiple crimes and atrocities
committed
by the Duvalier regime, as well as the issue of the siphoning off of public
funds.

It is estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 people died during the 29
years of Macoute terror in Haiti. When Jean-Claude Duvalier left the country
in 1986 he diverted an estimated US$500 million of public funds to foreign
bank accounts.

> > > > > >   AlterPresse    > > > > > >

(translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)


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