30463: (news) Chamberlain: Bid to get back Duvalier millions (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

Haiti making final effort to recover ex-dictator's funds from Swiss banks



PORT-AU-PRINCE May 24 (AP) -- Haiti is making a last-ditch effort to
recover millions of dollars (euros) held in Swiss bank accounts but set to
be handed over to former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier's family
next month.

Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Renald Clerisme said Thursday that a Central
Bank official will leave for Switzerland in the next few days in a bid to
recover some or all of 7.6 million Swiss francs (US$6.2 million; ?4.6
million) frozen in Swiss bank accounts ? money allegedly stolen from state
coffers during Duvalier's rule.

"We are going to do our best to get the money back," Clerisme told The
Associated Press in an interview. "It's important to us because we need the
money to development the country."

A Swiss Foreign Ministry official, Paul Seger, said Wednesday that all
legal efforts to prevent the money from being released have been exhausted.
He said Swiss authorities cannot confiscate the money because it was never
proven to be illegally obtained.

The Swiss government's authority over the money expires June 3.

"We are really at the last run to see what we can do," Clerisme said,
adding that Swiss officials are helping "so we can have the best outcome."

Haiti's government tried to recover the funds after Duvalier fled the
country in 1986, but negotiations ground to a halt amid the chaos that
engulfed the country in the years that followed.

"Unfortunately (we) didn't have success in trying to get back the money,"
Clerisme said. "Now a decision has to be made, and the Central Bank
hopefully is going to find a solution before the deadline."

The Swiss government blocked the accounts in 2002 in the hope that the
legal process could be restarted. It tried for years to reach an agreement
with the family that would spare Switzerland the embarrassment of handing
over money that Haiti claims was stolen. Duvalier has denied the
allegations.

Clerisme said it was initially envisioned that the money would be divided
equally between the Haitian government and Duvalier's family, but did not
know whether that arrangement was still on the table.

Duvalier, known as "Baby Doc," was named president for life at age 19
following the death in 1971 of his father, Francois, known as "Papa Doc."

A popular uprising forced him into exile in February 1986. He is believed
to live in France and reportedly supports himself with handouts from
friends. Tens of thousands were killed during the 29-year Duvalier dynasty
and hundreds of millions of dollars stolen.