30523: (news) Chamberlain: Switzerland-Baby Doc (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By BETTINA BICHSEL

   BERN, Switzerland, June 1 (AP) -- The Swiss government has extended a
freeze on $6.2 million in bank accounts linked to the former Haitian
dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, an official said Friday.
   The money had been due to be released in two days, which would have
given Duvalier's family access to it, but instead the accounts will remain
blocked for three more months, government spokesman Oswald Sigg told The
Associated Press.
   A Swiss lawyer asked the government earlier this week to extend the
freeze, which was first imposed in 2002.
   Marc Henzelin, who acts on behalf of Haitians Etzer LaLanne and the Rev.
Gerard Jean-Juste, obtained an order from the Geneva state court Wednesday,
blocking one of Duvalier's accounts in Switzerland.
   But he said unless the government acted to block the others, any money
held there would be lost and could be returned to Duvalier's family via a
complicated chain of trusts and companies.
   LaLanne and Jean-Juste filed suit in U.S. District Court in Miami and
were awarded damages of $750,000 and $1 million respectively in 1988.
   The court also ordered $504 million to be paid to the Haitian people
under the Alien Tort Claims Act, according to Miami attorney Ira J.
Kurzban, who represented the claimants in the case.
   Henzelin and his fellow lawyer, Patrice Le Houellier, welcomed Friday's
decision, saying they hoped it would give time to other victims of the
regime to make their case.
   "Our goal is to find a good solution for the Haitian people," Swiss
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel said.
   A Haitian government attempt to recover the funds after Duvalier was
ousted in 1986 was halted by the chaos that engulfed the Caribbean country
in the years that followed.
   The Swiss government blocked the accounts in 2002 in the hope that the
legal process could be restarted or a deal reached with the family which
would avoid the embarrassment of handing over money that many in Haiti
consider to have been stolen from public funds -- allegations Duvalier has
always denied.
   The Haitian government has yet to prove the money was of criminal
origin, a necessary step for Switzerland to confiscate it, officials said.
   Switzerland's supreme court ruled last year that an indefinite freeze on
privately owned funds was unconstitutional. The case involved $6.5 million
deposited in Swiss banks by the former Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko,
   Even before the Swiss government acted, a Geneva court had already
blocked an account at the Geneva branch of Swiss bank UBS AG, Henzelin
said.
   Duvalier had at least two other accounts, in Lausanne and Zurich,
although the latter could have been closed, Henzelin said.
   Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Renald Clerisme has said a Central Bank
official is coming to Switzerland to make a final attempt at recovering
some or all of the money.
   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.