#5115: Luc Désir (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: gilles hudicourt <hudic@videotron.ca>

People are surprised at Toto Constant being in the States !?  Not me.
Anyone ever hear of Luc Désir ?  For those who haven't he was chief of head
of François Duvalier's Secret Police for years, then head of SD under
Duvalier.  Hundreds of people arrested by him were never heard from again.
Torture was his thing and he liked to record his torture sessions on audio
tape.  In the
aftermath of Duvalier's overthrow, Luc Désir was one of the few BIG macoutes
that was arrested, imprisoned and tried.  Emmanuel Ambroise, an elderly
Haitian businessman whose brother and sister-in-law (Mr. & Ms. Jean Jacques
Dessalines Ambroise) were tortured and killed by Désir had the courage to
testify in court against Luc Désir.  Some audio tapes had been recovered
from Luc Désir's house in which Emmanuel Ambroise had recognized the voices
of Luc Désir interrogating and tottering his brother and sister-in-law.
Emmanuel Ambroise's (who later became Haiti's ambassador in Ottawa) had his
business on Grand-Rue torched to intimidate him.
Désir was convicted of life imprisonment.  He did spend several years in
prison but during the embargo against Haiti, the Cédras regime quietly
released him.  He wasn't pardoned or did not receive a lesser
sentence.  The prison gates were just opened and he was let out.
I would like all readers out there to take a wild guess at where Mr. Luc
Désir is peacefully living today.


Gilles Hudicourt