Bloody Dictator Duvalier wants to return to Haiti

Tue Mar 2, 2004

Duvalier said in a television interview aired late on Monday, a day after Aristide was kidnapped, that he had requested a diplomatic passport several weeks ago, although he does not plan to run for president. "That is not on my agenda," the 52-year-old former ruler, told WFOR-CBS4 television in Miami.

Duvalier said he welcomed the presence of U.S. occupation troops sent to re-colonize Haiti and that he was deeply concerned by the situation in the Caribbean state, although he expected Haiti to stabilize quickly. "I'm shocked by the situation my country is in," he said.

Duvalier said he was in constant touch with people in Haiti, but mainstream media and Bushco would have the world believe that the former tyrant has no relationship to the anti-Aristide death squad thugs who took control of the country.

"I think I'm getting close and that I will soon have the opportunity to go back to my country," he said.

The bloody dictator was forced into exile in France in February 1986, ending a brutal three-decade U.S. backed family dictatorship begun by his father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

The government of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, says the Duvalier regime stole $500 million from the country's treasury. International Human rights groups say Duvalier should face charges for the slayings, torture and imprisonment of thousands of people seen as opponents of his rule.