PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier applied for a new passport Wednesday and intends to leave the country when he gets it, a spokesman said, insisting that the ex-strongman can neither be forced to leave his homeland nor compelled to stay and face a potential criminal trial.
Duvalier had been scheduled to leave Thursday but can't because his passport has expired, said spokesman Yves Germain Joseph.
Duvalier also has new legal problems: Michele Montas, a journalist and former UN spokeswoman and Haitian journalist, and several other people persecuted under the former's dictator's regime filed lawsuits against him Wednesday, claiming torture, arbitrary detention and civil rights violations. Montas told Haitian national television that Montas she hoped her suit would educate Haitians too young to know or remember the terror of the dictatorship. |