Baby Doc returning to Haiti?

Thelma, 39, market woman: I remember those days, when I was a child. You couldn't speak out about your political beliefs. The time of Duvalier was just as bad as now. There was no freedom, and the people had no hope.

Jean Louis, 19, carpenter: I'm lucky to have been raised in an era when people could vote. I heard stories from my parents about Baby Doc. My father was a trade unionist. The union leaders were kidnapped by Baby Doc's macoutes (death squads), and their bodies were never found.

William, 67, shoemaker: The days of Baby Doc and his father were dark times. I pray that he will never return to our country. The Lord should strike him down; if he gets in a plane to come here, that airplane should be struck by lightening. Haiti has been cursed with enough violence and bloodshed already. With Jesus' help, Duvalier and his evil will not return to Haiti.

Sierra Marie, 60, market woman: When I went to vote for the first time, that was the beginning of the time of the Lavalas [flood] when we were marching for democracy. The men who worked for Duvalier, they came with guns and shot at the people who were lined up to vote. We thought we would never be able to elect a president. When we finally elected Aristide, those same armed men with their sunglasses and guns, they came to strangle democracy again …. Jean Claude Duvalier should be in a prison. The United Nations should put him in jail for his crimes against the Haitian people.

Alexander, 22, student: I want you to write this down. If Baby Doc comes back to live in Haiti, there will be no peace. Our generation, we are revolutionaries, and we won't put up with that. He will not be allowed to stay in Haiti.

Lyn Duff, LynDuff [at] aol.com, is a reporter currently based in Port-au-Prince. She first traveled to Haiti in 1995 to help establish a children's radio station and has since covered Haiti extensively for the Bay View, Pacifica Radio's Flashpoints, heard on KPFA 94.1 FM weekdays at 5 p.m., and other local and national media.

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