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IN THE NAME OF THE BRACEROS, BOAT PEOPLE AND EXILED OF ANY CATEGORY: Jean Claude Duvalier and his regime must be judged

The Group of Support to the Repatriates and Refugees (GARR) learned the return in Haiti, on Sunday January 16, 2011, of the ex-dictator Jean Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc.) who has many accounts to return to the Haitian society because of the many violations of human rights made under his regime. The initiative taken by Haitian justice to start to question Mr. Duvalier on the acts perpetrated during its 14 years of dictatorial power, must continue until the result of a true lawsuit.In the name of all the braceros which were sold like slaves for the exploitation of their sweat and blood in the Dominican sugar bateyes, the GARR claims Justice and Compensation. In the name of all the boat people which perished at sea or failed on the coasts of Florida or the Bahamas to escape violence from the dictatorship; in the name of all those and all those which were exiled and which could not put their youth nor their knowledge at the profit of the development of their country, the GARR claims Justice and compensation.The GARR makes a point of underlining that the haemorrhage of human resources from which suffers the country today and who harms his development considerably, was initiated under the governments of Duvalier which killed many Haitian cadres and forced with the exile of many others. The systematic violations of the civil and political rights of the Haitian people have prevented, in many years, many citizens from remaining in Haiti and has constrained them to constitute themselves as a diaspora in several points of the planet. Without forgetting all those declared stateless people by the dictatorship duvalierist and who, unwillingly, had to choose a foreign nationality.The GARR also makes a point of recalling that the two regimes of Duvalier plundered the financial resources which would have made it possible for Haiti to build many schools, hospitals, kilometers of roads, etc Whereas, shortly after the collapse of his regime on February 7, 1986, Jean Claude Duvalier went to enjoy the fruits of its plundering on the Riviera in France, in company of rich princes of the world, the Haitian people did not cease to wade about in the most contemptible misery, situation which forces it to continue to voluntarily exile itself while going to Dominican Republic and other countries of the area. It is necessary to recall that the first scandal after the fall of Jean Claude Duvalier in 1986, was that of the claim by the Dominican Republic of two million dollars given to the Haitian officials for the recruitment of braceros, a few days before the fall of the dictatorship.Impunity and corruption constitute a scourge which will always block the good walk of Haiti if steps are not taken to slow them down. The return of Jean Claude Duvalier in Haiti is an occasion to start to trace examples while beginning on the way of justice. All the countries, which knew similar situations – such as South Africa, Rwanda, Chile -, adopted provisions which made it possible to trace the way of the democracy and to establish values based on the respect of the human rights.The GARR encourages the many victims of the dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier still alive to file complaints. He hopes that Haitian justice will be able to seize this historic moment to show truly that it intends to contribute to the fight against impunity, corruption and the foundation of a democratic state in Haiti.