Justice and impunity in Haiti, Baby Doc Duvalier et al.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Yesterday, Port-au-Prince daily Le Nouvelliste published an open letter to Haitian President Michel Martelly urging against the “banalisation” of the father-son Duvalier dictatorship that ruled the country for nearly two decades. Twenty-three organizations and individuals, including human rights groups, journalist Michèle Montas, and filmmaker Raoul Peck, signed the letter urging the current administration not to trivialize the accusations against the former government.

The Washington Post recently reported that the latter Duvalier, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc,” is “thriving”—staying at his residence in the hills about Port-au-Prince, dining in nice Petionville restaurants, appearing at the government’s recent earthquake memorial ceremony that President Martelly and former U.S. President Clinton also attended—even as he’s being investigated by authorities for crimes against humanity committed during his reign. The investigating judge recently announced that by the end of January, he will rule on whether the case goes to trial.

Martelly told The Post that the Duvalier case “is part of the past. We need to learn our lessons and move forward.”

“It is time to unite the country, show tolerance, show compassion, show love for everyone,” Martelly said, “to reconcile the factions that have been at war, because the war we’ve been having in Haiti is among us.”

These are the exact sentiments the signatories of the open letter are countering. The Post also quoted Bernard Diederich, author of “Papa Doc & the Tontons Macoutes,” who called Haiti “the land of impunity.”

Since Duvalier’s ouster in 1986, Haiti has seen periods of relative political stability offset by coups, exemplified by the country’s first “free and fair” election in 1990 that brought Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, only to see him toppled about six months later by the military chief he had installed. After a tumultuous last two decades, Baby Doc is far from the only former government or military official—at various points on the political spectrum—to have been accused of atrocities and received impunity thus far, even if he is the biggest fish.

Regardless of what happens with Duvalier’s case at the end of the month, some Haitians are bound to be unhappy at the outcome—either because impunity will continue to reign here, or because Duvalier sympathizers will wonder why the entire can of decades-old worms hasn’t been opened.