Arusha, October 6, 2014 (FH) \u2013 The death of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier should not stop prosecution of his acolytes for crimes committed under his rule, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its Haitian members said Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jean-Claude Duvalier, who ruled Haiti with an iron fist from 1971 to 1986, died of a heart attack on Saturday at the age of 63. After initially ruling out prosecution on grounds that too much time had gone by, Haitian authorities decided in February to reintroduce crimes against humanity charges against the ex-dictator and order further investigations.<\/p>\n
\u201cJean Claude Duvalier\u2019s death does not end prosecutions by his country\u2019s justice system, since the victims of his regime have also filed complaints against his acolytes,\u201d said Pierre Esp\u00e9rance, director of the (Haitian) National Human Rights Network (RNDDH) and FIDH secretary general.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuvalier died without being tried, but he was being prosecuted for forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture, which he ordered,\u201d said FIDH president Karim Lahidji. \u201cHe has certainly escaped being sentenced, but not justice and not history.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 25 years of exile in France, Duvalier returned to Haiti in January 2011 after the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country.<\/p>\n
Proclaiming himself president for life, he came to power in 1971 at age 19, after the death of his father. Thus continued a long period of dictatorship in one of the poorest countries in the world.<\/p>\n
His father Fran\u00e7ois Duvalier, known as \u201cPapa Doc\u201d, created a militia known as the \u201ctontons macoutes\u201d which terrorized the population. Duvalier the younger, known as \u201cBaby Doc\u201d, followed in his father\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n
Several thousand opponents were murdered, tortured or forced into exiled under Duvalier rule.<\/p>\n
ER\/JC<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, October 6, 2014 (FH) \u2013 The death of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier should not stop prosecution of his acolytes for crimes committed under his rule, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its Haitian members said Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-24917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n