Inquirer Editorial: Duvalier should pay

Former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier should have never returned to Haiti. But since he did, he should be tried for his murderous regime's killings and robbery of the state treasury.

Duvalier showed up unexpectedly Sunday in Haiti after secretly departing France, where he has been in exile since 1986. Neither the French nor U.S. governments knew of Duvalier's travel plans.

Haitian officials initially did not know how to react, but police Tuesday took Duvalier from his hotel for questioning. He was later charged with corruption and embezzlement, but allowed to return to his hotel.

One theory is that Duvalier hoped to briefly return to Haiti and avoid prosecution to trigger the release of $6 million frozen in a Swiss bank account. Haitian officials, however, heeded calls by human-rights groups such as Amnesty International that want Duvalier tried for crimes against humanity.

It's uncertain whether there will ever be a trial, given the disarray within Haiti's judiciary. The country remains so unstable a year after the earthquake that some Haitians hailed Duvalier's return. Their thinking is delusional.

For 15 years after his father Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier's death in 1971, Duvalier bled Haiti of its cash while his Tonton Macoute police force tortured and killed anyone who dared object.

Haiti has no need for Baby Doc. What it does need is for the international community to live up to its promise to rebuild the nation after the earthquake that killed 200,000 people. More than a million still live in crime-infested, disease-prone tent communities.

A recent Washington Post article noted that only 10 percent of the $9 billion pledged by foreign donors has been received by Haiti. Worse, only $4.3 million of the $267 million in contracts to rebuild Haiti has gone to Haitian firms. The rest has gone mostly to U.S. firms and suppliers.

Miles away in France, Duvalier smelled the desperation of the Haitian people and saw a way in which he once again might take advantage of it.

Haiti's desperation will remain until the United States and other foreign donors pick up the pace to get people out of shelters and working in viable jobs. Haiti needs an economy that will finally end its status as the poster child for poverty in the Western Hemisphere.