(CARIBBEAT - Jared McCallister)
As expected, Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier's return to Haiti after a nearly 25-year exile continues to make news. Last week, the United Nations announced it's not too late to prosecute Duvalier - and it will help.
"Under international law, there is no statute of limitations for serious human rights violations such as torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and rape," said Navi Pillay, UN high commissioner for human rights.
Agency officials offered Haiti assistance in prosecuting Duvalier for crimes committed under his regime.
"Haiti has an obligation to investigate the well-documented serious human rights violations that occurred during the rule of Mr. Duvalier and to prosecute those responsible for them," said Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge.
"Such systematic violations of rights cannot remain unaddressed. The thousands of Haitians who suffered under this regime deserve justice," added Pillay.
Meanwhile, Duvalier was also trying to get access to funds frozen by Swiss banks, AFP reported.
"In 25 years [in exile], I have never had any accounts frozen, in Switzerland or anywhere," Duvalier told the Spanish-language Univision network.
Switzerland blocked millions of dollars suspected to have been stolen from the Haitian people under its recently enacted "Duvalier law," designed to return the funds to the impoverished Caribbean country.
"As soon as they release those funds, most of them will be used to rebuild the city of my mother's birth," told the network.
In addition, there is a 25-year legal battle between Swiss authorities and the Duvalier family over an additional $5.7million inallegedly embezzled funds.
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