Duvalier's statement on return to Haiti

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That is a beautiful short speech, and most importantly, he had apologized to the Haitian people for all the grief, pain, and genocide he had caused them.
I think if all the past leaders in exile return to Haiti and join elbows with the current governemnt to offer a formal apology to the Haitian people for all their wrong doing and ask for forgiveness, I promise you that the national reconciliation would take birth on the spot and Haiti would be on its way to be a country again.

No, I'm not supporting Duvalier, never have and never will, but I began to accept his return as an indication on the horizon for a better future only if we can step back and get rational.

Let us try to forgive and not necessarily forget because we need to get out of this dark hole we're in right now.

I am even willing and ready to forgive Preval for all of his criminal acts committed against the Haitian people but he needs to apologize and ask for forgiveness first just like Jean-Claude did.

This is not about Jean-Claude, or Aristide, or the scum Preval, and the others.

Let's make it about our country, Haiti, and about all of us, the Haitian people.

Please, read Jean-Claude's speech below

Author: AFP
posted on: Fri, 21 Jan 2011

advertisementPORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 21, 2011 (AFP) - Ousted dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier made his first public statement Friday since his surprise return to Haiti after 25 years in exile.

Here is an AFP translation of his text, which he read to a crowded room of journalists, speaking mainly in French laced with a few words of Creole.

"Dear friends of the press,
"I thank you for accepting today's invitation from me and I seize this opportunity to address my fellow citizens.

"Very briefly, I must tell you that I have been favorably impressed by the welcome given to me during my visit since arriving at the Francois Duvalier international airport, especially by the crowd of young people who did not know me. It is very heart-warming.

I thank them a lot, and I was happy to live this moment with them.
"Having said that, I know how curious you are to know the purpose of my return to Port-au-Prince after an absence of a quarter of a century.

This question is on everyone's lips.
"Indeed, I wanted to pay homage to the numerous victims of the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010, which according to official estimates, left 316,000 people dead. Unfortunately, I did not arrive in time to commemorate the anniversary."

"Dear compatriots,
"I have come back as a sign of my solidarity during this extremely difficult period in national life, when hundreds of thousands of you still live under the stars, in the middle of ruins.

From the moment that I took the decision to return to Haiti to commemorate with you, in our country, this sad anniversary, I expected all kinds of persecution.

But believe me, the desire to participate alongside you in working together for national reconstruction far outweighs any pressure which could be brought to bear on me...

It is a small price to pay. For me, the main thing is to be with you. And I say in this respect, that all willing Haitian men and women have the right to wish to take part in this.
"I will seize this occasion to publicly offer my sympathies to my millions of supporters who, after my voluntary departure from Haiti in 1986 to avoid a bloodbath and to allow a swift resolution to the political crisis, were left to themselves.

Thousands were cowardly assassinated, suffocated, interrogated, subjected to tire necklaces burnings; their houses, their possessions were pillaged, uprooted and torched.

And all that in front of the world's cameras.

"I will also take this occasion to once again voice my deep sorrow to my fellow countrymen who say, rightly, that they were victims under my government."

"Young people of my country,
"During my long stay in France, I was always aware of your cries and your woes. I lived through your difficult moments with pain and misery.

It is you, the future leaders of this country, who have to take up the reins, and show the world that the spirit of Haiti is alive and strong.

"And to adapt the words of Reverend Martin Luther King: 'when the bell of national reconciliation can ring in every heart and when we allow it to ring in every hamlet, in every town, in every neighborhood, in every home then we will be able to speed up that day when all the children of Haiti, men and women, old and young, rich and poor, those from the interior and those from the diaspora, can march hand in hand without discrimination and join together in the rebirth of Haiti.'"

"This is the message of my return.

"Long Live Haiti! God Bless You.
"Thank you."

Tiba, January 22 2011, 7:02 AM

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I agree with you Tiba 100% and that is what we need to save Haiti. The Division Forces are enormous in Haiti and all... read more >
Toulimen, 22-Jan-11 9:33 am

 

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