Dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier says he returned home to help Haitian reconstruction

Former Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier says he returned home from 25 years of exile in France to help in the reconstruction of the country following the January 12 earthquake last year that killed 300,000 people and left more than a million others homeless.

Duvalier returned home on January 16 and is facing corruption charges. 

The man who plundered the country's treasury and terrorised his own people in the same manner as his late father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, also expressed condolences to the families of those killed.

"When I made the decision to come back to Haiti to commemorate this sad anniversary with you, in our country, I was ready for any kind of persecution," Duvalier said.

"But I believe that the desire to participate by your side in this collaboration for the national reconstruction far outweighs any harassment I could face.

"The desire to participate at your sides in this endeavor for the national construction far surpasses the personal hassles I could have confronted," he said, in apparent reference to the allegations made against him by Haitian authorities including embezzlement, fraud, and crimes against humanity.

Duvalier, 59, who ruled Haiti from 1971 to 1986 using terror tactics inherited from his father also expressed “my profound sadness toward my countrymen who consider themselves, rightly, to have been victims of my government”.

His statement ended with a declaration that he is looking forward to a day when "all Haiti's children, men and women, old and young, rich and poor, from the interior and from the diaspora, can march hand in hand without exclusion to participate together in Haiti's rebirth."

A team of American lawyers, including former U.S. congressman and presidential candidate Bob Barr, who said he is assisting Duvalier with his international public image.

One of the lawyers denied that Duvalier has political ambitions. However he said Duvalier does want access to funds frozen in a bank account in Switzerland to contribute to the reconstruction.

Human right groups say thousands of Haitians were imprisoned, tortured or killed, during his rule. Amnesty International wants him prosecuted to the fullest extent of Haitian law. The rights group says there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity and Duvalier must be brought to justice.