Four Haitians are pressing charges against former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who unexpectedly returned to Haiti on Sunday. Duvalier was living in exile in France, and came to Haiti on a diplomatic passport. The complainants charge Duvalier with crimes including torture, exile and arbitrary detention. Michele Montas is a former spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. She is one of those pressing charges.
Ten American Baptists were detained in Haiti last Friday, where officials say they attempted to take 33 children into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation. The ten are members of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge, and they said their intent was to take the children to a hotel in the Dominican Republic that is doubling as a temporary orphanage.
This story is prompting considerable debate, with some saying it is a case of good intentions gone bad, while others say the American group's actions are nothing short of criminal.
Until December 2009, Haitian journalist Michele Montas was on call 24/7 for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. When she retired from her post as his spokesperson to Port-au-Prince, she vowed to do "three months of nothing". However, that was before an earthquake destroyed her home city.