Jean Claude Duvalier

When Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier was driven from power in Haiti eight years ago, he and his family slid into luxurious exile here on the sunny Cote d'Azur, the sort of place where an out-of-work dictator could spend a lifetime of accumulated wealth. They had a hillside villa with gated privacy and sumptuous views of the Mediterranean.

Jean-Claude Duvalier's unexpected return to Haiti after 25 years has awakened the ghosts of his repressive rule. In the days since the former dictator known as Baby Doc landed here Jan. 16, Haitians have been debating his rule and reliving long-ago memories of death and survival. Suddenly, the brutal Duvalier era ? including the reign of his father, Francois, or "Papa Doc" ? has cast a pall over this land as if exhumed from a weed-covered grave. Alix Fils-Aime is one of the survivors who have been recounting Duvalier-era experiences around dinner tables, in the news media and in the courts.

Haiti's military-led government, in a surprise move, dropped 11 of the 22 candidates for the Jan. 17 presidential election. Apparently trying to deflect criticism that it was accepting followers of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, the government excluded all but one of the so-called Duvalierists. The announcement came in a two-minute radio broadcast announcing the military-picked Electoral Council's final list of 11 candidates. An attempt to hold the vote last Nov.

There are as many theories about why Jean-Claude Duvalier returned to Haiti as there are cracks in the crumpled walls of the presidential palace. Did the doddering dictator come home to die? Or is a still-wily Baby Doc here in a scheme to recover millions of looted dollars? Or is he a pawn in a ploy to upend an unresolved political process ? and to the favor of whom? Duvalier himself has uttered only a few words publicly since he stunned the world by returning to Haiti on Sunday, ending a quarter of a century in exile in France.

A French court annuled an expulsion order issued by the previous Socialist administration against ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, his family and entourage. A local court in Grenoble ruled that the expulsion order, imposed by former Interior Minister Pierre Joxe on Feb. 14, 1986, seven days after Duvalier entered France, had no legal basis.

Roger Lafontant, feared leader of a faction loyal to exiled dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, claimed early today to have seized power in Haiti after a two-hour gun battle near the presidential palace. "I have assumed the presidency of the republic," Lafontant said in a one-sentence statement today on the state-run Radio Nacional. Provisional President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, in a brief statement from the palace broadcast on the radio, said she was stepping down.

Jacques A. Francois, the only civilian and least powerful member of Haiti's three-man National Governing Council, died Monday. He was 78 and suffered from prostate cancer. Since January, Francois had not been present at the National Governing Council's rare public appearances. He was widely considered to be little more than a civilian figurehead in a governing council controlled by Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy and Gen. Williams Regala.

Ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier has been deserted by the friends and relatives, except for his immediate family, who accompanied him to France after he fled his country 12 days ago. Sources at the luxury hotel where Duvalier has been closeted since fleeing Haiti on Feb. 7 said the last members of an original 22-member retinue slipped away from the lake-side refuge Tuesday night.

At morning rush hour recently, a gruesome roadblock was set up on Boulevard Harry Truman, a main thoroughfare that runs along the fetid seaside here. The obstruction consisted mainly of a dead man in the middle of the road. Extending in a line from his bony corpse to the road's shoulders were rusted car parts, tree branches, old tires and rusted tin cans. At 8:30 a.m., traffic came to a halt. The man had died two or three days earlier.

--Jon Pennington, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Shiremanstown, Pa., won the National Spelling Bee in Washington when he correctly spelled "kaolinic" and "odontalgia" and broke into a broad grin as the audience stood and applauded. Jon outdistanced Kenneth A. Larson, 13, a seventh-grader from Tequesta, Fla., competing for the third time, who was stumped by "kaolinic," misspelling it as "chayolinic."

His victims remember Baby Doc Duvalier. The long periods in hiding, friends who simply vanished, activists who went into the Fort Dimanche prison never to emerge, or to emerge as broken human beings. In Duvalier's 15 years in power and during the regime of his father before him, as many as 30,000 Haitian civilians are believed to have been killed, countless others tortured, and hundreds of thousands forced into exile, human rights groups say. And the younger Duvalier is suspected of stealing up to $300 million from the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

When Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier was driven from power in Haiti eight years ago, he and his family slid into luxurious exile here on the sunny Cote d'Azur, the sort of place where an out-of-work dictator could spend a lifetime of accumulated wealth. They had a hillside villa with gated privacy and sumptuous views of the Mediterranean.

Roger Lafontant, feared leader of a faction loyal to exiled dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, claimed early today to have seized power in Haiti after a two-hour gun battle near the presidential palace. "I have assumed the presidency of the republic," Lafontant said in a one-sentence statement today on the state-run Radio Nacional. Provisional President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot, in a brief statement from the palace broadcast on the radio, said she was stepping down.

Two years and eight months after he was forced to flee Haiti in disgrace, deposed dictator Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier and his family enjoy a life of golden exile here in the sun-drenched Cote d'Azur. According to neighbors and associates, a typical day chez Duvalier includes: -- A leisurely late-morning awakening at the Provencal-style villa nestled in a grove of cypress and olive trees. -- Tennis with a private pro at the Mougins Country Club.

Haiti's military-led government, in a surprise move, dropped 11 of the 22 candidates for the Jan. 17 presidential election. Apparently trying to deflect criticism that it was accepting followers of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, the government excluded all but one of the so-called Duvalierists. The announcement came in a two-minute radio broadcast announcing the military-picked Electoral Council's final list of 11 candidates. An attempt to hold the vote last Nov.

At morning rush hour recently, a gruesome roadblock was set up on Boulevard Harry Truman, a main thoroughfare that runs along the fetid seaside here. The obstruction consisted mainly of a dead man in the middle of the road. Extending in a line from his bony corpse to the road's shoulders were rusted car parts, tree branches, old tires and rusted tin cans. At 8:30 a.m., traffic came to a halt. The man had died two or three days earlier.

After 29 years of dictatorship, Haitians seem to be quickly grasping the power of public opinion to provoke official action. In the first few weeks after President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to France on Feb. 7, the five-man National Council that replaced him appeared directionless. So Haitians took to the streets to express their views, crudely and sometimes violently. The conga marches, chanting and songs, the looting and lynching quickly had visible effects.

Jacques A. Francois, the only civilian and least powerful member of Haiti's three-man National Governing Council, died Monday. He was 78 and suffered from prostate cancer. Since January, Francois had not been present at the National Governing Council's rare public appearances. He was widely considered to be little more than a civilian figurehead in a governing council controlled by Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy and Gen. Williams Regala.

A French court annuled an expulsion order issued by the previous Socialist administration against ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, his family and entourage. A local court in Grenoble ruled that the expulsion order, imposed by former Interior Minister Pierre Joxe on Feb. 14, 1986, seven days after Duvalier entered France, had no legal basis.