Having suffered for years under Duvalier rule, Michèle Montas seeks justice, writes GODFREY FITZSIMONS
MICHÈLE MONTAS, who has jointly issued a complaint against former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in Haiti, accusing him of crimes against humanity and financial crimes, has surmounted challenges in her life that few could imagine.
After graduating from Columbia University she returned to Haiti and married Jean- Léopold Dominique, a crusading journalist who ran an independent radio station, Radio Haiti-Inter.
The station was persistently critical of governmental corruption, mismanagement of public funds, drug-trafficking and extra-judiciary procedures.
Jean-Claude Duvalier forced Dominique and Montas into exile in the US in 1980, but after the dictator fell and was replaced as president by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the couple returned to Port-au-Prince.
A military coup in 1991 which overthrew Aristide exiled them for a second time, but US-led intervention that restored Aristide to power in 1994 enabled them to resume their broadcasts on Radio Haiti-Inter.
However, one morning in April 2000, as he was going into the radio station, Jean Dominique was assassinated by a gunman. No one has ever been held to account for the murder.
In an interview Montas said: “As you know, Jean strongly supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1990, but to him, there were a number of principles that the democratic movement had fought for since 1986 that could not be compromised, and he felt the government that had emerged from the popular vote had to be held to the highest standards of accountability.
“It became obvious to him that the Fanmi Lavalas regime [Aristide’s party] was drifting away from these standards, towards corruption, the denial of justice and the same personality cult we had fought against.
“I think Jean might have seen much earlier what we realised later on, after his assassination.”
Montas tried to keep the station on air, but she was the target of several death threats. After the bodyguard with whom she had been provided was also shot dead, she was obliged to silence Radio Haiti-Inter and returned to New York.
Film director Jonathan Demme, of Silence of the Lambs, and Philadelphia, made a documentary about the couple called The Agronomist (Dominique’s profession before he turned to radio journalism).
In New York, Montas became spokeswoman for the president of the UN general assembly and then for the current secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon.
On her retirement from the latter office in January 2009, Mr Ban said: “I wanted . . . someone who embodied the highest standards of personal integrity and journalistic credibility. I found that Michèle Montas has all the qualities one would hope for in a spokesperson’s job.”
Montas returned yet again to her Haiti homeland shortly before the devastating earthquake of last January – her home escaped serious damage.
Since then she has worked as special adviser to the UN mission sent to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake.